Located in the heart of Santa Barbara County’s Santa Maria Valley, Presqu’ile (pronounced press‑KEEL) is a small, family-run winery dedicated to making exceptional cool-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Presqu’ile’s wines capture the essence of their vineyards and vintage, and have earned acclaim for their elegance and balance.
The vineyard started when the Murphy family acquired an ideal unplanted 200-acre property in the hills of the Santa Maria Valley. Over the next two years, the Murphys, along with Santa Barbara County Vineyard Manager Jim Stollberg and Winemaker Dieter Cronje, meticulously planned the design of the Presqu’ile Vineyard with an emphasis on diversity.
Sustainable wine-grape growing is a natural extension of the family’s history. For many years they have engaged in forestry, agriculture and conservation. Creating and maintaining a meaningful partnership with the land and the communities in which they operate is central to the Murphy’s philosophy.
Within the vineyard, they plant nitrogen-fixing and flowering cover crops such as triticale, vetch and pea. Naturally occurring clover is encouraged and wildflowers are planted to attract beneficial insect predators. Drainage ways minimize erosion and water and fertilizer applications are as efficient as possible in terms of volume, method of application, time of day, and length of set. Critical habitats of coyotes, foxes, bobcats, owls, bats, red-tailed hawks, falcons and other natural predators are preserved including lacewings, beetles, ladybugs and spider-mites that feed on aphids, thrips and mites.
All these practices make for wines hand crafted from fruit grown with care in estate vineyards.