Story of Soil:

Winemaker

If every bottle tells a story, winemaker Jessica Gasca wants her Story of Soil wine to speak of the place the grapes came from. Story of Soil is the small Santa Barbara County label she started with her husband, Brady Fiechter, but there’s more than just one story behind the wine. There’s also the saga of how she followed her intuition to find her path.

Born and raised in Southern California, Gasca was set to pursue her master’s degree with a goal of becoming a therapist, but a short stay in New York City shifted her focus. While there, she worked as a bartender at a French restaurant and became intrigued by the sommelier’s weekly wine tastings. She soon found herself attending every tasting, eager to learn more and more about the world of wine.

When Gasca moved back to California in 2009, she felt drawn to the wine industry and decided to take a leap of faith, leaving behind her original plan of furthering her education. Instead she moved to Santa Maria to work harvest. It was during a stint as a harvest intern, getting up before dawn to pick pinot noir in the long, cold days of getting her hands dirty, that she found her calling.

Gasca followed this newfound passion and took a job with Sanguis, where she trained in all aspects of the wine industry, from sales to winemaking to hospitality. The exposure to various aspects of the wine trade during her more than three years working under Matthias Pippig at Sanguis helped her gain an appreciation for all the details that shape a wine business. “I learned skills not just as a winemaker, that every decision and action is of extreme importance to the outcome of wine, but I also learned how important patience and intention can be,” said Gasca, who went on to work in hospitality at Dragonette Cellars for the next five years. “Working under John, Steve, and Brandon at Dragonette taught me how vital the quality of fruit and vineyard source are,” she said. “These guys were some of my greatest influencers.”

In 2012, while still at Sanguis, Gasca was inspired to try her hand at winemaking on the side and produced her first vintage. Starting with just a few cases of Pinot Noir and Syrah from fruit she sourced from the Santa Maria and Ballard Canyon AVAs, today Gasca produces around 1,500 cases for her personal label, which is her sole focus now. Using grapes from highly regarded vineyards throughout Santa Barbara County, she centers Story of Soil’s wine program around single-vineyard and single-varietal bottlings, including Pinot Noir, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache, and more recently, Gamay and Grüner Veltliner. Her goal is to craft wines that highlight a specific site while showcasing the different nuances of a particular varietal.

Asked what her winemaking philosophy is, Gasca said she tends to produce wines that are more delicate in style without heavy extraction or the use of new oak, but added that winemaking in general is more intuitive than technical to her. “Every vintage is different, every variety is different,” she said. “So when it comes to crafting wine, it’s about following my intuition and a feeling.”

Following her gut also led Gasca and Fiechter to open a Story of Soil tasting room in downtown Los Olivos, where visitors can taste her lineup of wines and learn about the region she’s become so passionate about. “The love I have for the Santa Barbara region really is my driving force,” said Gasca, who recently joined the board of the Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation, the charitable umbrella of the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association. “I hope to share the passion and knowledge I have regarding this wine country with each visitor that comes into my tasting room,” she said. Because to her, Santa Barbara County isn’t just a place, it’s the place where she found her own story in wine.