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Despite the vague hint at intrigue in this week’s headline, there’s no big twist or wild tale as to how my latest visit to Donnachadh Vineyard led to the upcoming collaboration dinner at Rincon Hill Farm in Carpinteria with Chef Kevin Fink from Austin’s Emmer & Rye. It’s more of a ploy to write about two things under the same umbrella — the vineyard and the dinner — but hopefully you’ll enjoy learning a bit how this particular sausage was made.
Back in April, as I trudged up the steep Sta. Rita Hills vineyard with Donnachadh’s co-owner Drew Duncan, General Manager Vilma Mazaite, and winemaker Ernst Storm, I was relaying the latest restaurant gossip and reminiscing about recent great meals. Talking about food, after all, is how you spend about half of the time when you hang out with wine pros.
In between huffs, puffs, and snapping shots of butterflies, I started talking about the many restaurant collaborations I’d noticed in recent months, particularly those at Na Na Thai and Dom’s Taverna, both of which regularly bring in chefs from Los Angeles and beyond. Then Vilma — who lives in Austin, as does Drew and his wife, Laurie — mentioned that she was bringing Fink to town in July. Did I have any ideas on who might want to collab with him?
With Donnachadh’s dedication to organic, regenerative viticulture since its 2014 planting and Fink’s own reputation for regional sourcing and waste reduction, I quickly thought of Rincon Hill Farm as a potential partner. The Carpinteria property is quite stunning in its aesthetic, ethical, and culinary missions, and I thought the values of all three entities might align quite well. Plus, I’d just interviewed Chef Daniel Kim for this story on Monte’s in Montecito — which, like Rincon Hill, is owned by Endwell Hospitality — so it was easy to provide an introduction.
To keep a short story short, I was right. They all clicked right away, and their Michelin Green Star chef collaborative dinner — the name a nod to Monte’s recent sustainability accolade from the renowned restaurant guide — will be happening on July 23. Read to the end for more details.
Alas, I knew all along that I would not be in attendance, as I’m up in Santa Cruz next week for my usual vacation with extended family. But I’m excited to hear how it turns out, and I hope it fosters a deeper relationship between Santa Barbara and Austin’s hospitality communities.
Back at Donnachadh Vineyard, our conversation shifted from restaurants to rocks. The property — which is located on the south side of Santa Rosa Road, about halfway between Peake Ranch and Sanford Winery — is a stark example of how quickly the earth’s composition can shift beneath your feet.
“Feel how the soil changes right there?” said winemaker Ernst Storm, as the richer dirt gave way to more sparse cobbles. I noticed that the vegetation also shifts around that spot, as the soils grow thinner and the wind influence grows stronger, having risen above the protection of nearby peaks.
When we reach the top of the hike on a knoll about halfway up the mountain, views stretch out across the Santa Ynez River and the 52 acres of vines that occupy the 285-acre property. Dropping sharply in front of us are the north-facing hillside blocks of mostly chardonnay, syrah, and pinot noir, with scant amounts of riesling and grüner veltliner (those latter two are sold to other wineries). Beyond them, down by the river, is more chardonnay and syrah but also gamay and new blocks of trousseau and aligote, planted in 2024 and yet to be harvested. (The grenache that briefly existed on an island in the river is no more, though the finished wines from those vines are finally being released.)
You too can take this same hike, as Donnachadh offers a similar experience on Saturday mornings from May to October, for groups of two to eight people by appointment. The one-mile loop with 325-foot elevation gain ends with small bites and a flight of wines next to the estate’s quaint pond, home to lilies and crawfish. Click here for details and available dates.
My hike ended with a flight as well, though ours was a bit more exhaustive than the usual affair, involving nearly two dozen wines. We started on the recent 2025 syrah rosé and the 2024 appellation chardonnay — which sports that whimsical horse-fish creature — and then moved through seven estate chardonnays, from 2017 to 2023.
There’s a sunny richness to the chards and the mouthwatering salinity that often comes from the Sta. Rita Hills, but these chards’ racy energy is their most reliable trait, and increasingly so over the vintages. “We’ve gone down and down and down,” said Ernst in how they pick the grapes with lower brix, and hence lower alcohol, year after year.
Then we tasted 14 reds, starting with the 2016 pinot noir, the first Donnachadh wine ever made. We powered through nine more pinots, up to the 2024s, as well as the 2023 gamay and grenache (its inaugural release) and the 2016 and 2023 syrahs.
It was a solid showing, with older vintages still shining. “The young wines have a lot more noise,” said Drew, who was impressed by how fine-tuned the older wines seemed to be. “The background noise drops out in the older wines.”
What remains reveals the promise for this vineyard, which, as just a dozen years old, is still just a baby in the grand scheme of even just Santa Barbara wines. It’s quite a treat to witness this toddler start to walk, and will be a privilege to watch it mature. You can do the same, and the easiest way is by visiting their tasting room in Los Olivos, which opened two years ago.
In typical Sta. Rita Hills fashion, we finished our meeting by lunching at Industrial Eats, talking more about food and continuing to plot for the potential July collab.
Because I introduced Donnachadh to the Rincon Hill team, I wound up cc’d on every one of the more than 50 emails that were traded in planning for the July 23 dinner. I mostly ignored them, merely tracking the progress and waiting for details. But it was encouraging to see so many players — chefs, managers, assistants, PR folks from near and far — come together to make the idea happen. I doubt most diners realize how much back-and-forth and how many actual people it takes to plan even just a relatively small dinner.
I got a sneak peak at the menu, and it’s obvious that chefs Kevin Fink and Daniel Kim are aiming to impress. The four-course-plus-canapes dinner combines beloved dishes from Fink’s Austin establishments — beef skewers and halibut from Hestia, johnny cakes and Texas wagyu from Emmer & Rye — with Kim’s Korean-kissed cuisine from Monte’s, all showcasing what’s in season at Rincon Hill. There’s a tomato tasting, a snapper crudo with cucumber, cherry tomato with clams, and cone cabbage with bone ash Bordelaise. Guests will also get to try the purple urchin that’s fattened up the coast by The Cultured Abalone.
To pair, Donnachadh will be pouring their 2022 vintages of chard, pinot, and syrah as well as the 2024 gamay and the 2025 rosé. The winery’s GM, Vilma Mazaite, who is the mastermind behind this entire collab affair, can’t wait for this evening to commence. “I’m especially excited for this collaboration between Chef Kevin Fink and Monte’s,” she said, “as it brings together two places that are deeply personal to me — Texas and California — for an unforgettable evening of food, wine, and hospitality.”
The evening begins at 5 p.m. with a tour of Rincon Hill Farm, followed by canapes and then the seated, family-style dinner. Tickets for the dinner are $250 each (plus tax & tip), and reservations can be made here.
Let me know how it goes!
From Our Table
Here are some stories you may have missed:
- Bob Wesley filed his latest Pour Judgment column, this one on the elusive figure known as Sashi Moorman and his Sandhi and Piedrasassi wines.
- I wrote a feature on Ashkahn Wines opening a tasting room in Los Olivos and highly suggest a visit. I bought a few of his greeting cards, and gave two out this week: one for my wedding anniversary and the other for my daughter’s 14th birthday!
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