Tercero Wines

Small lots under one hand

The fruit arrives as a decision before it becomes a wine. Larry Schaffer, winemaker at Tercero Wines in Los Olivos, works from that point of contact, carrying Santa Barbara County vineyards into small-lot, hand-crafted bottlings rather than treating the cellar as a place for polish after the fact. His earlier cellar work as an enologist at Fess Parker Winery in the Santa Ynez Valley gave him the practical rhythm of production: the routines around fruit, timing, analysis, and the quiet discipline that starts long before a label exists. At Tercero, where he has been owner and winemaker since 2007, that technical foundation sits beside a more personal scale. The house is built around Rhône-minded work, with Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Roussanne, and Viognier among the core materials, joined by Cabernet Franc, Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Noir, and Cinsault. Schaffer also teaches Wine Production through UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education, a role he has held since 2022, and the overlap matters: the maker at the bench is also someone who can name the method clearly enough to teach it.

Santa Barbara County as source material

Tercero’s program begins with vineyards throughout Santa Barbara County, not with a fixed house style imposed over them. The wines are framed by site, by variety, and by Schaffer’s preference for measured execution, especially in the varieties that reward attention without needing volume. Trilogia Blend and Curiosity carry that intent in their names: one suggests assembly and proportion, the other permission to keep asking what a parcel or grape can do in the glass. The tasting room pour may move from still white to rosé to still red, but the center stays with texture, acidity, and the shape of the fruit. Schaffer has spoken directly about Santa Barbara County as a place less occupied with ceremony than with product, and that thought suits the wines. It also suits the method. Small lots leave little room for disguise. A Grenache has to hold its line; a Roussanne has to carry its weight without losing tension; a Syrah has to speak in structure as much as fruit.

A tasting room kept conversational

The room in downtown Los Olivos keeps the work close to the counter. It is casual, lively, and more bench-side than formal salon, with seated tastings shaped by conversation rather than performance. The air-conditioned space has a comfortable, home-like feel, and the staff’s manner keeps the focus on what is in the glass: the vineyard source, the variety, the reason one bottling leans into restraint while another opens into breadth. In a village built for tasting room traffic, Tercero’s scale feels intimate because the maker’s hand is still legible. The glass does not need a long introduction. It needs time, a question, and enough quiet to follow the line from Santa Barbara County fruit to Trilogia Blend.