About Curran

Owner/Winemaker Kris Curran grew up in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County, California. While growing up in the “Valley” Kris had the opportunity to raise many animals and was a member of Pony Club, 4-H and FFA. After completing a degree in Animal Science at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Kris became fascinated with the wine industry and pursued a winemaking degree at Fresno State University.

Shortly after graduating, Kris became the Assistant Winemaker at Cambria Winery in Santa Maria, where she worked directly with Cambria's winemaker to create some award-winning Cambria wines. This experience led to an offer to be the winemaker and general manager for Koehler Winery, located in Los Olivos. In addition to crafting Koehler's first vintage of both red and white wines, Kris was responsible for overseeing the winery’s development from its inception.

In 2000, Kris was tapped by Sea Smoke Cellars to set up their winery and head the winemaking team. At Sea Smoke she focuses solely on Pinot Noir produced from their estate grown vineyards in the Santa Rita Hills appelation. Sea Smoke’s first vintage was in 2001 and, although a fledgling winery, they have already received much acclaim.

Kris’ own label, Curran, was started in 1997. For two years she made Pinot Noir from Santa Maria Valley. In 1999 she rejected the fruit she received, from a new vineyard, due to lack of ripeness and had to reexamine her philosophy for the label ‘Curran’. Deciding that great Pinot Noir was difficult to come by, unless you owned and managed the vineyards (a luxury she experiences with the Sea Smoke team), Kris decided to seek out small producers of other varietals who were willing to work closely with her to ensure the optimum ripeness and integrity of the grapes. Currently, Kris is producing Syrah, Sangiovese and Grenache Blanc; all of which are locally sourced from premium, selected vineyards in the eastern end of the Santa Ynez Valley. Kris feels she has the best of both worlds; “I work with some great Pinot from the Santa Rita Hills AVA (Sea Smoke) and am able to round out my portfolio with some very interesting varietals that prefer the warmer environment found on the east end of the Santa Ynez Valley.”