Our Reason for Being

Lyons Vineyard was conceived over 20 years, by two people dreaming, tasting, learning, and planning together. 

Skye and Sarah Lyons are two self-made Gen Xers who quietly made their way up in the media and technology business—but all the while, over glasses of Barolo and Châteauneuf-du-Pape—the pair never lost sight of their goal to own a vineyard and winery one day. 

Their backgrounds and their passion for wine made Lyons Vineyard a kind of inevitability. 

Sarah and Skye knew they were going to make wine together one day, they just never knew when. The couple has a sense of restlessness, and an appetite for challenge, always seeking out new projects. As long ago as 2002, they started to think about starting a vineyard together with Skye’s late father Stephen, a viticulturist, but various life events intervened, pushing the idea further into the future.

A 40th birthday trip to taste wine in the Santa Ynez Valley was the final catalyst. After a difficult time finding a place to stay, they resolved to buy a modest vacation home, and a year later, were lucky enough to find one with 10 acres of land and two acres already planted to Grenache and Viognier. Sarah and Skye knew they had the right place when the time came to get in the car to head home. Their young son Wylder said, “What, we’re not staying? I don’t want to leave!”

The Lyons’ goal in cultivating a vineyard and making wine is simply to create lasting memories and experiences for themselves, their family, friends, and customers. To share the knowledge they have acquired over the years. To make wine easier, fun, and more approachable. Sarah and Skye have not been rushed pursuing this goal. “We always knew we would have a long time horizon. We knew we wanted grapes in the ground 10 years before we started making wine,” says Sarah.

Sarah Lyons was born in Italy, where her father was stationed in the Navy. She grew up in Washington State, and after having enough of the overcast and rain, attended college in Arizona. Los Angeles and USC grad school beckoned, and she never left. Southern California is where her passion for wine was born. A lifelong learner, she began attending wine tastings and classes. She achieved the WSET Level 4 Diploma in 2018. Today Sarah works in media and technology in the entertainment industry. You’ll also find Sarah harvesting fruit and keeping a close watch over fermentations during crush.

Originally from Marin County, California, Skye Lyons grew up working summers in the vineyards and bottling lines of Ravenswood in Sonoma, where his father Stephen Lyons was a vineyard manager. By the time he was in college, he was the only 21-year old he knew with a wine collection. Skye’s career in the entertainment industry began with many long nights as an intern at a visual effects company in Los Angeles. Today he works in production on animated films. With his inherited green thumb, he has also planted an orchard on the property and is very hands-on in viticultural and winemaking decisions.

Skye and Sarah met in 1999, and by 2002, the couple had a guest bedroom in their house outfitted with a dedicated air conditioner to protect their burgeoning wine collection. This down-to-earth, approachable pair gradually began to see that simply collecting wine and entertaining was not going to satisfy their thirst for knowledge and fulfill their dream of creating a tie to the land: a place that matters and lives on for generations into the future.

Wylder has been a part of this dream from the beginning. He fell in love with the vineyard property in Santa Ynez at the same time his parents did. Now in middle school, you’ll find him playing with his friends here or swinging in the vineyard hammock. He frequently accompanies his mom and dad to wine tastings, happily watching his ipad and eating candy (his treat). Family is important to the Lyons. Spending quality time together is this family’s priority. Part of the reason for this property is for a place that the family can always call home.

The wines are inspired by many years of tasting and learning, beginning with some truly memorable bottles of Ravenswood Zinfandel and an “epiphany” bottle of 1997 Bryant Family Cabernet. The Lyons are passionate about the wines of the Rhône Valley, especially Côte-Rôtie, Cornas, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Thierry Allemand is a winemaking hero for Syrah. Barolo and Barbaresco are also an interest for the couple, but their foremost obsession—in the end—is Grenache, and all of its delightful red fruit and floral perfumes. Oh to be lucky enough to one day try Château Rayas!

Skye’s late father, Stephen Lyons, was a viticulturist for Ravenswood in the 1990s. He was a major inspiration not just in Skye and Sarah’s appreciation for wine, but also their interest in farming.

Skye recalled, “He always had a green thumb and gardened extensively. Some of my earliest memories were gardening with him. He always set aside a corner of the yard for me to grow my own things. We coveted the Yellow Garden spiders when they showed up in our tomatoes to defend against Hornworm caterpillars. This set the stage for me at an early age.” Before getting involved in viticulture he was a partner in a landscaping company. From there Stephen went on to take weekend & night viticulture courses before making the jump permanently.

Sarah says, “I love the memory of the scavenger hunts Stephen sent us on in various wine regions in California. He gave us three or four specific grape varieties and rootstocks (ex. Syrah on rootstock 101-14) and wanted us to seek out properties that grew that combo so we could taste the resulting wine. At some wineries, the person working the tasting room didn’t know, but eagerly called up the proprietor/winemaker to ask. Other tasting rooms, the winemaker’s eyes lit up when we asked and we got into fantastic conversations with them about vineyard management.”

Stephen had a passion for both Italian and Californian wines. “It wasn't until I got older that I started noticing him drinking more Italian varieties,” Skye says. “His favorite grape was Sagrantino, followed closely by Zinfandel.” He had a passion for white wines too, and always thought that Vermentino would do well in California.

Sarah recalls, “We had an epic trip to Tuscany with him where we tasted a lot of wines together. One fun memory was an enoteca in Greve that had those wine dispensers where you put a card loaded with money into it and you get a pour…this was way before that dispenser started being used for tastings in the U.S. We had never seen such a thing, and the 3 of us were like kids in a candy store, going around and tasting!” On that same trip, Stephen led the group to Castellare di Castellina. They didn’t have a tasting appointment, but Stephen sweet-talked them into tasting with the group. He had a charm that opened doors this way.

Stephen dabbled in winemaking, submitting wine at the Sonoma county fair, for which he won a Gold medal. While he was taken from them too soon to grow and make his own wine, today Sarah and Skye are confident he would have appreciated their vineyard and the variety of clones they have. Spending most of his life in California, he would have taken great pleasure in the location, basking in the scenic beauty of the hillsides. After growing grapes in both California and North Carolina, Stephen shared the importance of recognizing the right varietal for the terroir.

He also told Sarah and Skye that for the most efficient vineyard operation, the vineyard should be at least 12-14 acres, allowing the winegrower to amortize all of the costs of labor, farming equipment across a decent case output. At the time, Sarah and Skye thought that amount of acreage was HUGE, but today it seems manageable, especially given that Lyons Vineyard is only 5-6 acres planted.

Lyons Vineyard is anything but a vanity project. It’s an honest, soulful outgrowth of a real passion for wine, life-long learning and pursuing your dreams.

Lyons Vineyard will only be made from estate fruit, and production will likely not exceed 1,200 cases. Sarah and Skye hope that one day their son Wylder will take the reins and guide the wine forward for decades—when, hopefully, this modest family vineyard farm might be regarded as a benchmark in Santa Barbara County.