Everybody, today I am joined by Simon Faury. He’s the winemaker over Crown Point Vineyards in San Ynez over at Happy Canyon, California. My goodness, Simon has really done an incredible thing. We were out there in San Ynez. I want to say we were bopping around some time several months ago. and this was a winery that just kind of came up on my radar. We were lucky enough to get a tour and go taste some of the wines out there. And lo and behold, they were some of the best wines we’ve had in not only Santa Ynez, but I’m going to say California. So we’re going to get into all of that. Simon, welcome to our Cork Journey interview. I was so happy. we gave a nice little review and you reached out and said thank you. And I reached out and said, well, let’s chat, because I’m always loving to see what we can do to promote what I think are just some incredible wines. You’re doing just a great job over there. So welcome to the show.
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
So let’s start with you. How did you find your way into winemaking?
Drinking a lot of wine, you know, kind of like you. But I started at a young age. I enjoyed cooking growing up, and then when my palate was finally ready, I enjoyed wines too. And when you’re a kid, 16, you’re trying to figure out what you want to do when you grow up. I still am trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I thought it would be a good balance between being creative, science, working outside, and just doing cool stuff. So I started joining the wine school knowledge classes at the university, and I actually moved to Italy. I lived in Italy for four years in Barolo, made wine at different wineries there and all over Italy and Sicily as well. Then after four years in Barolo I graduated and moved back to Bordeaux. as I thought, a French guy without a French agreement is never going to get let back in. So I went to get my master’s in Bordeaux and then started to travel the world. I worked at a few spots in Bordeaux, then I got to Napa. I worked first at Robert Mondavi, and then I wanted to travel a little bit more, so I went to Argentina and Australia. And then I got a job offer from Harlan Estate, of all places, and I never left.
Wow. So when you arrived in California, what felt familiar and what felt different?
What felt familiar were the vineyards and the landscapes. if you’re in Italy, in Argentina, or in Bordeaux, the landscape doesn’t change too much thanks to the vineyard. What felt really different is that I finally had an office and a car. I was used to cleaning floors before, so I finally had a serious job. This feels pretty good.
So there’s a common thread I see among some wineries, and it’s Felipe Malka. He’s a consulting winemaker over at Crown Point, correct? He was over at Orin Swift and I’d find him there, and then I’d go to some other winery and there he’d be. He’s always doing some really interesting things. Did he bring you over to Crown Point, or was that completely unrelated?
That was definitely not unrelated. We started working together back in Napa, and we’re both from Bordeaux, so there’s that. He told me he was starting the project at Crown Point and at the same time Roger, the owner, was looking for a winemaker. So he helped facilitate that relationship, for sure.
That’s cool. So what is it about Crown Point that made you go, hey, I want to be a part of this?
I tasted the wines, I came here and I saw the potential. What was funny is that I liked the wines, but I also thought I could do better. I could polish this up a little bit. I know where to look, what to look for. I was really confident we could make something undeniable. The terroir is fabulous, the weather is great, the soils are amazing. I saw the diamond in the rough, kind of like everybody else who’s been here.
It really does stand out when you drive those vineyards. And the owner, Roger Bauer. he’s going for the very best, not just the best Cab for Santa Barbara County, but the best he could make. That’s at least what we were told. Is that what stood out. this guy just wants to have the very best people and make the best wines?
He’s definitely very committed, that’s for sure. But you brought something interesting. the hundred-point thing is a bit of a cliché to me. I just want to make great wine, wine that I’m proud of, which I think is harder than a hundred points, to be honest. It’s the chicken or the egg. What matters is having a successful business and a successful legacy. We’re starting a new wine region to some extent. Santa Barbara exists, but Happy Canyon is a newer story. So it’s a big task, and I think it’s a more important task than just getting a hundred points. If people come here, love the wines, buy them, and tell their friends. that’s the best recognition you can get. That’s market recognition. If some critics like it, great. So far they’ve loved it, so we’ll keep on keeping on.
I have this debate with people in wine all the time about points. To me, points were important because they can really put a winery on the map. But I agree it gets a little deep in the woods. is there really a difference between 97 and 98 points? It’s so subjective anyway. But I do think it helps when critics love your wines, at least for driving traffic.
It’s also a shortcut to some extent. And if you start chasing that while other sides of the business aren’t aligned. your hospitality, your sales network, your history, the way you promote yourself. it’s a shot in the dark. It doesn’t necessarily move the needle as much as those other things. Having an ethos, having a purpose, is much more important. And there’s a risk with chasing points: you live by the points, you die by the points. If your customers only come for the score and you go in a different direction, you lose them. It’s much more important to build a genuine relationship and offer people something real. great wine, a great story, access to something profound. In no other art form would we say, I make music for the critics. Nobody makes a movie for Rotten Tomatoes. So why would we make wine for critics? I make these wines so people will pop the cork and enjoy them.
From just your aspect of making the wine. but also the marketing, sales, operations. it’s really interesting times right now in wine. People are ripping out vineyards, closing estates. And a lot of it comes down to the marketing aspect, the way you treat customers, the development of those relationships. A lot of people have taken them for granted. How many cases are you guys producing?
