Montemar Wines

Montemar is a small family-owned winery and our 2nd generation winemaker continues the tradition of making artisanal hand-crafted wines. We know that great wine is made in the vineyard, so a significant amount of energy is focused there. Montemar sources all its fruit from premium vineyards in Sta. Rita Hills and other Santa Barbara county AVAs. We work very closely with the vineyard management teams and have had some of these same vineyard blocks since the 1990’s. Our winemaking process is very meticulous and nearly identical within varietal, so the distinctiveness of each wine is attributable to the vineyard source and vintage. Both the tasting room and winery are located in Lompoc's Wine Ghetto. Montemar currently produces upwards of 1,200 cases/year, averaging less than 100 cases per lot with several small-lot bottlings available exclusively to wine club members.

Background:
​Steve and Caryn Arrowood started making wine in their garage in 1991, sourcing fruit from Santa Barbara County to Napa and making upwards of 14 barrels a year.  As Garagistes, the activity was a friends and family experience.  After Steve retired from a career in aerospace, his continued passion for winemaking led to creating a bonded winery in 2009.  In 2013 production was sufficient in volume to open a tasting room and Montemar built the winery in time to harvest the 2015 fruit.  In 2020, Steve passed away after a long battle with cancer and son, Kyle took over as winemaker. Kyle had helped make wine his entire life, but in 2018 came to work full-time with his dad.