Roblar Winery: The Perfect Pairing
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
A day spent touring Roblar Winery & Vineyards, enjoying farm-fresh bites and pours with Executive Chef Terri Buzzard.
Writer Andrea Manokian
Photography Silas Fallstich
I arrive at Roblar Winery & Vineyards bright and early on a Saturday morning for its Farm to Fork Winery Tour. Over the course of the tour—and several tastings in between—one thing becomes abundantly clear: Roblar is redefining the traditional winery visit. Here, exceptional wines are only the beginning. The estate is home to a farmstand, a five-bedroom farmhouse for guests seeking an overnight stay, an on-site art gallery, and a restaurant recently named the No. 1 Winery Restaurant in the United States by USA TODAY's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards.
Roblar is the second vineyard under the Gleason Family Vineyards umbrella. In 2004, Kevin Gleason purchased Refugio Ranch Vineyards, and in 2017, he acquired Roblar, a mere five-minute drive away. Kevin leads Roblar alongside his children, Max Gleason and Callie Gleason Bieszard, and his son-in-law, Matthew Bieszard.
The vines consist largely of Bordeaux varietals including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, all of which are well suited to the estate's climate and soils. In 2020, Roblar welcomed Winemaker Max Marshak, who previously spent seven years at Jonata Estate on California's Central Coast. His experience and vision have further enhanced Roblar's wines, which are known for their aromatics, structure, and balance.
The Farm to Fork Winery Tour is available to the public on Fridays and Saturdays, and upon arrival, I’m lucky enough to have Wine Educator Connor Williamson as my guide. We make our way over to the vineyards, and it’s a picturesque setting—rows and rows of trellised, neatly manicured vines. Awaiting us on ice is a bottle of Roblar's 2025 Cuvée Blanc. Connor pours us each a glass, we toast, and savor a sip. The white blend is bright and crisp with delicate citrus notes. It’s then that we dive into an informative lesson on the wine glass itself, a lesson I’d like to pass on to readers.
To enjoy your next glass of wine like a dedicated connoisseur, do as Connor suggests.
Handle the glass with care, holding it by the stem or foot to avoid transferring heat from your hands or leaving fingerprints on the bowl.
Wine contains ethanol and hundreds of aromatic compounds. Swirling the glass increases the wine’s surface area, releasing volatile compounds into the air and enhancing their aroma. It also allows the wine to coat the glass, revealing its color, viscosity, and texture.
After swirling, you may notice a hint of alcohol on the nose, along with more delicate fruit, floral, herbal, and spice aromas.
This time, smell for secondary aromas that reveal more about the winemaking process. These include yeast-derived scents from fermentation, as well as subtle notes influenced by aging in wooden barrels.
Raise your wine glasses in a toast and take a sip. |
The next stop on the tour feels incredibly fitting, especially since “el roblar” roughly translates to “the place where oak trees grow” in Spanish. We make our way to a section of the property known as the Twin Oaks, and the view is just as much of a treat as the 2023 Pinot Noir we sample.
As its name suggests, the area consists of two oak trees standing tall against an ocean of vines. It’s no wonder that so many wedding receptions happen here. Connor shares that the winery and restaurant can see up to five hundred visitors during the day, and then transform to host a wedding for several hundred guests in the evening, a truly remarkable feat and one that goes to show the dedication of its team.
I then head to the restaurant where I am served a plate with four appetizing offerings: prime beef, Roblar Mokum carrots, shrimp gazpacho, and a perfect chocolate chip cookie. Not long after my first bite, I had the pleasure of enjoying the company of Terri Buzzard, Executive Chef at Roblar Winery.
The tender, medium-rare prime beef pairs incredibly well with their 2022 Merlot Gold, aged in 56% new French oak for 15 months, and my personal favorite pour of the day. Smooth, silky, and full-bodied with oaky flavor, each sip delivers more than the last. The gazpacho, paired with their 2024 Chardonnay Reserve, is refreshing and was inspired by Terri Buzzard’s latest trip to Mexico City. But the Roblar Mokum carrots are the star of the show, which is an incredible testament to Terri and her team, as carrots aren’t typically tantalizing. Served over a bed of parmesan cream, walnuts, and fried rosemary, the carrots are tender on the outside and crunchy in the middle. They deliver a bite so good it lingers long after the last taste.
“It’s a dream for a chef,” shares Terri, speaking about her time at Roblar. She starts each morning on the property hours before its opening, strolling the Chef’s Garden. “I draw inspiration from just being here,” she says. “It can just be the way the sunlight hits the Swiss chard,” she adds.
Chef Terri changes the menu every two months to accommodate seasonal ingredients directly sourced from Roblar Farm. Currently, I have the pleasure of sampling their early summer menu, but as late summer comes around, Terri anticipates incorporating more tomatoes, watermelon, peppers, and eggplants. “We do a tomato and watermelon panzanella salad in the late summer that people want year-round,” she says. In fall, she anticipates the use of squash, cauliflower, broccolini, and more delicacies sourced from Roblar’s chef’s garden and five-acre farm. “I just want to work and create something great,” she says plainly. “Making a beet or carrot taste really good—it’s fun!” she adds.
Before heading into her kitchen for a private tour, I ask her how she’s able to remain so organized, as she’s not only in charge of the food at Roblar but also the entrées served at weddings and, on weekends, the food truck at Refugio. “It really comes down to the people and the team,” she says.
After lunch I make my way over to Roblar’s on-site art gallery, Indah Gallery. Inside, I meet Creative Director Max Gleason. Prior to his vision, the structure served as a mechanic shop for tractors and other farm equipment, but in 2024, Max converted it into an art gallery. It’s been open for a little over a year, and Max rotates artists monthly, focusing on local talent.
Upon my visit, the gallery is showcasing artwork by Jerome Marshak, the father of Roblar’s Winemaker, Max Marshak, in an intimate tribute to the Gleason family’s extended circle. The back room of the gallery features some of Max’s personal works. Max shows me a commissioned piece for a young mother in Santa Barbara that depicts her holding her son amidst a snowy mountainscape. “She lived in Alaska for a number of years, and it was a very pivotal part of her life, so the whole bottom section of the painting is Alaska,” he says. He’s clearly found a way to incorporate symbols of her most significant life experiences into the piece. Personally, I cannot think of a better pastime than indulging in great food, drinking great wine, and analyzing art afterward.
As I drive back onto the paved road that brought me here, I can’t help but think of Roblar as an idyllic way to spend a day off or a weekend with friends and family. Rather than functioning as just a tasting room, the Gleason family and their team have transformed the grounds into a meaningful wine destination. The people, the food, the tour, its farm, and the on-site art gallery are just a few ways it stands out.
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