Lyons Vineyard

Lyons Vineyard Boutique family-owned vineyard focusing on Rhône varieties in the Los Olivos District AVA, Santa Ynez Valley, CA.

09/03/2026

Harvest 2026 underway! We brought in the Grenache clone 362 today. The earliest we’ve ever brought in a red wine grape. Although this particular clone does tend to ripen first out of the red grapes on our property. Overall quality seems great! Most of the clusters were put through the de-stemmer, although we kept about 20% as whole clusters, layered in that same fermentation bin to add a little more spice and complexity. It will cold soak for a few days and then vinify for somewhere between 9 and 12 days. Off we go! 🙌🍇✨

09/01/2026

One of the funny parts of designing our wine label that most people don’t think about, is that we have to decide on the flavor notes before the wine is even bottled. That means tasting from barrel or tank, narrowing it down to the few aromas and flavors that feel most representative, then turning those into the little icons you see on the back label of our wines. And of course, wine keeps evolving after bottling, so there’s always a little leap of faith involved too. So far we think we’ve been pretty spot on, or just call it lucky. The wines may change with time, but we think those main flavors should stay recognizable. what do you think?

08/29/2026

As we get closer to September, an important activity is sampling the grapes to take measurements on how their sugar accumulation is progressing, and also to taste the fruit, chew the seeds and taste the juice from samples clusters to see how flavor is developing. The combo of these tests will tell you when the grapes are ready to be harvested.

08/27/2026

And the first harvest of the season for Lyons Vineyard came in today, our Viognier! This is the absolute earliest we have ever started harvest at our vineyard.

The grapes are harvested at night starting at around 2 AM or 3 AM, and finishing around 6 AM or 7 AM. The bins are brought into the winery, and the grapes are lifted by a forklift into the top of the press, that will then gently squeeze them to get the juice. The juice drains out of the bottom of the press into a catch tank. And then it will be pumped from that tank into its fermentation vessel. We like to taste the juice out of the press to see what we’re working with. Very yummy this year!

08/26/2026

First we were 4 weeks ahead at flowering. Then as the season went on the ripening process moderated a bit. I’m guessing now we will be about two weeks ahead of normal by the time we harvest our red grapes. Since our varieties that we grow are slightly later ripeners than Pinot Noir, we had a little more growing time to even out that fast pace we saw in the spring. Whereas friends are picking away in Sta Rita Hills!

08/21/2026

A little inventory update from Lyons Vineyard: Some of your favorite wines are nearly gone. Just a friendly heads up on what we have left in case you don’t want to miss out. 🌸🍷✨ link to our website in bio.

08/19/2026

Sometimes you just need a little reminder, to lighten the mood and add some laughter. This is our nudge to you. And by the way, we’re not above having wine out of solo cups. 😉🥤

08/14/2026

Every afternoon, the wind picks up at our Vineyard. Even on warm sunny days. But that breeze is a benefit since it cools the vines and slows ripening a bit, which helps us hold onto the freshness and acidity that we want in our grapes and resulting wines. It’s one of the small things about our vineyard site that we think makes a real difference over the course of the growing season. Part of our Terrior.

08/11/2026

Many of you may not know, but in addition to working on our winery and vineyard business, I also have had a side project. I’ve been writing and illustrating a children’s book, specifically a book for Wine lovers who have kids in their lives. For many years, I read bookstore, son. And the books I really enjoyed had not only a heartfelt storyline for the kids, but an interesting story for the adults as well. Smash that together with the fact that I absolutely loved Wine and have always had an excitement for learning about grapes, vineyards, and wine making. And I came up with this idea for Carl the Cabernet grape who lives in a sunny California Vineyard, and decides to search for answers about who he is and where he came from. If you want to meet Carl properly, my book is now available on Amazon 👉 https://a.co/d/05gd5z88

08/02/2026

Why we do what we do. And why wine is important to us. It creates memories. Facilitates celebrations. Fosters conversation. And we love to be a part of that. Bringing joy to other people, one bottle at a time.

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Los Olivos, CA
93441

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