Established in 1975, the Brander Vineyard is one of the oldest in the Santa Ynez Valley appellation. The vineyard is about 40 acres and is mostly planted to Bordeaux varietals, which relish the warm days and cool nights. The vineyard is a beautiful patchwork of 13 acres of Sauvignon Blanc, 10 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, 6 acres each of Merlot and Chardonnay, 3 acres of Cabernet Franc and 2 acres of Semillon.

The soils in the vineyard are gravelly and consist of a fine sandy loam over clay subsoil. The older part of the vineyard is planted on its own rootstock with the wider spacing that was popular when the vineyard was planted, resulting in about 602 vines per acre. The replanted part of the vineyard includes the new SO4, 3309 and 5BB louse-tolerant rootstocks, and has tighter spacing to stress the vines a bit, and features 2,400 vines per acre. Both cane pruning and cordon pruning methods are employed, depending upon the varietal and age of the vine. The vineyard is managed by John Kryska, and overseen by owner/winemaker Fred Brander.

The vineyard generally yields about 3-4 tons per acre, or about 8,000 cases of wine per year, most of which is Sauvignon Blanc. Total production is about 5,000 cases of Sauvignon Blanc, 2,000 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and 1,000 cases of a proprietary Bordeaux blend, called Bouchet, all from the estate vineyard.