Greg Brewer

Having initially started his career path as a French instructor at UC Santa Barbara, Greg Brewer became immediately enamored by food and wine through a part time job at the Santa Barbara Winery tasting room in 1991.  That employ quickly led to becoming more involved in production and eventually being hired as assistant winemaker in 1992.

Feeling strong loyalty and commitment to place, Greg partnered up with Steve Clifton and formed Brewer-Clifton in 1996 which was and remains to this day entirely devoted to chardonnay and pinot noir grown within the small AVA.  While Brewer-Clifton currently farms fifty acres with their own farming company, in the early years Brewer-Clifton relied solely on other growers as a source for fruit.  A standout of those committed individuals was Ron Melville who, along with his two sons began planting their vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills in early 1997.

Motivated mostly by a reverence for raw materials, precision, negative space, restraint and tension between differing components, Greg launched diatom in 2005.  With this endeavor, he strives to remove all extraneous elements when crafting chardonnay for this extreme project to demonstrate the most pure representation of place.

Philosophically through all three wineries, there is a very honest intent to best represent appellation in as lucid and vulnerable a manner as possible.  There is constant reflection on how to further remove the imprint of the producer, and in so doing, to allow nature to express itself in the unadulterated manner it deserves.

More on Greg:
View Website