Bien Nacido Vineyards

Au Bon Climat is a U.S.-based winery, founded in 1982 by Adam Tolmach and Jim Clendenen in the early years of the Santa Barbara County wine industry. In 1990, Tolmach left to start Ojai Winery and Clendenen became sole proprietor and winemaker. The winery is located in Santa Maria, California, and exclusively produces Burgundian-styled wine from grape varietals Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. According to the winery's website, the primary source for Au Bon Climat's grapes is the Bien Nacido Vineyard, in northern Santa Barbara County, where the winery itself is located. Au Bon Climat also sources grapes from the Le Bon Climat Vineyard, the Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, the Los Alamos Vineyard, the Rancho La Cuna Vineyard, and San Luis Obispo County's Talley Vineyards. The winery makes about 10 different Pinot Noirs, and 6 different Chardonnays each vintage. Most are vineyard designated on the label. From the beginning, Old World winemaking methods were employed and still are today. The objective to create tightly focused, balanced, nuanced wines with great aging potential has never changed, even as fads in California winemaking have come on gone. Clendenen stayed true to his convictions and was proven correct as a more educated market came back to wines of balance. Through careful re-investment from its own production, Au Bon Climat grew to over 50,000 cases annually while earning world-wide acclaim. A guiding light for the Santa Barbara County wine region since its infancy, Au Bon Climat and Clendenen were essential in elevating the quality of Burgundian varietals on the Central Coast, and key in generating international recognition of Santa Barbara County as a world class wine region. Source: https://aubonclimat.com/our-story/the-mind-behind/

The Sisquoc River is a westward flowing river in northeastern Santa Barbara County, California. It is a tributary of the Santa Maria River, which is formed when the Sisquoc River meets the Cuyama River at the Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County border just north of Garey. The river is 57.4 miles (92.4 km) long and originates on the north slopes of Big Pine Mountain, at approximately 6,320 feet (1,930 m). Big Pine Mountain is part of the San Rafael Mountains, which are part of the Transverse Ranges.

The Cuyama River (Chumash: Kuyam, meaning "Clam") is a 118-mile-long (190 km) river in southern San Luis Obispo County, northern Santa Barbara County, and northern Ventura County, in the U.S. state of California. It joins the Sisquoc River forming the Santa Maria River. The river's name comes from an Indian village named for the Chumash word kuyam, meaning "clam" or "freshwater mollusk".

Garey is a census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California located east of U.S. Route 101 about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Santa Maria and 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Sisquoc. The ZIP Code is 93454, and the community is inside area code 805. The population was 68 at the 2010 census.

Rancho Tepusquet was a 8,901-acre (36.02 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day northern Santa Barbara County, California given in 1837 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Tomás Olivera. The grant extended along the Sisquoc River and encompassed present day Sisquoc and Garey, northeast of Los Alamos.

Sisquoc (Chumash for "quail") is a census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California located east of U.S. Route 101 about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Santa Maria and 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Garey. The ZIP Code is 93454, and the community is inside area code 805. Sisquoc has a fire station, a church, a Preschool-8 school and a store. It has a micro-climate with mild weather year-round. The population was 183 at the 2010 census. The town is at the intersection of Palmer Road and Foxen Canyon Road, at the southwestern edge of the floodplain of the Sisquoc River. The predominant land use on the plain is agriculture, while the hills to the south and west contain the Cat Canyon Oil Field, with Greka Energy and ERG Resources, LLC being the largest operators. Sisquoc is an agricultural area. It is well known for vineyards and strawberry fields. The terrain is hilly, and there are mountains in the distance. Wildlife near Sisquoc includes bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, rabbits, and gophers. There is one closed store in town called the Sisquoc store, and a fire station. There is one school in town called Benjamin Foxen, home of the Bobcats. Benjamin Foxen is the only remaining school of 5 in the Blochman School District. The Blochman School PTA (Parent Teacher Association) was established in 1960. The school has a library in need of more books. Students and teachers at Blochman run a school garden, and fresh produce from the garden is served in the cafeteria.

