Once the dust cleared from the sale of the Firestone Vineyard to the Foley Wine Estate group (and once the 2007 harvest was put to bed), I had a conversation with winemaker Kevin Willenborg. As I understand it, not a lot of changes are presently in the works; it’s more a matter of tweaking some smaller details that can have a disproportionately large effect on wine quality.

But there’s no question that Mr. Willenborg helped get the Firestone wines back on track, when he came on board in May of 2001. He had previously been successful in the challenging grape growing environment of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, as well as in more conventional terroirs, such as Napa Valley and Sonoma. With each successive vintage at Firestone, Willenborg has strived for greater improvement, through his work both in the vineyards and the winery.

Firestone was established as Santa Barbara County’s first estate winery in 1972, when the area was still considered the wild frontier of grape growing. I talked to Willenborg about what makes the Firestone terroir unique and the things that he has changed during his tenure.