Adamant about learning the craft of winemaking and doing it right, owner Gabriela Willis hired local winemaker, Erick Erno to develop the wine for Santa Ramona Vineyards.
“We spent a lot of money to buy all the equipment and converted the garage, along with an additional three-car garage, into a winemaking facility.”
By transforming the interior of the residential garage into an in-house winemaking facility, we maintained the integrity of the estate’s appearance, giving it the look and feel of a family winery absent in typical commercial production buildings used today.
This boutique approach is consistent with our vision to produce high quality wines with old world values by employing sustainable farming practices and using resources that allow the wines to be produced without typical chemical and carbon footprints.
Reflecting their love for wine, for the past 30 years the Orange County Wine Society has held a competition for non-commercial winemakers. Santa Ramona Vineyards wanted feedback on their young wine, submitting their 60 percent Cabernet/40 percent Merlot blend to the annual awards program. To their surprise, they won the silver award, later placing bronze in the Winemaker Magazine International Amateur Wine Competition, and silver in the Del Mar Fair’s Wine Tasting Competition.
The winery currently produces 700 gallons or about 300 cases annually, with plans to expand production by threefold in the next five years, adding a full-size production facility to harvest, ferment, store, age, and bottle the 100% estate wines.