The Santa Maria Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) which straddles the boundary of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties in California's multi-county Central Coast AVA. It was established on August 5, 1981, by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) as California's second oldest AVA. A portion of the AVA crosses the Cuyama River into the southernmost corner of San Luis Obispo County. The east–west orientation of the 152.3 square miles (97,483 acres) with a wide, open valley and rolling hills means cool winds and fog flow in freely from the Pacific Ocean, settling most noticeably in lower-lying areas. The result is a mild Mediterranean climate that lengthens the growing season and contributes to the eventual sugar/acid balance in the grapes from Santa Maria Valley's 7,500 acres (3,000 ha) cultivated vineyards. On January 28, 2011, the AVA was granted an 29.4 square miles (18,790 acres) expansion to its southern boundary.

The Cat Canyon Oil Field is a large oil field in the Solomon Hills of central Santa Barbara County, California, about 10 miles southeast of Santa Maria. It is the largest oil field in Santa Barbara County, and as of 2010 is the 20th-largest in California by cumulative production.The field was discovered in 1908, just seven years after the nearby Orcutt field. At first it was developed slowly, because of difficulties in drilling and keeping wells productive, but as ever-richer reservoirs were revealed in the next two decades it gradually became one of the most productive fields in the state. A mature field in decline, estimated reserves have dwindled to 2.3 million barrels, less than one percent of the total produced in the preceding century. A total of 243 wells remained active, although a field revitalization program commenced by ERG Resources in 2011 intends to extend the field's lifetime by extracting reserves previously considered unrecoverable. The largest operators currently active on the field are Greka Energy with 168 active wells, and ERG, who plans to bring over 300 shut-in wells back into production.

Chapel of San Ramon (also called the Benjamin Foxen Memorial Chapel and the Sisquoc Chapel ) is a chapel and cemetery located in Santa Maria, California in the United States. It is listed on the California Historical Landmarks list and is also the first historic landmark listed by the county of Santa Barbara. It is considered a quality example of "the transition between the architecture of the old missions and the frame churches of the American settlers." It was also one of the first Catholic churches in the Santa Maria Valley.

Twitchell Reservoir is a reservoir in southern San Luis Obispo County and northern Santa Barbara County in California. The reservoir has a capacity of 197,756 acre⋅ft (243,928,000 m3) and is formed by Twitchell Dam on the Cuyama River about 66 miles (106 km) from its headwaters in the Chumash Wilderness Area and about 6 miles (9.7 km) from its confluence with the Sisquoc River, where they form the Santa Maria River. Twitchell Dam was built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation between 1956 and 1958. The original names were Vacquero Dam and Vacquero Reservoir, but they were changed to honor T. A. Twitchell of Santa Maria, a proponent of the project. The dam and reservoir provide flood control and water conservation. The Central Coast of California only receives significant amounts of rainfall during the winter, this area averaging 14 inches (360 mm) per year. The water is stored in the reservoir during big winter storms and released as quickly as possible while still allowing it to percolate into the soil and recharge the groundwater. This means that the reservoir is usually far from full. It is estimated that the project increases recharge by 20,000 acre⋅ft (25,000,000 m3) annually. Sedimentation is a problem for the reservoir, as the reservoir is being filled 70 percent faster than expected. This reduces its capacity and blocks the water inlet to the control gates. Some sediment has been removed by flushing it out during releases, but much of it is simply deposited immediately downstream, interfering with flows. There is no public access to the dam or reservoir.

Early on the Sunday morning of April 25, 1965, 16-year-old Michael Andrew Clark opened fire on cars traveling along U.S. Highway 101 just south of Orcutt, California from a nearby hilltop. Three people were killed and ten were wounded before Clark committed suicide upon arrival of police.

Rancho Suey was a 48,834-acre (197.62 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day southern San Luis Obispo County and northern Santa Barbara County, California given in 1837 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to María Ramona Carrillo de Pacheco. The grant was east of present-day Santa Maria and extended along the San Luis Obispo-Santa Barbara County line, and between the Santa Maria River and the Cuyama River.