We had no business doing this...and look at us now!
Ten years ago we started a winery.
This is a slightly ridiculous sentence to write now because it makes it sound as though we knew what we were doing.
We did not.
The day we planted Folded Hills vines!
We had a ranch. We loved wine. We loved the land. And we had a fairly clear idea of the kind of place we wanted Folded Hills to become.
As for actually creating a winery?
We were just stupid enough to believe that we could figure it out as we went.
Recently, when I started a new non-profit called Grapes for Glioblastoma, I realized that this is a theme in my life . But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Ten years ago, knowing nothing about wine, we sat at our kitchen table with Grenache guru Angela Osborne, who told us that if we were chasing points, she wasn’t our winemaker. I have written this story before. Points? What were points?
Innocence has some advantages. If you know nothing about a business, you also don’t know how hard it will be; you don’t know what the rules are, so you can blithely dive right in. We made some good decisions - hiring Angela - and we made mistakes, lots of them. One that is funny now, but devastating then, was shipping our wines in the September heat with ice packs that leaked. When our very few buyers opened their allocations, it looked like all the bottles had taken a bath, which they basically had. Did I mention the labels were not waterproof? Or the day we released our first fully comprehensive e-commerce campaign but neglected to upload the wines to the website so no one could buy a bottle. Just stupid enough.
…here we are a decade later
2026 USA Winery of the Year by USA Wine Ratings…
How in the world did we get here?
We are a very small winery - many people have never heard of us. So now, with this recent award, the 2026 USA Winery of the Year, we are being called an overnight sensation. Ten years is hardly an overnight sensation. We ourselves are ten years older, and we weren’t spring chickens when we started this second life. Overnight? Cracks me up. It turns out that when you start a business you know nothing about, there is a hell of a lot of work to do. And that is just to catch up to the guys who really do know what they are doing. Actually, it’s hubris to even say “catching up”. We will never catch up… We don’t even aspire to catch up. We just try to put our heads together and do what we do. A little bit differently.
Then something rather unexpected happened.
People started noticing.
I will never forget our first wine club member, whom we didn’t know. Andy said, That’s weird; I don’t know them. I said, Hallelujah, we don’t know them!
We are so incredibly grateful to our friends who helped us out and bought a few cases of this unknown wine “to be nice”. They signed up for a wine club with no clue what they would get. They raved about what they loved and gently told us what they didn’t. These were our friends and family, and we still call them ambassadors. Without them, we honestly wouldn’t be here today. They are celebrating these wins right alongside us.
Our first vintage of estate wine was 2016 Lilly Rosé, released in the spring of 2017.
A few months later, Angela called us in tears.
Wine & Spirits had named Lilly one of its top rosés - and Folded Hills the California Winery to Watch.
A winery to watch?
Us? The paint on the tasting room wasn’t even dry.
And that turned out to be the beginning of something unexpected.
Over the years, we've earned scores in the 90s from Wine Enthusiast, Vinous, Wine & Spirits, Robert Parker, Jeb Dunnuck, James Suckling, Wine Spectator, and others.
There have been Golds and Double Golds. Best of Class. Editors’ Choices. Cellar Selections.
Then Angela came back after a hiatus and that’s where things really got interesting.
Our incredibly talented winemaker, Angela Osborne!
Our 2024 Lilly Rosé received 98 points, Double Gold, Best of Class and Best Rosé at the Sunset International Wine Competition.
We thought that was about as good as it gets.
Then the next vintage of Lilly received 99 points, Double Gold, Best of Class and Best Rosé at the International Women’s Wine Competition.
Our award-winning Lilly Rosé.
Our 2024 Grant Grenache received 95 points and a Cellar Selection from Wine Enthusiast.
Estate Grenache, Polo Reserve Syrah and Roper Reserve Syrah each received 94 points and Cellar Selection.
Sundance received 94 points and Editors’ Choice.
Our Estate White received 97 points and Double Gold at Sunset.
August Red and Cloud Ten each received 97 points and Double Gold at the International Women’s Wine Competition.
Wilder received 96 points and Double Gold from USA Wine Ratings and another 96 points, Double Gold and Best of Class at Sunset.
And then this month we received an email with a sentence I still find difficult to type without feeling slightly sheepish:
Folded Hills was named 2026 USA Winery of the Year.
Ten years.
Winery of the Year.
How did that happen?
Maybe not knowing all the rules helped.
I’ve thought about that a lot lately.
We certainly know much more about the wine business than we did ten years ago. But I hope we never become so jaded that we stop asking, “Why not?”
Why can’t we make a red wine meant to be chilled?
Why can’t I name a wine “Cluster”? “21”? “OO”?
Why not plant varieties most people have never heard of?
Why not make tiny quantities of something simply because Angela thinks the fruit is asking for it?
Why can’t a serious winery also have a camel, Clydesdales, and a zebra down the road?
Meet Gus and Dolph!
Zazu inspired our GSMC wine called Wilder
Why can’t hospitality feel less like a transaction and more like being welcomed into someone’s home? And not just any home, the original farmsteader’s home where they made wines in the basement from grapes grown in their own pre-Prohibition vineyard.
Why can’t wine be fun, less intimidating and open to all who are interested?
Which brings me back to those scores.
There is a funny contradiction in all of this.
We still don’t chase points.
But I would be lying if I said they don’t make us happy.
Here’s what happens in the office when we get a notice like this.
Jaws drop.
“Surely that isn’t for us. “Do they mean US?” Immediately call or email the awarding company. “Did you mean Folded Hills?” Yes. Happy dance, gather the team, pop open something chilled, precious and sold out, cheers and hugs all the way around. Tears in a few eyes. Ok. Mine.
These scores make us happy. They do.
A 99-point rosé makes us deliriously happy.
Seeing 95 POINTS next to Grant Grenache makes us ridiculously happy.
Seeing Cellar Selection and Editors’ Choice makes us pinch ourselves.
And seeing WINERY OF THE YEAR next to the name Folded Hills makes me laugh, cry and ask them to please double-check the envelope. Because these scores by folks who actually know wine, often tasting blind, without our story, our ranch, our animals, or our hospitality surrounding them, think what is inside the bottle is exceptional.
Extraordinary.
The recognition belongs to far more people than the names on the label.
It belongs to Angela and the cellar team. To the people who farm these vines. The vines themselves, and incredible Mother Nature. To everyone who packs a box, answers a phone, pours a tasting, sets up an event, solves a problem, or stays late because something needs doing. It belongs to our hospitality team, our management team, all of whom know a heck of a lot more than me. (The only reason I even have the guts to write a post like this is because I don’t make the wine. Angela is a maestra, our team members are masters.)
And it belongs to the people who have been drinking Folded Hills since before anybody was handing us trophies.
So what do we do after ten years?
Keep the beginner's mind, I hope.
There are more grapes we want to grow.
More wines we want to make.
More experiences we want to create.
More ways to make this ranch come alive for the people who visit it.
More ways to give back.
More mistakes to make.
And hopefully a few more surprises.
Ten years ago, we didn’t set out to build an award-winning winery.
We set out to grow something beautiful on a piece of land we loved and to share it with people.
Somewhere along the way, that project became the little winery that could.
It became Folded Hills.
Then a community.
And, unbelievably, a Winery of the Year.
I don’t know exactly what the next ten years will bring.
And maybe that’s the best part.
Cheers!
Kim