We’re very small. around 4,000 to 5,000 cases in an incredible year.
That’s a sweet spot, I think. Is it all direct to consumer or are you in some restaurants?
We’re in some markets for sure. that’s part of getting your name out there. Restaurants play a big role in what we do. But the main focus, the bread and butter, is definitely direct to consumer and hospitality.
Where do you see things going? Not just California. this seems to be everywhere.
France for sure. Friends in Bordeaux too. When I came here five or six years ago from Napa, I thought this was going to be the next Napa Valley. In five years, people will come here and see so much traffic, so many visitors, so many new wineries. It definitely drew some attention, but it hasn’t moved much since then. There’s definitely a sense of saturation in California. so many different brands, so many players over the last ten years. The cost of doing business squeezes everything at the high end, and if you want a $100 wine there are so many options. It’s not as fun as it was 20 years ago for investors to enter the wine business. The cash flow to make wine is absolutely nuts and there aren’t a whole lot of exits. It’s a very competitive and not-as-fun market as it used to be.
My late father used to say, how do these guys make any money? There’s so much. And it’s marketing, reputation, consistently making quality wine. people who like wine know that. But we are in an interesting time getting new drinkers in, the millennials and the whole thing.
One more thing. I hear people say people are drinking less. I’m not sure it’s entirely true, or if they do drink less, it’s not necessarily out of health choices. I think having too many expensive wines and going out to dinner and not finding a bottle under $100 limits how much you’re going to drink. But I think people still love wine and are still interested in it. They just drink maybe not as often. which is different from drinking less. And they might drink better wines too. So I see something positive. I’m a wine drinker first before being a winemaker, so I definitely see the opportunity.
Restaurants are a big thing for me. Cork Journey is basically the number one site for corkage fees. You go to a restaurant and want to know the corkage fee, it’s on our site. People look at a $50 corkage fee and think that’s a lot. But the markups in restaurants are 2 or 3x retail, so you take a $100 bottle of wine. the restaurant purchased it for between $60 and $70, and by the time it’s on the list it’s $400. A $50 corkage fee makes a lot more sense when you put it that way.
Yeah. a bottle on a list for $100 is probably a bottle that cost around $20. That’s a really good point. And you know what, I’ll take a stab at the wine industry too, because wineries have done the same thing. Fewer people are coming, so we raise our tasting fees. Less people come because it’s more expensive, so less people consume. But for the winery, you’re making more money because your fees are higher. In the long run, everybody loses. The other thing is where wines are purchased. as a restaurant, you buy through a distributor, and the distributor has an interest to work with larger wineries. So it becomes the sommelier or buyer’s responsibility to go find those gems. But often you find the same industrial wineries on every wine list. That also explains why people drink out less. sometimes the offer is a little boring too.
It’s costly and boring, and the whole three-tier distribution system is brutal. You literally cannot take a case of your wine and go sell it directly to a restaurant. You have to go through a distributor. If that went away, that would change things.
Actually in California you could sell directly to a restaurant if you’re the producer. the challenge is collecting bills, and most people wouldn’t do it for logistical reasons. And you don’t want to bypass your distributor partner either.
Let’s talk wines. You’ve got a really limited offering, which I love. there’s a focus there. Right now on your website you’ve got three available. You’ve also got the Champagne project, which I want to talk about. You have about five wines total, give or take?
We make three wines really. Our introduction is called The Relevant. a wine we did for restaurants, priced so people can access Crown Point. But the main focus is the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Estate Selection. The Cabernet is a Cabernet Sauvignon from our 35 acres. The Estate Selection is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. I love the relationship between those two varietals. We don’t have enough Cab Franc to make it the flagship, but I really like how it works with the Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s not done enough in the world and it’s really cool. The Cabernet Sauvignon is probably our best-growing varietal and it’s what can put this property on the map. Then The Relevant exists because our Cabernet is $175 a bottle. at a restaurant, that’s $300-plus on the list, which really limits the restaurants that will buy it and limits your by-the-glass program. The Relevant broadens that offer so people can discover Crown Point by the glass. Then because I like white wine, I convinced the owner to plant a half acre of Sauvignon Blanc. His version of white wine was Merlot, so I had to fight him. But it’s a fabulous little thing. it gets me started at harvest. It’s my warm-up before the reds hit full blast. A few tons of Sauvignon Blanc for a few weeks, make sure everything works, the press works, the lights are on. And then more recently, last year, we started making a wine in Champagne, France. a blanc de blancs with a fantastic vintner there who’s become a great friend. We make about 100 cases. We did a blind tasting a while back and it held up against some top references. We also do a little caviar tasting with it. People love that we’re able to offer something completely crazy.
I love Cab Franc. I’m drinking the 2020 Estate Selection right now. I opened it just before the show. I think it was around 60% Cab Sauv, 30% Cab Franc, some Petit Verdot and maybe Malbec. How do you approach the blend year over year. are you evolving it or do you like that mix?
