OUR STORY


Making friends is our business.
We are honored to share our wines with our friends.

My father always said "making friends is our business". In 1954, he opened our ancestral home and animal park, Grant’s Farm, to share with the public. It became the legacy of my father, August A. Busch, Jr., to offer our love of hospitality to preserve not just the land, but also our family’s way of life. Today, we follow my father’s example. 

Kim and I fell in love with Santa Barbara in 1998 when I served as Captain for the USA Polo team at the World Cup. We decided to raise our children with the freedom of the California coast, but I also longed to share with them the hard work and joys of ranch life. We found our place in Folded Hills. We joyfully invite you to share with us our wine, food and way of life at Folded Hills.

We believe in legacy.

We’ve brought some of our St. Louis roots and family names to our wines. Our award-winning Lilly Rosé is named for my great-grandmother, Lilly Anheuser, born in 1844, who married Adolphus Busch in 1861. We’ve had six generations of Lillys, right down to our granddaughter Lilly. Our August White and Red blends are named for two strong men, my father, Gussie, and his father, August, Sr. In 1934 my dad gave his father the first hitch of Clydesdales to celebrate the repeal of prohibition. One of our tribute wines we called “21” to celebrate the twenty-first birthday of our youngest child. Click HERE to see our current available wines.

We believe in getting our hands dirty.

Growing up in St. Louis, I helped run Grant’s Farm, caring for hundreds of animals – elephants, elk, bison and Clydesdales, just to name a few. At Folded Hills we have a “farmily” of animals, sheep grazing the vineyards, donkeys, mini horses, a camel named George, a zebra named Zazu, and of course our Budweiser Clydesdales named Gus and Dolph. Kim grew organic vegetables at our home before it was fashionable. Our boys have worked on the ranch and with the animals since they were old enough to hold a shovel and lead a mini horse. Click HERE to learn more about our "farmily".

We believe in family.

Our wine is a tribute to family, past and present. Our vineyards and winery are yet another way to enrich and preserve this property for future generations, both yours and ours. Folded Hills is a place to gather and share, and to carry on our tradition of making friends. In honor of that, each wine we make is inspired by a piece of our family history.

We believe in quality.

That is why everything on our land...our food, crops and vineyards, is farmed organically. We simply wouldn’t do it any other way. Because we are a small, family-owned winery, we never have to cut corners. This is one of the reasons we are so proud of our wines. After walking these hills, studying their soil and our microclimate, grower Ruben and our team planted Grenache, Syrah, and a collection of Rhône whites. Studying the vines, winemaker Michael guides Ruben on the optimum times to pick, and makes our wine in an honest and time honored way. It’s all part of our promise to consciously handcraft small batch artisanal wines using very little intervention. In addition, we follow the biodynamic calendar from the vineyard to the glass. Our grapes grow alongside 18 acres of organic row crops, fruit orchards and a menagerie of animals. We are truly an old-world sustainable farm and working ranch. When you open a bottle of Folded Hills wine, we hope you will taste the history, the legacy and the family that went into each bottle. We know you will truly taste the sun, the fog, and the ocean breezes that waft over these folded hills. 

We are proud of our family and our team who got us here. 

Now we welcome YOU to experience Folded Hills.

Click HERE for more information about our wines.

 

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