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Vintner Michael Benedict, who co-founded and planted the Sanford & Benedict Vineyard in what is now the Sta. Rita Hills appellation of Santa Barbara in the 1970s, passed away on July 3 from melanoma. Benedict was also a botanist, mathematician, conservationist and expert sailor. He was 83.
Sanford & Benedict Vineyard is one of California’s most renowned vineyards, and it helped draw attention to the potential of wine in Santa Barbara County and the Sta. Rita Hills appellation, in particular. Wine Spectator recently recognized it as one of the best vineyards for Chardonnay in California.
“He was an incredibly kind, generous, authentic human being,” said John Terlato, whose family currently owns and farms the Sanford & Benedict Vineyard. “He had an incredible impact on me. I’m going to miss the man.”
“Like most young people, I first got interested in wine and beer in college,” Benedict told Wine Spectator earlier this year. By the late 1960s, Benedict was working as a botanist with the University of California Santa Barbara. He was enjoying his passion for sailing when he met both his future vineyard partner, geologist Richard Sanford, and an investor who told the men, “If you guys want to start a vineyard, I will finance your startup,” recalled Benedict.
“I leapt at the opportunity since I wanted to be a farmer. I was an academic. I was on the faculty and had a wonderful job, maybe one of the best jobs in the whole university system—running the research station out on Santa Cruz Island.” There Benedict discovered a pre-Prohibition vineyard and small wine industry, just off of the coast of Santa Barbara, which opened his eyes to the region’s potential.
Benedict did plenty of research before deciding where to plant, driving up and down the western coast. He kept an eye on the thermometer in his car, focusing on daytime high temperatures. “I drove up and down the Okanagan Valley, and the Columbia River going up to Spokane, and Northern Oregon,” explained Benedict. But he also realized something else he was looking for: “I didn’t want to [plant vineyards] where somebody else had already done it. Why follow in somebody else’s footsteps? That didn’t interest me at all as much as the challenge of finding a new place in Santa Barbara County, which I knew had to exist because of the three valleys open to the ocean—the ocean has an effect that makes them nice and cool.”
Benedict brought in other wine industry professionals, including professors from U.C. Davis to help him assess his choice. They all told him it was too cold to plant grapevines there. But Benedict wasn’t fazed. “I’m interested in other people’s opinions, but I don’t act on other people’s opinions . . . unless I think it’s a good opinion.”
Sanford and Benedict first planted vines in 1971, hand-drilling 50,000 holes with a two-man auger. The wines that they made in the mid-1970s captured the attention of wine lovers, and were the first examples of what the region is capable of. The duo worked together for a decade before parting ways. Winemaker Richard Sanford would open his namesake winery in 1981, and launched Alma Rosa Winery in 2005, cementing his importance in the region.
The vineyard is currently owned by Terlato Wine Group (which also owns Sanford Winery), and John Terlato is particularly passionate about the site. About a decade ago, Benedict walked into the Sanford tasting room and introduced himself. “He felt we were committed to bringing the true potential of Sanford & Benedict,” said Terlato. The two became friends.
Terlato describes talking to Benedict for hours, going over the details about how the vineyard came to be, calling Benedict a visionary with an inexhaustible curiosity. “He was kind, he had a good heart. His instinct was to share. He was a dear friend, and a remarkable human being.”
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