Jonata

Sustainability as a Way of Life

Jonata is dedicated to sustainability from the inside out; a principled approach to farming. With its use of polyface farming—as first introduced to America by Michael Pollan in his book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”—Jonata integrates and revolves livestock (chickens, turkeys, goats, pigs and sheep) in their farming model, which naturally enhances the soil and health of their land (not to mention that of the critt...

The name Jonata pays homage to the 1845 Spanish land grant, Rancho San Carlos de Jonata. At the time the land grant covered a large part of the Santa Ynez Valley. Today’s Jonata is at the heart of the former land grant. The Jonata name was borrowed by the first pioneers from the local Chumash Indian and means “tall oak”.

Out of the 586 acres acquired by Stan Kroenke, only 84 bear vines today. The highly sandy soil made the vineyard developm...

Ruben Solorzano / Vineyard Manager

The youngest of 11 children, Ruben was born in a farming family in Guadalajara, Mexico. While most of his siblings pursued teaching, he knew he wanted to continue his family’s tradition of tending the land. Shortly after moving to Santa Barbara County in the early 80’s, Ruben began working for Coastal Vineyard Care. He is now co-owner and is well known throughout the Central Coast region for his instinctua...

Matt Dees / Winemaker

There are some people who are educated toward certain positions in life and others who are born to assume them—and Matt Dees is what you’d call a natural winemaker.

Armed with a degree in Soil Science from the University of Vermont and Vintages at Staglin in Napa, California and Craggy Range in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, Matt has an intrinsic feel for wine, from dirt to glass. curious, earthy and experimental by natur...

According to the USGS maps, the entire Jonata property is comprised of sand—namely a soil found in the area called the Careaga Sandstone. Yet there are a number of blocks that show different iterations of this sand such as the mini-blocks that possess a degree of a Paso Robles soil type to others that have loamy soils yet both possess higher percentages of clay than the other blocks on the estate.

And now for a word on sand…

Soils have a...