About Thacher Winery
The KR brand on Thacher's 1920s barn is old Paso shorthand for the Kentucky Ranch, a horse-breeding operation on land that was part of a 4,000-acre Spanish land grant until 1869. Sherman Thacher, a former Santa Cruz brewmaster whose great-grandfather founded the famous Thacher School in Ojai, attended a wedding at the ranch with his wife Michelle in 2003; months later they bought 52 acres of it, complete with the landmark barn, barley fields and a riparian corridor that hosts bobcats and the occasional mountain lion.
Since the 2004 founding under the grasshopper label, Thacher has become the standard-bearer for a lighter Paso: minimal-intervention wines with native ferments, no added acid, water or nutrients, and alcohol levels well below regional norms. The estate Homestead Hill vineyard, first planted in 2007, joined a solar-powered winery completed in 2008, and today roughly 5,000 cases span some twenty bottlings, from heritage Zinfandel to carbonic Valdiguie and a field blend of eleven Southern French and Spanish varieties. Sherman has also planted twenty heirloom apple varieties, reviving the ranch's century-old orchard history in an apple-grape cider. Tastings pour beside the hundred-year-old barn on Vineyard Drive.
A wedding guest who bought the ranch: Sherman Thacher's Kentucky Ranch revival, pouring low-alcohol, native-ferment wines beside the landmark KR barn.
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From wedding to deed,the Thachers attended a 2003 wedding at the Old Kentucky Ranch and purchased 52 acres of it months later.
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A brewer's restraint,former brewmaster Sherman Thacher makes low-alcohol, native-ferment wines with no added acid, water or nutrients.
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The KR barn,the 1920s barn is a Paso landmark from the ranch's quarter-horse breeding decades.
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Heirloom apples reborn,twenty heirloom apple varieties revive the ranch's century-old orchards in an apple-grape cider.
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A Thacher School legacy,Sherman's great-grandfather founded the famed Ojai school; hands-on learning runs in the family.
"A wedding guest who bought the ranch: Sherman Thacher's Kentucky Ranch revival, pouring low-alcohol, native-ferment wines beside the landmark KR barn."
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Featured Wines
Current Releases
Wines change with each vintage
For an accurate list of current-release wines and library bottlings from Thacher Winery, please check the winery's official website or contact the tasting room directly. Willow Creek District producers typically rotate vintages and offerings seasonally.
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Thacher Family Rhône Italian Appointment
Taste the wines at Thacher Winery in the Willow Creek District. By appointment only, reservations required.
From $30
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