21 Aug Sta. Rita Hills Celebrates Wine & Fire and Honors Norm Yost of Flying Goat Cellars as 2025 Vintner of the Year

Every fall, Sta. Rita Hills in the Santa Ynez Valley hosts one of my favorite wine events: Wine & Fire weekend. It’s a time when winemakers pour library wines, share large-format bottles, and celebrate the community that defines this region. And during this annual event, a winemaker is honored. This year, Norm Yost of Flying Goat Cellars was named the 2025 Vintner of the Year.

During the Wine & Fire weekend, a La Paulée-style dinner took place in Norm’s honor. It was an opportunity to drink wines from Flying Goat Cellars and other local wineries, and for fellow winemakers to shared stories highlighting his impact, not just as a winemaker, but as a mentor and friend.

I first met Norm in the early 2000s when I was just starting out in the wine industry. At that time, Flying Goat Cellars was a new brand. I would organize wine events, and Norm would come with a purple tablecloth and would proudly show a photo of his kids (two Pygmy goats). From the first time I met him, Norm has always been one of the kindest men with a calm demeanor and an understated sense of humor.

Before Flying Goat Cellars, Norm was a “beer drinking football player” at UC Davis. He moved to Napa and worked in construction at Silver Oak, opening the door to wine. Over his 45+ vintages, Norm has worked at wineries in Napa Valley, Russian River Valley, Margaret River in Western Australia, and Oregon’s Willamette Valley. And it was in these regions where he learned about sparkling wine and Pinot Noir.

In 1998, he came down to Santa Barbara from the Willamette Valley. Norm recalled. “I smelled the ocean when I got off the plane and knew I wanted to be part of it, the beauty, the adventure, the ruggedness.” He took a winemaking job at Foley and explained that “taking that job was the best leap of faith I ever took.”

Norm said that he had thought about making his own wine, but he was not an entrepreneur. However, in 2000, while working at Foley, four tons of Pinot Noir became available. Norm thought he would try to make it and figured he could at least drink it himself or sell it to family. Then, while at home eating dinner with friends one evening, they watched his two Pygmy goats flip off their goat house. They were “flying goats,” and the brand was born.

Soon after Norm started Flying Goat Cellars, he said he was “ex-foley-ated”. He left Foley and focused all of his energy on Flying Goat Cellars.

In 2025, Flying Goat Cellars celebrated its 25th anniversary. Norm makes lots of single-vineyard bottlings of Pinot Noir from the Sta. Rita Hills (and Santa Maria Valley) but Norm is the “OG” of bubbles in Santa Barbara County. He pioneered the region’s first sparkling wine program with Goat Bubbles Rosé in 2005. His portfolio now includes Crémant, Rosé, Brut Cuvée, Blanc de Blancs, Blanc de Noirs (two expressions), and Pinot Meunier. Each méthode champenoise sparkling wine is vineyard-designated. When he first started, he hand-riddled each bottle but once he hit 1000 bottles, he shifted to a mechanical gyro-palate. Wine Enthusiast named his 2019 Goat Bubbles Ampelos Vineyard the “Best Blanc de Noirs,” and his 2021 Goat Bubbles Pinot Meunier recently won Double Gold and Best of Show at the California State Fair.

At the dinner, Norm’s peers, including Karen Steinwachs (Seagrape Cellars) Peter Work (Ampelos Wines), Kathy Joseph (Fiddlestix), and Bryan Babcock (Babcock Wines), praised his adventurous, fearless, and sometimes maverick spirit.

Karen Steinwachs recalled how Norm changed the course of her career. “I was working in tech and decided to try harvest in 2001,” she said. “I applied for a job at Foley, and Norm hired me for $7.50 an hour, just because I had a college degree. First day, I was shoveling stems off the destemmer and got blisters everywhere. I learned so much.”

Kathy Joseph said it best: “Train your palate, find your style, hone it…make your mark, and be friends.” Bryan Babcock described him as part of an “adventurous, sublime, fearless, crazy” community of winemakers.

Beyond his winemaking, Norm has given back to the broader wine world as a former board director and president of the World of Pinot Noir and the Sta. Rita Hills Wine Alliance, a former board member of Santa Barbara Vintners, and a winemaking instructor at Allan Hancock College. He currently serves on the board of Allan Hancock College’s Viticulture and Oenology Program and is active in both the Lompoc Valley Beekeepers Association and Village Dirt Bags mountain biking club.

Norm’s wife, Kate, was also recognized as the driving force behind his success, supporting him every step of the way.

Wine & Fire weekend celebrated not just Norm’s wines, but his character: a calm, collected, and generous presence whose influence resonates throughout the community. For a man who has spent nearly three decades shaping both the wines and the people of Sta. Rita Hills, this recognition was more than deserved.

Get to know Norm Yost on the Wine Soundtrack USA podcast.