Driving past the rock-walled entrance adorned with the Mosby family crest, visitors to the winery get the sense that they are going back 100 years in time. Giant sycamore and ancient oak trees shade several picnic tables, and a palm tree stands across from a 25-foot tall cactusin this rustic, authentic setting. Just ahead is an old California adobe built in 1853 as a ranch house that is home to the Mosby family.
Mosby produces about 20 different wines predominantly from its 40-acre estate, which also includes threesingle-vineyard wines, and a quartet of imports from the Piemonte and Marche regions of Italy's north and central. In all, about 5,000 cases are produced annually.
In 1959 Bill and Jeri Mosby settled in Lompoc, eventually winding up just south of Buellton, in the Santa Ynez Valley, where they boughtthe Rancho de la Vega property in 1976, on which they built a winery in '78. The first commercial wine under the Vega label was made from the 1978 vintage. The name was changed to Mosby Winery & Vineyard in 1986. The first vineyard, planted in 1963 and owned by the Mosbys, is the 246 vineyard west of Buellton. The Vigna della Casa Vecchia Vineyard was planted in 1976, and the Sori 101 vineyard was planted in 2002, (40 acres total planted) under the ownership of Mosby Winery & Vineyard.
The Mosby tasting room is in the historic carriage house, built in the 1880s, that now functions also as the winery. Fully restored in 1978, the space is still permeated by the rustic atmosphere of old California. The red barn is a well-known landmark for locals and visitors. It is a replica of a turn-of-the-century carriage house that existed up to 1977 when 100 mph winds blew it down. Mosby rebuilt the barn, once used by travelers in horse-drawn carriages.
