WINEMAKER
KIRBY ANDERSON
Kirby Anderson was born in Iowa City, Iowa, thought in the following year his family left the Midwest for the Gold Coast of Northern California. They settled in the then-rural farm town of Gilroy, which was reminiscent of the Iowa farmland where Kirby’s father’s family had grown corn and soybeans for many years.
While Kirby had farming in his blood, his mother (a nurse) stressed the importance of academics and encouraged him to be a scientist. Kirby transferred to UC Davis as a zoology major, but once he reached upper-level classes, he decided the field wasn’t for him and sought a new major. He started exploring other courses, including Introduction to Viticulture and Enology, and, two weeks into the course, he was hooked. After graduation from UC Davis, with a degree in Viticulture, Kirby returned to Gilroy where he made wine at a winery in Hollister. But soon another passion called – the theatre – and he took an eight year hiatus from the wine world to explore careers in acting and film production in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In 1992, wine beckoned Kirby back, so he called some old friends from UC Davis looking for work. His effort panned out, and was hired as assistant winemaker for harvest at Buena Vista in Lake County, focusing on Sauvignon Blanc. In 1993, he became assistant winemaker at Bernardus in Monterey County, working under French-trained winemaker Don Blackburn for four years, first as assistant winemaker and then as associate winemaker. Kirby left Bernardus in 1996 to follow a new dream of making world-class Pinot Noir in the Russian River Valley. He was hired by La Crema and in 1996 helped make the winery’s first vintage at its new facility under the tutelage of then-winemaker Dan Goldfield.
In the Spring of 1997, Kirby received a fateful phone call from a recruiter encouraging him to consider a position at Gainey Vineyard in Santa Ynez. Though not particularly interested in moving or changing jobs, he decided to meet with the Gaineys.
Intrigued by the potential of the Santa Ynez Valley, which had great promise for Bordeaux and Rhone varietals, Kirby joined the Gainey Vineyard as winemaker in July 1997, four years before the Santa Rita Hills AVA was established. In 2003, Kirby led the design and construction of Gainey’s new gravity-flow winery. He was also actively involved in new plantings of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah at Gainey’s Evan’s Ranch in the Santa Rita Hills. Kirby also worked closely on a new Cabernet Sauvignon project in 2007 at Gainey’s Home Ranch in Santa Ynez Valley, managing the clonal selection, root stock selection and plant density.
In April of 2008, Kirby resigned his position as winemaker at Gainey Vineyard and formed his own wine consulting business, retaining Gainey as his first client. In June of 2009, Kirby was hired by Neil and Francine Afromsky to lead the winemaking at Westerly Vineyards.
Kirby currently sits on the curriculum advisory committee for the viticulture and enology program at Hancock College in Santa Maria, serves as a wine competition judge at the Orange County Fair, and is a member of the American Society of Enology and Viticulture. Kirby lives in San Luis Obispo with his wife, Stacey, and their ten-year-old twins.
