Presidio Vineyard & Winery

Presidio Vineyard & Winery

Presidio Vineyard & Winery’s goal is
to produce handcrafted ultra-premium varietal wines from our certified organic and Biodynamic® estate vineyard (the Presidio Vineyard) located west of the Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County. Over the years, Presidio has found that using chemical fertilizers leads to unbalanced wines with undesirable aromatics. In the Presidio Vineyard, organic and biodynamic techniques are practiced by using composts to create a healthy and more balanced soil, accentuating the desirable aromatics of the fruit.

Biodynamic® Presidio designed a trellising system unique to Santa Barbara County that positions the vine closer to the ground to maximize the refracted heat reaching the grape cluster. Presidio utilizes a French training system known as “Guyot Simple”, a Burgundian model incorporating a 9-bud cane to restrict yields and featuring increased vine density.

Unlike most California vineyards, the Presidio Vineyard is planted on a 3’ x 7’ spacing with a plant density of 2,074 vines per acre. Increased vine density creates root competition and higher quality ultra-premium fruit.
Additionally, the orientation of the rows is north/south to maximize the photosynthetic process by the sun’s movement.

Presidio strongly believes in matching varietals to their preferred climactic regions. The Presidio Vineyard’s cool climate is particularly well-suited for Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Chardonnay. Extensive research was required to discover the highest quality clones to produce the highest quality ultra-premium wines. This required Presidio to engage a French firm to assist them in acquiring the optimum clones.

To successfully execute the goal of producing high quality premium varietal wines, Presidio has held production standards in keeping with minimal manipulation and handling of the wine. For this reason, Presidio produces mostly unfiltered wines.
There are essentially two reasons for filtration of wine. One is to prevent fermentation
if a wine has residual sugar. The second is to prevent malo-lactic fermentation if a
wine has residual malic acid. Other than these two reasons, filtration is done merely
for beautification of the wine (to shine the apple, as it were). However, along with improving clarity, filtration also strips wine of aromatics and flavor constituents.
All of our wines are made in this unfiltered style and are bottled straight from the barrel. These standards dictate minimal manipulation of the wines, aging in the
highest quality French oak, and bottling unfined and unfiltered.

Presidio’s Mission . . .

residio Vineyard & Winery was founded in 1991 from winemaker Douglas Braun’s concept of bringing European viticultural philosophy to Santa Barbara County . His idea was of a high-density, low-yield per vine vineyard, planted low to the ground to maximize the refraction of heat from the soil, at the winery’s estate Presidio Vineyard located west of the Santa Rita Hills near Lompoc . This certified organic and biodynamically farmed vineyard’s cool climate and southern-facing exposure is particularly well-suited for Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Chardonnay.

Presidio's vineyard management blends modern viticultural techniques with traditional farming methods. Douglas’ involvement in the vineyard is year-round from pruning to harvest. Controlling pruning to limit crop levels, meticulous canopy management, and precisely monitored minimum drip irrigation with organic compost fertilization to maximize concentration result in the highest quality fruit; the essential start to a superior wine.
At harvest the fruit is hand-picked and sorted to ensure select clusters and immediately transported to the crushing facility to prevent deterioration of the flavor chemistries in the hot, summer sun. Throughout, Douglas’ focus has been to match the varietals to their preferred environment. While most mountain ranges run north and south, Santa Barbara County is unique in that its two ranges run east and west, creating the Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley. These valley’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean, coupled with their orientation, acts as a channel for fog, rendering these valleys as an excellent place for growing many different grape varietals. As the Santa Ynez Valley has been under the ocean several times in the past 150,000 years, the vineyards are deeply rooted in vertical Monterey shale – composed mostly of diatomite and calcium carbonate – a result of thousands of year of marine depository and geological uplift. closer to the surface, the sand and loam are excellent for drainage. For these reasons, the cooler western part of the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County has the ideal climate and soil conditions to produce fine Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Chardonnay.

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