Gainey Vineyard
History
It all began with a horse.
Daniel C. Gainey, an Irishman living in Minnesota, was a simple man with passions deeply rooted in agriculture. He was also an entrepreneur who turned Jostens, Inc., into a Fortune 500 company. In 1939, he received a gift at a company sales meeting that changed his life and set the course for his family’s future — an Arabian colt.
With that colt, Daniel C. found a new passion. He quickly bought a large farm in Owatonna, Minnesota, and in 1940 started building stables for his growing family of Arabian horses. He spent his free time developing his horse facilities and growing the family of horses. Over time, his penchant and skill for choosing specific physical characteristics and breeding them into his Arabians led to the Gainey Fountainhead Arabian, certified with the Arabian Horse Registry.
The blistering cold of Minnesota winters drew Daniel C. to Arizona each year, where he became one of the original investors in Camelback Inn and helped make Arabian horse ranches de riguer in the Scottsdale area.
By 1956, Daniel C. opened a Jostens’ plant in Summerland, California, near Santa Barbara, offering him the opportunity to spend more time working in sunny California. A few years earlier his son, Daniel J., had assumed a role at Jostens and the two began to split their time primarily between Minnesota and California.
In 1962, father and son purchased 1,800 acres on the eastern end of Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley with the vision to create an agricultural future for their family. Within a year, 400 acres of rangeland were converted into farmland. The following year, the Gainey Fountainhead Arabian equestrian facilities were built and nearly 250 horses were kept on the property.
Daniel C. passed away in 1979 at age 81, before the family’s agricultural focus would expand to include viticulture. Daniel J., who dreamed of growing grapes with the same passion his father had poured into breeding horses, planted 51 acres of Bordeaux varieties on the northern boundary of the Gainey Ranch in 1983 and named it the Home Ranch Vineyard.
By then, the family had sold a portion of Gainey Ranch in Arizona to Markland Properties. (They continued raising cattle and farming on the remaining property until 1998, when the rest was sold.)
In 1984, Daniel J. and his son Daniel H., Dan, opened their Spanish-style winery and released their first wines, including a Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, made by winemaker Rick Longoria. The winery quickly became one of the most popular destinations in the area and was named as “one of the best wineries to visit on California’s Central Coast” by Wine Spectator magazine.
In 1996, the family purchased and planted a 120-acre parcel along Santa Rosa Road in what would later become the Sta. Rita Hills AVA, becoming the first winery to own properties in both the warm, eastern end of the valley, where the family concentrates on Bordeaux varieties, and the cool, western end of the valley, where they have planted Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah.
One year later, Dan was instrumental in forming the committee, which he and Richard Sanford chaired that developed the application for forming the Sta. Rita Hills AVA. His work with the committee and its subcommittees included selecting the boundaries of the AVA, creating the Sta. Rita Hills Winegrowers Alliance and developing the alliance’s bylaws and articles of incorporation.
In 2007, the Gaineys purchased a 50-acre parcel west of Evan’s Ranch, further demonstrating their dedication to the region.
Today, in addition to the vineyards, cattle and crops on Gainey Ranch, 100 acres remain devoted to the handful of Gainey Fountainhead Arabians, which live in stables near Dan’s father’s home.
The spirit of the West is expressed daily at Gainey Ranch through Dan’s efforts to always strive for the best, while maintaining the integrity of the land.
