Nagy Wines provides you a style of the Santa Maria Valley | Chamber Highlight

What does the wealthy, smoky taste of Santa Maria tri-tip pair nicely with? In all probability something. However a fantastic glass of pink wine could be greatest. And the flavour of the gorgeous wines produced right here is straightforward to get pleasure from at Nagy Wines.

Nagy Wines proprietor and founder Clarissa Nagy spoke with Erin Gabel, of the Santa Maria Valley Chamber, about how she acquired into winemaking and her resolution to begin her enterprise within the Santa Maria Valley, as a part of our ongoing enterprise highlight sequence.

Nagy mentioned she had an epiphany about her future profession throughout harvest at Edna Valley Vineyards whereas attending college at Cal Poly. Standing on a barrel transferring pinot noir, the sensory delight of the sounds of the method, the scent of the barrels and the wine, and being outdoor made her understand “that is what I need to do for the remainder of my life.” 

After working at Firestone Vineyard for 5 years, Nagy took a job at Byron Winery and Vineyard in Santa Maria working beneath Ken Brown, the place she realized all about pinot noir and pinot noir clones whereas falling in love with the realm, and her husband.

“I assumed I might work right here for a few years, however I ended up assembly my husband, falling in love, and we each love the Santa Maria Valley, so we by no means left.”

Whereas love for the valley and the winemaking course of helped Nagy discover her profession, it wasn’t one which she had at all times deliberate for.  “I wasn’t planning on making my very own label, or making my very own wine or doing something aside from working for an additional vineyard,” Nagy mentioned. 

“I had no background in gross sales or advertising, and even working in a tasting room not to mention operating one, so for me that was one of many greatest challenges.”

However whereas shifting at full velocity constructing her enterprise, Nagy realized that she had a very powerful ability in gross sales all alongside. Individuals work with people who they like and belief, she mentioned, and regardless of not having a background in gross sales, she had the individuals abilities wanted to earn individuals’s belief. 

“I like individuals,” Nagy mentioned. “So for me that was the connection. With schooling, I like to share what I do, I like to share what I realized.”

That love of sharing and educating is straightforward to see at Nagy Wines, 2705 Aviation Method in Santa Maria. “I’ve 4 totally different wines on my tasting menu, so we’ve got three that I pour in a burgundian or the balloon-shaped glass after which syrah that’s within the rhone glass.”

“I pour the identical wine into two totally different glasses so you may expertise the totally different attributes: the way it smells, the way it tastes, the way you carry your head with the glass, the place it goes in your mouth and the way all of these issues have an effect on your complete expertise,” Nagy defined.

Nagy was fast to level out that there is not a “proper glass,” however reasonably a glass that you simply like the very best. 

The success of her enterprise has additionally allowed her to offer again to the neighborhood in a large number of how — donating her time, assets and dealing with totally different scholarships. That connection to the neighborhood has solely made her love of the Santa Maria Valley deeper. 

“What I actually love about our space, individuals assist one another,” Nagy mentioned. “Companies assist one another, in all of that, being a part of the neighborhood is with the ability to give again to the neighborhood. That I believe is probably the most rewarding half.”