About

Why “Foklor” wines? We believe winemaking is a little like telling a story. In crafting wine, the story begins in the vineyard with each season’s tale of heat, cold, rain, and sun and wind. It is our goal to capture the story of each season in every wine we make. From the vineyard to the glass, we strive to deliver vibrant, distinctive, and sustainable,  terroir-driven wines that reflect each season’s unique story. 

To that end, we work with growers who meticulously farm their vineyards sustainably to produce a balanced crop year after year. In the cellar, we work very traditionally. We employ whole cluster, foot treading, and manual punch downs on our red wines, and bottle un-fined and unfiltered.  We prefer to let time and gravity do the work to clarify our wines and we use neutral oak barrels for elevage, preferring to let the fruit flavors of the wine shine through.

Who We Are

Juvenal Martinez

As a kid Juvenal and his family would camp every summer at Lake Cachuma, near the famous Santa Ynez Wine Country. As an adult, he started visiting and appreciating the region’s fine wines in their nascent stages of development.  Years later, upon becoming a certified Master Gardener, Juvenal began to plant vines in as many people’s backyards as possible to make his own wine.  Today, Juvy and Brian manage enough home vineyards of their own and others to produce some light yet serious rosé, while procuring cool weather grapes to make wines reminiscent of the best Mediterranean wines of Rioja in Spain and the Southern Rhone in France.

Brian Travis

Brian’s path into wine began as the natural outgrowth of his interest in making things, an interest instilled in him by his grandfather who fabricated, built, and repaired just about everything himself. “Why buy something when you can build it yourself? And besides, we can’t afford it anyway.” While pursuing degrees in Anthropology, Brian discovered and then fell in love with wine. Not satisfied with simply studying and drinking it, he endeavored to learn the long history and processes of making wine. The journey led to stints in Hungary and in Bordeaux, working for a spell at Chateau Brandeau near Saint Emilion. He continues to study and learn the traditional and modern practices of wine making and employ them in making fine wines.