Our Life in Wine

2025 Vintage Overview: Long, Cool, and Exactly How We Like It

January 12th, 2026

Vintage & Crush

2025 was a long, cool growing season. And might be the best vintage yet for Lyons Vineyard. From start to finish, the vintage unfolded slowly and deliberately. Mother Nature gave the vines time to develop without pressure or extremes. Much like low-and-slow cooking with good BBQ, patience paid off, allowing flavor, structure, and balance to build naturally over the course of the season. Years like this tend to reveal the site most clearly, which aligns with our goal of making wines that express where they come from. With the vines gaining maturity year after year, everything is beginning to coalesce, and 2025 is shaping up to be a vintage to remember.

How to Host a Blind GSM Tasting Party (Without Making It Complicated)

December 15th, 2025

Taste the Terroir

Hosting a wine tasting doesn’t have to be formal or intimidating. A blind GSM tasting party is one of the easiest ways to bring people together, spark great conversation, and discover what you actually love about wine. Here’s how to host one at home, we promise no expertise required! And we guarantee your friends will be talking about your party for months.

No Wine Fridge? No Problem! 5 Smart, Simple Tips for Storing Wine at Home

November 1st, 2025

Wine Wisdom For All

You don’t need a wine fridge to be a wine person. With just a few simple tricks—like avoiding heat, managing light, and keeping things consistent—you can store your wine beautifully, no matter the size of your space. Here’s what actually matters (and what doesn’t) when it comes to keeping your bottles happy.

How do flavors get in wine? Do wineries add them in?

April 4th, 2025

Wine Wisdom For All

Ever wondered why wine tastes like more than just grapes? You might taste a range of other things in there! From citrus and vanilla to pepper and herbs, the flavors come from natural compounds created during fermentation and aging, not additives. Learn how winemaking chemistry makes every glass so complex and fascinating.

2024 Vintage & Harvest Report: A Year of Extremes in the Vineyard

December 19th, 2024

Vintage & Crush

The 2024 growing season at Lyons Vineyard was nothing short of dramatic, marked by unpredictable weather patterns that tested both the resilience of our vines and our vineyard team. From abundant winter rains to a heat-driven harvest, the year shaped a vintage with intense character and complexity. Here’s a closer look at how the season unfolded and what it means for the wines in your future glass.

Tell us what you eat at home & we'll send you pairing suggestions

April 5th, 2024

Wine Wisdom For All

Forget fancy restaurant pairings—these wine tips are for the meals you actually make at home. From stir-fry and takeout to chocolate cake and peanut butter pie, we share approachable pairings that make weeknight dinners and sweet treats even better.

The Bottling Line and The Vineyard: Growing up in Sonoma

March 21st, 2024

About Sarah & Skye

Skye Lyons is not new to wine production. From a young age, Skye worked summers and holidays alongside his father, Stephen Lyons, in the vineyard and on the bottling line at Sonoma’s Ravenswood Winery. Over summers & holidays during college, he did the hard, repetitive, and sometimes boring…

Our Kind of Winery Visits

March 1st, 2024

About Sarah & Skye

Visiting small wineries is what really speaks to us. Our most fulfilling experiences at other wineries have come when we could talk to the winemaker or owner and really get to know them and their approach. We hope to do the same for you. We always say we prefer to taste amazing wine in a shack than…

What is a “GSM”? Grenache, Syrah & Mourvèdre - a classic blend

January 12th, 2024

Taste the Terroir

Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre are the classic grape varietals in a GSM blend. Many of our friends wonder why these three are commonly put together in winemaking, so we thought we’d share a little bit about all three and how they compliment each other. Each grape varietal brings something…

The Long Game

January 4th, 2024

About Sarah & Skye

Even though Skye grew up in the wine business, coming back to it is still an adjustment. In winery and vineyard enterprises, things happen slowly. There’s no such thing as a short timeline. Coming from our day jobs in the breakneck technology and entertainment world, it’s occasionally challenging…

Sarah’s WSET Diploma: How does it inform this winery?

January 1st, 2024

About Sarah & Skye

The Wine & Spirits Education Trust Level 4 Diploma is the culmination of years of study of fine wine. It’s intensely rigorous, requiring at least 500 hours of study time around the areas of The Wine Business, Wine Production, Wines of the World, and more. It requires an independent research…

Thanksgiving Dilemma Solved: Perfect Wine Pairings!

November 20th, 2023

Taste the Terroir

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we're gearing up for our favorite holiday! It's that beautiful time filled with family, friends, delicious food, and of course, great wine. Wishing you a fantastic Thanksgiving filled with warmth and joy! Speaking of wine, allow us to recommend something special…

Harvest Season! From picking to vinification to barrel aging.

October 11th, 2023

Vintage & Crush

How did my wine get into this bottle you ask? Now that we're in the thick of harvest season, we wanted to take the opportunity to walk through the process of harvest & winemaking - and explain why it takes so darn long to release a wine. But we promise, its worth the wait. Grape Harvest: Winemaking…

From Veraison to Phenolic Ripeness – The Countdown to Harvest

August 31st, 2023

From the Vineyard

Hi Friends, As the sunny California days of summer continue, our vineyard is abuzz with the anticipation of harvest. Everything is progressing nicely in the vineyard, albeit a bit behind normal due to the cool spring. The stage known as veraison has just arrived, marking a significant milestone in the…

Do you feel confident describing the wine you like? Let us help!

July 27th, 2023

Wine Wisdom For All

In this month’s blog, we thought we’d clear up some confusing terms that are often thrown around in the wine industry. Have you ever gone to a wine tasting and heard people talking about dry, sweet, tannic, acidic and flabby wines, but had no idea what they meant? You're not alone. Many…

How do I know if a wine is good, or why I like certain wines?

June 23rd, 2023

Wine Wisdom For All

Stop worrying about what others think! This simple guide teaches you how to tell if a wine is "good" by focusing on what you like. Learn to identify key elements like balance, completeness, and texture to find your new favorite bottle.

How to Pick a Wine When You're Short on Time; Yet Want to Impress

May 19th, 2023

Wine Wisdom For All

This month, let's hit on a common wine dilemma: how do I pick a wine to bring to a friend's dinner, or worse, dinner at the boss's? Whether you want to make a positive impression with your wine knowledge or just don't want to feel embarrassed in front of your friends, having the right direction can…

The Dreams of Wine Come True: The Story of Lyons Vineyard

April 18th, 2023

Roots & Vines

We wanted to take a moment to share with you the story of Lyons Vineyard and how it has come to be. Our love for wine has always been there, but life and our careers took us in different directions. However, we never gave up on our dream to eventually fulfill that passion. Rewind to our early adult-hood:…

The Latest Scoop on Our Wine Making Journey

March 15th, 2023

Vintage & Crush

Spring is just around the corner – although we’ve been enjoying historical boatloads of rain here in California! Our total for the last 4.5 months has been over 30 inches! Historical average for our area is 13-15 inches in a whole year. Even though the ground is a bit soggy, this water is…

I’m Concerned With Healthy, Clean Living. Can I Still Drink Wine?

February 22nd, 2023

Wine Wisdom For All

Many of us hit the new year and want to reset our lifestyle to healthier food, clean living and active exercise. We are the same! Yet I know for many of us, we slowly fade into old habits or wonder if we can still drink wine as a part of our health-focus. Wine can absolutely be a part of that mix! Researchers…