Credit: Macduff Everton
What follows is an edited excerpt from Vines & Vision: The Winemakers of Santa Barbara County, published in 2020 by Matt Kettmann and Macduff Everton.
“I really had no idea that I would become a winemaker, but I’ve been immersed in wine country from a young age,” says Blair Fox, who was born in Santa Barbara’s Cottage Hospital and grew up in Montecito. “I was riding my bike around the Santa Ynez Valley with my parents when there were like 10 tasting rooms. It was a long way between them!”
Water polo was Fox’s first love. He excelled at the sport while at Santa Barbara High and was accepted to Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Brown upon graduation in 1993. “But I was a California boy, and I couldn’t see myself going back east,” said Fox. Also keeping him home was his girlfriend, Sarah, who’d become his wife a few years later.