Demetria Estate Boosts Biodynamic Roots

A visit to Demetria Estate begins not with grapes or wine, but with sheep — or rather, in a tiny shed, looking at maps at where the sheep are grazing across the property’s tumultuous hillsides, which are located a few turns off of Foxen Canyon Road. 

“We’ve really been dialing in the sheep program,” says Director of Viticulture and Winemaking Ryan Roark, who started managing the 45 acres of vineyard in 2019 — mostly Rhône varieties, more than half grenache — and took over the cellar two years later. “It’s intentional habitat management,” he explained, in which each small zone is grazed for “a short duration with a big impact and lots of rest for the land.” 

The sheep-as-centerpiece is not much of a surprise, for Demetria is one of the Central Coast’s biodynamic pioneers, having launched in 2006 by adhering to that ecosystem-aligned agricultural style. The use of livestock is one tenet of biodynamics and a critical part of fast-rising regenerative farming as well. Such methods, often intertwined, have become so popular that finding sheep to rent seasonally is near-impossible now. So, Demetria built its own herd.

 

The blue tape surrounding colored grids on the map shows how Roark is using more than 80 ewes to keep the underbrush down with their chomping and to fertilize the ground with their pooping. They sell some of the animals for meat to offset the costs of solar-powered electric fencing, supplemental hay, and food for the Anatolian Shepherd dogs that protect the flock. There’s an immeasurable benefit too, added Roark, explaining in his slight drawl, “They bring an energy to the place.” 

So does Roark, a Marshall, Texas, native and Texas A&M grad who was drawn to wine through his uncle, a renowned Napa Valley geologist named Jonathan Swinchatt. After harvests in Napa, New Zealand, and France’s Loire Valley, where he first learned about biodynamics, Roark found his way to Santa Barbara, working for Arcadian, Coastal Vineyard Care, and Andrew Murray, among others.  

He launched his own brand, Roark Wine Company, in 2009, and was solely focused on that for about six years when he joined Demetria. His label lives on today, but it’s considerably smaller than when he was leasing five different vineyards. 

Attuned to rural life, deeply interested in nature-friendly farming, and known for a delicate touch in the cellar, Roark feels particularly well-suited for Demetria’s semi-wild setting and biodynamic-pioneer reputation. When I visited him there for the first time two years ago, he hoisted me onto the back of one of his horses and toured me through vines, past the wildflowers, and beneath mossy oaks. 

The property’s soils are pretty uniform, but the topography is anything but. “Our biggest variation between vineyard sections are slopes and aspect,” said Roark. Our horse ride quickly moved into the winery, tasting barrel samples from the blocks we’d just sauntered by. It was one of the more epic ways to experience a vineyard in full.

   

I became a fan of Demetria soon after it opened nearly 20 years ago, visiting on one of the early Sustainable Vine Wine Tours and learning for the first time about biodynamics from winemakers like Mike Roth (now of Lo-Fi) and Brandon Sparks-Gillis (now of Dragonette). Set between the Santa Ynez and Santa Maria valleys — it’s more like Alisos Canyon than any other sub-appellation — the estate was part of the original Zaca Mesa ranch until a very young Andrew Murray and his family bought the property to pursue his wine dreams in 1990. (Murray’s dreams continue to come true just around the corner today.)

Fifteen years later, the Murrays sold the property to Sandra and John Zahoudanis, he a real estate investor who drew inspiration from his childhood farm near Mount Olympus in Greece. (They also briefly owned Ashley’s Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills.) Their son, Alexis Zahoudanis, signed on to manage the project full-time in 2019, and he’s now the primary owner-operator, since John died in 2020. (Sandra still lives onsite.)

In both 2023 and this past May, I tasted Demetria’s lineup over Industrial Eats pizzas, salads, and sandwiches with Alexis, Roark, and Emily Myers, who joined Roark as a winemaker in 2021 soon after he took over the cellar. A UCSB grad and tech sales refugee, Myers came to wine in 2018, working at Grassini and then Solminer. At Roark’s insistence, she launched her own tiny brand called Eislynn — her middle name — after starting at Demetria. “I got to work for and with wonderful people,” she said, “and I wanted to see what it was like when it’s just me.” 

During each lunch, we started on the Demetria’s grenache-based rosé (also featuring some cinsault and counoise) and the whites, which include mostly Rhône wines from the estate — like Cuvée Papou, which was one of my first favorite white wines ever. But thanks in part to Roark’s experience, there’s also now some chardonnay from the Sta. Rita Hills and a sauvignon blanc under the name Pantheon Blanc. The reds follow a similar tack: mostly estate-grown grenache, syrah, mourvèdre, and blends thereof, but a few pinots from the Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley as well. 

As they replant parts of the 35-year-old vineyard — including to new grapes like chenin blanc, cabernet franc, and assyrtiko, a nod to the Greek roots — the team is also continuing to innovate in the cellar. For instance, after noticing that the low-yielding, roadside blocks of grenache made a rather intense wine, they started bottling that as O Dromos, which means “the road” in Greek. 

That wine, as well as some of their other high-end bottlings like the Agape, are dependent on what happens at harvest. “If the vintage doesn’t make it, we won’t make the wine,” said Roark. That will be particularly stark in 2024, as the Lake Fire was nearby, basically wrecking Demetria’s red grapes with smoke taint. 

But they’ve planned releases accordingly, so Demetria will remain a popular place for weddings and private events. The estate also hosts plenty of fun gatherings for the public as well. It was vinyl day when I visited last May, with a DJ spinning everything from Patsy Cline to reggae. They host movie nights during the summer (Aug. 23, Sep. 27, Oct. 25), live music every Sunday, and a new craft market that debuts on August 24. 

You’ll most likely still find Roark hanging out with the sheep, horses, and dogs — like the 10 Anatolian puppies that were born in a cave this spring and were frolicking around on my visit. The overall vibe is very much natural and intuitive, but the Demetria team eagerly analyzes the impact of the sheep and the rest of their biodynamic approach in quantitative ways as much as possible. 

Said Roark, “The scientific data validates our gut.”

See demetriaestate.com.