Offensive lineman-turned winemaker wins Vinter of the Year, celebrates Flying Goat Cellars’ 25th anniversary

Norm Yost said he was a beer-drinking offensive lineman for the University of California, Davis when he first tried wine in 1979.

“My roommate was a winemaker at the time,” Yost said. “I put down my beer and joined him for a wine tasting one afternoon, and I was completely taken by the whole process.”

This spring, Yost was named the Sta. Rita Hills Wine Alliance’s 2025 Vintner of the Year, an honor he’ll officially receive in August. His brand, Flying Goat Cellars—known for its sparkling wines and pinot noir—will celebrate its 25th anniversary on June 21. 

Yost said he was couch surfing in Napa Valley when he landed his first job in the wine world working construction for Silver Oak Cellars. It was 1982. Three years after his first wine tasting and one year after he graduated from UC Davis with an environmental science degree.

“I worked for the state one summer but really didn’t enjoy the politics and diplomacy [involved with] working for the state government,” Yost said. “Another summer, I thought I’d try the political wing of the environmental movement. I worked for a lobbyist group and realized I just wasn’t cut out for it.”

Yost said he spent four years using his science background to climb from a “cellar rat” to assistant winemaker at Silver Oak.

“I started at the bottom,” he said. “I was plumbing tanks, digging ditches, and cleaning barrels.” 

Yost then started as a winemaker in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley before working his way across the Pacific, participating in a harvest near Margaret River in Western Australia and returning to the States to work in wine in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

In 1998, Yost moved to Santa Maria to become the winemaker for Foley Estates in Lompoc. Two years later, he started Flying Goat Cellars with 4 tons of pinot noir. He said his label is named after his two pigmy goats at the time, Epernay and Never, themselves named symbolically after regions in France. Yost said a friend came up with the Flying Goat idea one night during a barbecue in 2001. 

“[The goats] loved to jump and climb,” he said. “One night, they kept jumping off the goat house, and the wine kept flowing. At the end of the night, someone jokingly said, ‘Why don’t you call your winery Flying Goat Cellars?’ I said, ‘Perfect. I love it.’”

In 2005, Yost pioneered Goat Bubbles. Flying Goat Cellars became the first winery in Santa Barbara County to make sparkling wine using méthode champenoise, the traditional method of fermenting Champagne-style sparkling wine in-house. Bottles typically sell for between $49 and $65. Since starting with 75 cases of rosé, Yost has grown Goat Bubbles to six expressions including crémant, blanc de noirs, brut cuvée, and pinot meunier, along with the rosé. 

A year after launching the cellars’ second pinot noir, YNOT, Yost moved Flying Goat to its own facility and bought his own equipment to make the wine in 2008.

In 2010, Yost married Kate Griffith. A decade and a half into branding and selling Flying Goat’s wines, she now serves officially as chief philosopher and proprietor. 

“You can make great wine, but you need to be able to sell it and promote it,” Yost said. “The most valuable thing I’ve ever done is marry my wife, Kate.”

The next year, Yost started Club Celebrate, the first sparkling wine club in Santa Barbara County. 

For customers like Steve Jacobson, who’s been supporting Flying Goat for 20 years, it’s all about the pinot noir. Jacobson said his favorite expression is Flying Goat’s pinot from Dierberg Vineyard—he still has a 2019 bottle in his collection. 

“I’ve never opened up a bad bottle of Norm’s wine,” Jacobson said. “Every time I open up a bottle, there’s always consistency—strong flavors, lots of great layers.”

He said that everyone, including novice wine tasters, will find something to enjoy. 

“All of the wines are very accessible,” Jacobson said. “You don’t have to have experience to taste Norm’s wines and recognize there’s something special about them.” 

For wine connoisseurs like Jacobson, tasting can quickly turn monotonous if the drinks lack originality. He said that’s not an issue at Flying Goat.

“It isn’t pinot, pinot, pinot,” Jacobson said. “It’s, ‘Here’s a pinot from this vineyard, and this is where it’s situated in the valley. And then here’s another pinot from a different vineyard. They’ll have some characteristics that are similar, but there are a lot of differences.’”

Lately, Yost said Flying Goat has been pouring a lot of its 2019 pinot noir from the Nielson Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley and its 2019 pinot noir from the Rio Vista Vineyard Dijon in the Sta. Rita Hills. 

Jacobson said tasting wine at Flying Goat enhances the experience even further. He said the winery’s soil jars allow tasters to inspect the source of what they’re tasting as they sip. 

“You can feel the soil and then go taste that particular vineyard’s wine,” Jacobson said. “I’ve learned so much from that experience. It’s more than just tasting wine. You’re tasting where it comes from.”

In the end, Jacobson said his favorite part of opening a bottle of Flying Goat wine is watching his friends’ reactions. 

“If people aren’t expecting that kind of quality, when you open up a bottle, it’s great to watch their eyes light up,” he said. “It happens every time I open up a bottle of Flying Goat—the eyebrows go up, the mouth goes, ‘Wow,’ and the response is, ‘This is a great wine.’ Because of the quality, you can’t help but go, ‘Wow.’”

Reflecting on his 45-year journey from trading a beer can for a wine glass to being named the region’s top wine producer of the year, Yost had a similar reaction. He said it’s been an adventure he wouldn’t trade for the world. 

On June 21, Flying Goat Cellars will host a celebration for its 25th birthday. On Aug. 15, Yost will be honored as the Vintner of the Year at the La Pauleé Dinner at Babcock Winery. 

For those who can’t attend, Jacobson suggested bringing the celebration to their own lawns.

“Open a bottle of pinot, go out in the backyard, sit down, crank on your tunes, and enjoy the wine,” he said.

Staff Writer Reece Coren wants to hear about your favorite bottle of wine at rcoren@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in Jun 5-15, 2025.