If you grew up in Napa Valley, as Clay Brock did, you might get a notion to become involved in the wine business. Particularly if your “summer job” is helping your dad in his vineyards. It didn’t hurt that Brock majored in agricultural business management at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. With degree work finished, he headed back to the vineyards, first in Napa and then on to the Central Coast, where he has been a fixture ever since. In 2001, Clay moved back to Santa Barbara County to take over the helm at Zaca Mesa Winery and Vineyards.

Zaca Mesa is one of the oldest wineries in the county, dating back to 1972. Like most wineries of that time, the owners planted a little bit of everything, not knowing what would work in Santa Ynez Valley. By all accounts, they were the first to plant Syrah in the county, putting in that first crop in 1978. They had produced Cabernet and Merlot, but by the mid 1990’s they determined that Rhone varietals were the way to go with their soil and climate.

Soon after Brock arrived, Zaca Mesa began an ambitious replanting program in order to improve the quality of the fruit in their estate vineyard. Of the 246 plantable acres on the 750 acre estate, 120 acres were ripped out and 50 acres have been replanted using newer clones of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre and Viognier. As the replanting continues, they are tightening vine spacing, implementing vertical trellising and installing more efficient irrigation systems.

Zaca Mesa wines are entirely estate grown and bottled. When you taste their wines, you experience only the terroir from grapes grown on the true mesa of Zaca.