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Wynne Sargeant, a winemaker in the Santa Ynez Valley, and her husband, Cody, launched their own line of Spanish-style wines, building sustainability into every step.
Cody Sargeant looks at his wife, Wynne, as they begin to share the origin story of their new small-lot, handcrafted Matilija Wines. “You wanted to do something you didn't do before,” he offers.
It’s this spirit of experimentation and adventure that fuels their many climbing and hiking trips, concert outings, and even their cooking. Whether they’re making a delicate grenache or a spicy chicken tikka masala, their drive to create using local ingredients and a deep respect for the environment is an integral part of the Wynne and Cody way.
“Our inspiration comes from nature; therefore, we want to allow the fruit, land, and vineyard site to speak for itself,” Wynne says. “Minimizing any manipulation in the winery is key to allowing the best fruit expression.”
Letting the fruit flourish under careful and loving guidance has been Wynne’s style since she started studying wine and viticulture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. There, she also met another love of her life, Cody, a fellow student studying to become an attorney.
Upon graduation, Wynne honed her craft at Stephen Ross Wine Cellars, and Cody dove into law school at USC. Wynne relocated to the Santa Ynez Valley to take a job with Melville Winery, then became the head winemaker for Peake Ranch in the Santa Rita Hills.
In 2022, the two were married among the green vines of the Santa Ynez Valley. Today, Cody works as a land-use attorney for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck in Santa Barbara, and Wynne is making Rhône and Bordeaux varietals at Brave & Maiden Estate in Santa Ynez.
In their spare time, they started Matilija Wines, a passion project that Wynne explains began with Cody’s winemaking project in 2021.
“In a trash can in the garage,” Cody adds, laughing. Soon, though, the experiment morphed into something more serious. The couple had been on a Spanish wine kick and felt that albariño was a bit underrepresented in their area. They decided to try to create some themselves, sourcing their fruit from the Tepusquet bench in the Santa Maria Valley, where the sandy soil and heavy marine layer produced ideal conditions for growing albariño grapes.
“We tried to balance a very high acid pick with barrel fermentation,” Wynne says. The result: a fresh crispness with delightfully light flavor.
“Wynne is leading the charge and I’m learning,” Cody explains. “We do well at the big-picture planning together.”
Our inspiration comes from nature; therefore, we want to allow the fruit, land, and vineyard site to speak for itself. Minimizing any manipulation in the winery is key to allowing the best fruit expression.
– Wynne Sargeant, co-owner, Matilija Wines
Since then, they’ve branched out into other varietals. Their Cebada Canyon grenache is surprising in a variety of ways. First, grenache is typically a warmer climate grape, yet they sourced their fruit in the cooler, windier Cebada Canyon. It’s fruity, lightly peppery, and balanced, a wine you can enjoy with anything.
“It’s a very light expression of grenache,” Wynne says. “It’s high acid but has good tannin too.”
As nature lovers, Wynne and Cody work exclusively with sites and companies that minimize environmental intrusion, and they ship responsibly, as well. All of the vineyards they source fruit from are Sustainability in Practice-certified, and they are working to source more fruit from biodynamic producers, which use no pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers and focus on building healthy soil and a strong ecosystem on their farms. Grapes for the 2024 albariño came from a biodynamic vineyard.
As for shipping responsibly, Cody says, “We aim to source locally and have selected less impactful materials such as lighter glass to minimize some of the impacts that stem from shipping.”
Recently, looking for yet another way to give back to the planet with their wine, Cody and Wynne became ambassadors for Blue Whales Blue Skies, an initiative that asks cargo ships to slow to 10 knots or less in designated coastal areas to protect whales, mitigate air pollution, and decrease ocean noise that can interfere with whale communication. Companies are eligible to be ambassadors so long as they work with at least one of the program’s participating shipping lines for items shipped using ocean freight.
Blue Whales Blue Skies encourages ships to slow down by explaining the impact and harnessing a community of ambassadors who prioritize working with participating lines, thereby increasing the demand for responsible shipping. Patagonia joined as an ambassador in August.
“The Santa Barbara Channel is home to a huge amount of blue whales,” Cody says. “We want to make sure that everything we bring across the seas is a slow-boat shipment. We confirmed that the company we get our cork from imported that cork on participating shipping lines to California ports within the past year. We also chose to source glass for our bottles from local sources so as not to ship with non-participating shipping lines.”
For the coming harvest, the pair is producing a Santa Barbara County albariño from Riverbench Vineyard and a mencía from Nolan Ranch. “Our process will be pretty similar, but we will make adjustments depending on the vintage characteristics and the grapes,” Wynne says.
Beyond that, the pair has one simple goal.
“We want to keep sharing wine with friends,” Wynne says with a smile.