There’s a fun story with that. When I first joined in 2019 the Cab Francs were very young. planted in 2012, barely entering production. Cab Franc takes about ten years to really start producing at a high level. So we were growing our confidence in the varietal. Cab Sauvignon can go anywhere and produce good wines early. Cab Franc is more of a diva. You need the viticulture to be perfect. you can’t lie, you can’t cheat. There’s no masking it; it’s pure terroir. If the terroir isn’t right it won’t make compelling wine. That’s what I love about it. And it took me a little while to figure out how to make it work with Cab Sauvignon. In Bordeaux, the conventional wisdom is that Cab Franc and Cab Sauvignon can’t really work in blends together. you’ll see Cab Franc and Merlot, but Cab Franc and Cab Sauvignon isn’t really a thing there. To me, California has been doing it for decades and it works fantastically. But the key I figured out is that you need a Cab Sauvignon that’s a little rounder. If both varieties are angular and powerful, the mouthfeel gets ragged. Once I understood that. finding the vineyard sites that produce a rounder Cab Sauvignon to complement the Franc. then it all came together. I can see why it’s not done in Médoc, where by tradition the wines tend to be more angular. But here, when both varietals are in balance, it’s a beautiful thing.
As your vines continue to mature, what changes are you most excited to see in the wines? The Cab Francs are about ten to twelve years old now. are you excited about where the vineyards are going?
Definitely. I’m really excited about what has happened in the last few years. This region is very interesting because it’s a little cooler than Napa. Happy Canyon runs a few degrees cooler than Oakville, and the nights are cooler as well. That means we have a longer growing season and fewer days of extreme heat. What we’ve seen in 2023 and 2025 is that those cooler vintages are just fantastic for us. We have a ton of hang time, and we’re making wines I didn’t know were possible in California. wines with deep color and texture but also low alcohol. We can ripen Cabernet at 14%. I’ve almost never seen that in California. In Napa, 14.5% used to mean you were the first to pick. There’s a real return of the pendulum happening. We can make wines that are easier on the body, drink better, but still have intensity and concentration. They’re really classic, they have acidity, they’ll age for ten or twenty years. It’s not just a fruit bomb. What’s exciting is that we’re finally getting viticulture dialed in where sugar maturity and flavor maturity align. the way they do in Europe. In the New World, sugar maturity historically happened before the flavors, so you’d hit your sugar target and then wait weeks for the green notes to resolve. Now we’re seeing that here. I think it’s going to be a game changer for California wines.
You’re seeing some wines now at 16.5, 17% alcohol. I mean, it’s just undrinkable to me, it’s so hot.
Some people love those wines and some of those brands are very successful, so good for them. I admire it. But I think it’s a bit of a niche. And if you’re building a legacy and trying to put a region on the map, you don’t want to be put in a box where people say, oh, those wines are just too big, too ripe, too hot. I think the really interesting path is making wines that drink beautifully and have intensity, but without being too hot.
When you’re not drinking your own wine, what are your favorites right now? I love talking to winemakers about other winemakers.
It’s like music. I don’t listen to one genre. I drink wines from France, Italy, Spain, Argentina, whatever happens. Wines my friends are making in Napa. Different Cabs, different Pinots. I love Chardonnay. Burgundy, Chablis, Santa Barbara Chards are fantastic. Bordeaux, of course, to see what’s going on in the old world. I love the northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage, the southern Rhône too. I don’t drink too many red Burgundies because it’s getting out of budget, but I love Barolo always. I really like the wines of Scavino, my buddy Pio, Rinaldi of course. Dos Apricots in Barbaresco. I went to school with her and I love her wines. My cousin makes some fabulous wines in Saint-Joseph. And I love Shiraz. with global warming, those wines are getting really good, some fantastic vintages over the last decade. What’s beautiful about the wine world is there are so many different wines to drink. It’s almost as good as the cheese world. so many options.
Have you had the Areni grape out of Armenia? A winemaker smuggled the grapes out of Iran and made it in Armenia. it’s incredible. I love getting the crazy stuff. What people can make with these ancient varieties is amazing.
Absolutely. I had a passion a few years ago for wines from the ancient world. Armenia, Turkey, Syria. It’s hard to find stuff from Iran, but Armenia really stuck out. Fantastic varietals. High altitude, cooler climate, great sunshine. They make very inspiring wines and I really encourage anyone to try them.
All right, man. Let’s wrap it up. How do people find your wines?
CrownPointVineyards.com, and come to see us at the winery. We’d love to host you. meet the dogs, meet the winemaker, do a little cheese pairing and have a good time.
Fantastic. I would definitely head up there. I’m sorry you weren’t there when we were up there, but it worked out. Simon, thank you so much. I truly appreciate it. I will make it a point to time our next visit so we get to meet face to face. It’s been an absolute pleasure, my friend.
Awesome. Thank you. Take care.
And with that everybody, thank you so much for joining us over here at Cork Journey. We would love it if you would subscribe to us on our YouTube channel, follow us on social media, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. Till next time everybody. Cheers!