Four decades ago, he was a young Vietnam veteran with a vision: to plant Pinot Noir vines where there were only bean fields. His grape gamble paid off, and now, decades later, his peers are celebrating his contribution to the state’s wine industry.
Buellton wine producer Richard Sanford is the first Central Coast resident chosen to be enshrined in the Vintners Hall of Fame. He joins the likes of Robert Mondavi, Ernest and Julio Gallo, and Georges de Latour, already in the hall. Sanford is one of seven men selected by the Culinary Institute of America to be honored at the sixth annual hall of fame induction ceremony in February 2012.
So, with hundreds of winemakers on the Central Coast, why was Richard Sanford singled out first? It has as much to do with what he did 42 years ago as with what he’s doing now.
Drafted right out of college, Sanford served three years as a naval officer. In 1970, at the age of 29, he returned from Southeast Asia to California with a new outlook on life and in search of a place to put down roots, literally and figuratively.
“I think the reality is when you’re thrust into a situation where you’re in charge of a ship and a bunch of men and you’re responsible, you grow up pretty fast, and so I think … coming out of that you have the ability to be decisive,” Sanford recalled.
With that decisiveness, he took his geography degree from UC Berkeley and chased his dream to grow grapes and produce wine on par with an elegant, smooth red wine that dazzled him from the Cote de Beaune area in Burgundy, France.
“I did not grow up with wine,” he explained. “I had been introduced to a beautiful Volnay … it registered in my mind. Any future wines you sort of compare against that threshold. After that Volnay, I thought, ‘My goodness! If I could be involved producing something that had the texture of velvet like that, you know as a beverage, that would be for me.’”
From that moment on, he set his sights on velvet.
He was convinced that, in the late ’60s, California vintners were growing Pinot Noir in climates that were too warm. It seemed obvious to him that cooler weather would dramatically improve the quality of the wine.
Sanford, the scientist, carefully studied a century of climate records in Burgundy, comparing them to the many different climates in California to pinpoint the exact area in the state that was most like Burgundy. He narrowed down his search to the Santa Ynez Valley, in the shadow of a geographic anomaly, the Transverse Ranges, mountains running east-west, allowing cool ocean fog to blanket the land.
He methodically drove up and down the valley between Lompoc and Buellton, using the thermometer in his car to pinpoint the perfectly “Pinot-friendly” microclimate.
“You know, we have a very unique place in the world. It’s very hard to find regions like this that have such large temperature variations in such a short geographic distance,” Sanford said. “For instance, in Lompoc, it could be 68 degrees on a summer day and Lake Cachuma could be 105 degrees on the same day. We have a unique opportunity to choose the place to plant the right grapes, and that appealed to me.”
Once he located his ideal climate, he discovered land with well-drained soil on Santa Rosa Road, found investors, read every book he could find on grape growing, and, with high hopes, planted vines with business partner Michael Benedict, calling it the Sanford and Benedict Vineyard. He founded Sanford Winery in 1981, left it in 2005, and founded Alma Rosa Winery and Vineyards, which he and his wife own today.
Sanford planted the first Pinot Noir grapes in what would become the prestigious Santa Rita Hills appellation, east of Lompoc, where close to 2,000 acres are planted today. It’s not a stretch to say that this region now produces some of the finest Pinot Noir on the continent, with wineries such as Sea Smoke Cellars, Loring Wine Company, Brewer-Clifton, and Fiddlehead Cellars producing ultra-premium wine from the grapes grown there.
It seems like kismet that an expert in geography with a love of fine wine would come along at the right time and have the right skills to recognize the potential.
Jim Fiolek, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association, has known Sanford for some 40 years.
“[Sanford] had a vision that perhaps no one else had,” Fiolek said. “Part of that vision was a refusal to compromise.
“Richard was a navigator—in the Navy, and in the dawn of the Santa Rita Hills,” he added.
The word “navigate” comes from the Latin navis, which means, Fiolek recited, “to steer the boat, to guide the boat, giving it direction.”
“Anyone can man the sails,” he said, “but you have to know where you’re going.”
Sanford’s original vineyard is still one of the premier sites in the area.
“Sanford and Benedict Vineyard is the Tigris and Euphrates of the area—the Garden of Eden,” Fiolek said.
Additional vineyards planted by Sanford were the first in Santa Barbara County to be certified organic. His current winery, Alma Rosa, is dedicated to organic farming.
“It’s an important and responsible way to farm, and we try to do our best in all ways sustainable,” he said.
Their product packaging is eco-friendly, too: recycled Kraft paper boxes and lighter glass bottles.
Alma Rosa wines—Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir—pair well with food. They don’t go through malolactic fermentation, “so they’re not the sort of woody, creamy wine,” Sanford explained. “It is sort of bright and refreshing, higher acid wine.”
“I’m just very honored to receive the recognition,” he said humbly. “I think it’s also a tribute to our maturing wine region. I’m very grateful to have a part in the pioneering effort, establishing this unique place.”
The class of 2012 was elected by the 87 members of the Vintners Hall of Fame Electoral College, made up of past inductees and members of the wine media.
“These inductees are the leaders who helped California become the center of the American wine industry while producing some of the best wines in the world,” said CIA President Dr. Tim Ryan.
The 2012 inductees are Sanford; Peter Mondavi, Sr., of Charles Krug Winery; UC Davis Professor Albert Winkler; Joe Heitz of Heitz Cellars; former Beringer winemaker Myron Nightingale; Mendocino County pioneer John Parducci; and Dr. Eugene Hilgard, a modern soil science scholar.
The Vintners Hall of Fame is open to the public each day at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in St. Helena, Calif.
Wendy Thies Sell likes to wear velvet. Contact her at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2011.