About the winery
Thomas Fogarty Winery sits about 2,000 feet up on Skyline Boulevard, above Silicon Valley, on the Santa Cruz Mountains estate of Dr. Thomas Fogarty, the heart surgeon who invented the balloon embolectomy catheter1,2. He and winemaker Michael Martella founded the winery in 1981, by the winery's account; its team page dates the first vineyard planting to 19782,3. Almost thirty acres of the estate of about 350 acres are under vine, farmed organically with little or no irrigation2.
Nathan Kandler, who started at the winery in 2004, became winemaker in 2013 and general manager in 2025, and the second generation of the Fogarty family owns it3. Dr. Fogarty died on December 28, 2025, aged 914.
Known for
- Pinot Noir
- Chardonnay
- Nebbiolo
- Gist Ranch Cabernet Franc and Merlot
Nearby in Santa Cruz Mountains
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