Louis Lucas & Royce Lewellen-Wine

Thirty-odd years ago, the Santa Maria Wine and Food Society welcomed new member Louis Lucas, a grape grower who was about to jump-start Santa Barbara County’s viticultural scene.
Over a meal and several glasses of wine, Lucas chatted with Royce Lewellen, a Solvang judge with a penchant for community service, and the pair launched what would prove to be an enduring friendship.
In the early 1970s, Santa Barbara County was celebrated more for its university and surf culture than for its wine industry, which remained but a dream in a few forward-thinking minds. Though the members of the Santa Maria Wine and Food Society regularly savored delectable wines, none of their selections bore local labels.
“Those were interesting times,” remembers Louis Lucas, who pronounces his name “Louie”. “We were growing grapes when there were no wineries here and shipping most of our fruit to the big producers up north.
“People thought you could only grow grapes in Napa,” he continues, “but we’ve proven you can do it in a lot of places, especially here. Our climate is ideal, with the long season you need to grow grapes with lots of flavor and color.”

Lucas, whose family farmed table grapes in the San Joaquin Valley, joined with two partners in the early 1970s to plant one of the area’s earliest blocks of commercial wine grapes. The trio’s 800-acre Tepusquet Vineyard flourished and today produces stellar fruit for the estate programs of Cambria and Byron wineries.
“If you want a challenge, try farming,” laughs Lucas, who was affectionately dubbed Dirtman by fellow students at Notre Dame. “If you’re in this business, you’re lucky if you have any hair, because it’s agriculture, it’s Mother Nature. Good grapes are not a given, you have to work at it.”
While Lucas was pioneering Santa Barbara County viticulture, Royce Lewellen left his position as Solvang Justice Court Judge to become Judge of the Superior Court in Santa Maria where he presided until his retirement in 1990.
When not at the courthouse, he gave generously of his time as, among other things a Trustee of the Solvang School Board, a member of the Coastal Voices Choir and founding Director of both The PCPA Foundation and the Solvang Festival Theater.
“I was the guy who did the incorporation for The PCPA Foundation,” Lewellen says. “I’m still involved with it and I really enjoy it. I recently saw a choreographer rehearsing one of their productions, and it was just a joy to watch.”

In 1972, Lewellen had already been collecting fine wines when he represented the Firestone family in their bid to build the county’s first state-of-the-art winery. Little did he know that he would one day see his own name on a diverse collection of local wines and vineyards.
“I grew up in Missouri,” he reveals, “and my dad was a lawyer, but he always had a farm. I spent summers on relatives’ farms, driving a tractor, even a team of horses, but I never thought I’d be back in farming.”
Lewellen’s return to the land began one day in 1996 over lunch, when Lucas mentioned wanting to sell one of his vineyards. By the time the dishes were cleared, Lewellen had offered to buy half interest in two vineyards, Lucas had happily agreed to continue farming them and Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards was born.
“Going into a business without much experience is not normally a good idea,” Lewellen says, “but I did spend a lot of time watching it, and my partner is a grape expert with a lifetime of experience. It’s far more complex than I expected,” he adds.
The pair initially planned to sell all their fruit, but when prices began to fluctuate, they decided the best way to stabilize the demand for their crop was to make wine themselves. Today, with four vineyards under their care and production at 40,000 cases a year, Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards ranks as one of the county’s larger wineries, turning out quality vintages under three labels.
The partners’ eponymous brand features Rhone-, Bordeaux- and Burgundy-style wines; Mandolina offers 12 Italian varietals, including Barbera and Malvasia Bianca; and Queen of Hearts presents a fun, affordable selection of easy-sipping reds and whites, from Pinot Noir to Sauvignon Blanc.
This year a succession of extremes whipped through the vineyards, sorely testing Lucas’s formidable patience and skills. All across the Central Coast, winemakers lament the skimpy crop, yet hold high hopes for a quality yield.
“This has been one of the most difficult seasons weather-wise,” Lucas admits. “The spring frosts were the worst in 30 years and quite a few grapes were lost. Then we had high winds and a heat spike during bloom time, so some of the fruit set was very light.
“I thought harvest would be late,” he says, “but small berries ripen faster, so it turned out to be early this year. As for the quality, I’ll tell you next year—after the wines are made.”

For now, those wines are crafted at a facility in Buellton, where winemaker Megan McGrath, a Midland School, Cal Poly and Davis  graduate, oversees production. With luck, the partners hope to break ground on a new winery near Los Alamos within the next few years, giving “Team L&L” a permanent home.
Fueled by a unique combination of talents that include Lucas’s passion for viticulture, Lewellen’s ability to tackle winery-related paperwork and a shared love of wine, Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards and Winery represents the very best of a well-balanced partnership.
“Louis loves what he does,” Lewellen says. “He eats and lives growing grapes, and is very enthusiastic, but also modest about his accomplishments. And he genuinely enjoys putting on pruning demonstrations and talking to people in the tasting room.
“Winemaking is an amazing combination of science and art,” he muses. “I get to do quite a bit of blending, which is one of the most educational, fun things we do.”
With the winery operation in full swing and another harvest underway, both Lucas and Lewellen agree that coming to the Santa Ynez Valley to build their business was a smart move.
“The Valley was my home for 18 years,” Lewellen says. “After my wife, Ann, and I married, it seemed natural to come back here.”
Describing his favorite aspects of Valley life, Lucas simply cites “a little bit of everything,” noting the serene beauty of his home in Valley View Vineyard, where some of their Syrah and Bordeaux varietals are grown.
“It’s a special place to live,” Lucas says. “The people and the weather are great, and it still has a small town atmosphere. It’s still rural enough that you can make a U-turn in the middle of the block,” he adds with a laugh. “If you went looking for a place as good, you’d have to look long and hard.”
Louis Lucas and Royce Lewellen still hold memberships in the Santa Maria Wine and Food Society, where their friendship began so long ago. Today, they chat over glasses filled, not with imports, but with Santa Barbara County vintages and happily toast the local wine industry, a booming scene that they helped to create.