| Who Are We?
Jaffurs
Wine Cellars is dedicated to producing great Rhone varietal wines
with a new-world independence. Our wines -Syrah, Grenache, Petite
Sirah, Viognier, and Roussanne - are among the best in the county.
Owner/winemaker Craig Jaffurs, produced his first professional
wines during the 1994 harvest. All our wines are carefully made
in small lots. Only about 3500 cases are produced each year -
production is limited. We work closely with our growers in the
Santa Ynez, Santa Rita, Los Alamos, and the Santa Maria growing
regions. We limit vineyard yields and require that optimal farming
practices are observed. All our wines are crushed, pressed, cellared
and bottled in our Santa Barbara facility. Visit us for a glimpse
of world class winemaking in the heart of the city. 2007
is our 14th harvest!
In September of 2001 we completed construction of our
new winery facility in the city of Santa Barbara. This modern,
climate controlled facility allows us to make wine at a natural
and careful pace. (Plus, it is only seven minutes from home!)
We process all the fruit for our harvest here and the resulting
wines show the benefits of this improved process. Come visit
us at 819 E. Montecito Street (four blocks north of highway 101
off of Milpas Street).
We are open for tasting Fridays through Sunday
from 11 am to 5 pm. Appointments are not necessary if your group
is 6 people or less, and you plan to visit during our regular
tasting hours. If
you
have a group larger than 6 people, please call for an
appointment. Call 805-962-7003 or e-mail if you have questions.
Take a Virtual
Tour of Jaffurs Wine Cellars
Jaffurs Wine Cellars owns no vineyards. We purchase premium
wine grapes only from Santa Barbara County vineyards: Thompson
(Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache), Bien Nacido (Viognier, Syrah),
Larner (Syrah), Melville/Verna's (Syrah), Westerly (Roussanne),
Paradise (Viognier), and Stolpman (Grenache, Viognier, and Roussanne)
vineyards. The Ampelos Vineyard, located west of Buelton is our
newest site. This is a cool vineyard which produces excellent
syrah. Also new is the Melville Family's second vineyard, Verna's,
located on Cat Canyon Road in Los Alamos. This cool, windy site
provides us with four clones of Syrah.
Meet Craig Jaffurs - Owner & Winemaker
Craig has been making wines since 1989. He is a refugee
from the aerospace industry where he spent 17 years as a cost
analyst. He worked as a cellar rat at Santa Barbara Winery for
five harvests where Bruce McGuire, their winemaker, began prodding
Craig toward a career in wine. Several home winemaking vintages
and a few classes at U. C. Davis later, the winery was born. When
his first wine, the 1994 Santa Barbara County Syrah got rave reviews
in Wine Spectator (score 91) and Wine Advocate (score 90), the
future was set. Craig is not looking back. Away from the winery,
Craig loves surfing, fly fishing, and bonsai.
Meet
The Family
Lee Wardlaw Jaffurs is co-owner of the
winery, an award-winning children's book author, and Craig's
best friend. Lee's newest book is "101 Ways to Bug Your Teacher,"
the sequel to the best- selling novel "101 Ways to Bug Your
Parents,". Lee is the author of 24 children's books. You can
e-mail Lee to find out more about her
books or visit her website. Her
newest book, "101 Ways to Bug Your Friends and Enemies"
continues the series and should be out in 2009.
Patterson Jaffurs is Craig and Lee's pride and joy!
He enjoys taekwondo, building Bionicles (or anything made by Lego),
collecting Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, and doing square roots. He is
starting to surf, and he likes to fish and walk up creeks with
his dad.
And, he is one major Harry Potter fan. But
more than anything, he loves Hawaii.
Meet
Dave Yates
In
2003,
Craig hired his long time friend Dave Yates as General Manager
and the winery's first real employee. Dave is another refugee
from aerospace and the wireless communications industries.
He has helped Craig make wine since the garage and Central Coast
Wine Services days. Now he offers his many talents to keep
our cellar, business, and marketing efforts creative and professional.
In 2005, Dave also assumed the role of Assistant Winemaker.
Meet
Matt Brady
If
you have every visited our tasting room, you've probably met Matt.
He came to our winery in mid 2005 after his graduation from UCSB.
With a great deal of passion, but no winery experience, Matt immersed
himself into everything we do - winemaking, cleaning, marketing,
cleaning, anything that Dave or Craig can't get to, and more cleaning.
He's now an indispensable part of our operation as our knowledgeable
Tasting Room Manager and general all-around go-to guy. Matt is
a budding winemaker and we expect great things from him.
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