Gary Burk

The Climb

At California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Gary Burk picked up the practical training that would later support a career built on movement between fields. That foundation led first to a job as a royalty accountant at a major record label in Los Angeles, where the work was administrative but still close to the business side of music. The music side was not theoretical. Burk worked as a musician at various L.A. venues including The Palomino, Whisky, and The Roxie in Los Angeles, places where performance, timing, and audience response are part of the job. He then moved from the stage to the cellar with a harvest position at Au Bon Climat Winery (1994–2002), an eight-year period that gave him direct production experience and set up the next step. Since 2002, Gary Burk has been owner and winemaker of Costa de Oro Winery, where those earlier lines of work converged into a single role. The result is a long-running practice in Santa Maria shaped by business, music, and cellar work rather than by any one origin point.

Today

Since 2002, Burk has served as owner and winemaker at Costa de Oro Winery, with a portfolio centered on Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and other varietals that suit the Santa Maria Valley and Santa Barbara County. The work reflects a clear relationship to place: wines made to fit the region, and made by someone whose background spans both creative and technical fields.

In Their Words “They speak to people on an emotional level — no translation necessary.” “Music and wine are both universal languages.”

Recognition

There is no separate awards trail here. The distinction lies in the sequence of the work itself: business training, accounting, live music, cellar work, and then long-term ownership at Costa de Oro Winery in Santa Maria. For Burk, the recognition is in the duration and continuity of that practice, and in how each earlier role fed into the next without breaking the chain.