Rajat Parr has lived his life intertwined with the vine. The knowledge and inspiration gleaned from his legendary career as a top sommelier, award-winning author and celebrated winemaker has led him to the challenge of a lifetime as a wine farmer on the California Coast. Widely recognized as one of the country’s greatest sommeliers, he built his reputation as a wine director with an extraordinary palate, a rare gift for blind tasting, and an obsessive drive to explore new wines, winemakers, and regions. As Wine Director for chef Michael Mina’s restaurants for nearly two decades—and as co-founder of the acclaimed RN74 wine bar in San Francisco—Parr helped reshape the role of the sommelier as a public figure and educator, introducing broader audiences to the ever-evolving world of wine. A three-time James Beard Award winner and a featured voice in the SOMM documentary series, he is also the co-author of two essential books—Secrets of the Sommeliers and The Sommelier’s Atlas of Taste—now regarded as touchstones for wine professionals and passionate amateurs alike. In the second act of his career, Parr turned his attention from the cellar to the vineyard, becoming a driving force behind a new generation of California wine. As a founding partner and winemaker at Evening Land Vineyards, Sandhi, and Domaine de la Côte, he helped define a more restrained, terroir-driven approach to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay—first on the California coast, and later in Oregon. Today, farming is his deepest obsession. With every vintage, he continues his life’s work: pursuing purity, expressing place, respecting soil, and proving that regenerative farming can benefit both the land and the wines it yields. Now, Phelan Farm is his home base in Cambria. Rajat leads an expert team cultivating grape varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Trousseau, Gamay, Poulsard, Mondeuse, Savagnin etc.) suited to thrive in the cool- climate San Luis Obispo Coast AVA. His approach to farming draws from the regenerative principles but maintains flexibility, improving the soil to build resilience in the vines from the roots up. Every step is taken with the understanding that great wines are born in the vineyard. When the grapes have taken up everything they need from the land, the sun, the fog and the wind, their transformation into wine is undertaken with as little intervention as possible. A philosophy of “add nothing and take nothing away” guides the process from harvest to bottle. All the wines are aged in older oak barrels of all sizes and hand bottled without any fining or filtration.