Grape Escape: Sipping with Sheep at Roberts Ranch Vineyards

October 31, 2025 – This sweet and beautifully set place just outside Ben Lomond, has turned into quite the farm since my last visit. 

As I drove up the steep driveway to the 4-acre vineyard property, I spied the chicken coop and two energetic black hens who were busying themselves beneath the vine rows, which stood shrouded in white netting like elongated ghosts. 

Sarah and Joshua Stewman clearly love their passion project vineyard and winery on Roberts Ranch Road, just off Love Creek in Ben Lomond. Views of the Big Basin watershed to the north, a peak towards Loma Prieta to the southeast, a clear view of Byington to the east and a dominating perspective to the south prove there is nothing like the Santa Cruz Mountains to create dramatic scenery.

The Wild Wine Women were treated to a fabulous wine paired lunch prepared by Sarah and her team of caterers, who put forth a most inviting autumnal repast of butternut squash soup, a divine pear, apple, fig and red endive salad with St. Agur blue cheese and spiced pecans, and baked stuffed summer ripe tomatoes with Zio sausage, cheese and bread crumbs. This lunch was served with Otto’s bread and a compound lavender and Meyer lemon zest butter: they sell the latter along with eggs from their chickens, at the winery. 

Sarah shared that they met Otto Kramm when he was just baking from home and they would get loaves dropped off at their door during Covid. The couple has a home in Pacific Grove where Joshua runs an architecture firm. She says Kramm is a Spreckels local, and his parents still live in town there. Kramm now has a brick-and-mortar bakery located in Salinas.

Vigneron Joshua Stewman poured the wines to accompany the feast, beginning with a most agreeable 2023 Sauvignon Blanc from the Hawk Ridge Vineyard in Carmel Valley, which paired nicely with the sweet butternut squash soup, topped with crème fraiche and bacon. We then sampled two Chardonnays, the first being a 2024 from Gali Vineyard, barrel-fermented and then aged in stainless steel for 9 months. It offered a sweet hit of orchard fruit, which made it a cozily compatible partner to the gorgeous salad of match-sticked orchard fruit, including apple and red pear, topped with sliced figs and a dressing of rice wine vinegar, olive oil and a bit of Dijon. The spiced pecans were the bomb. We hope to have the salad recipe for you next week, because this could make a dynamite main for Thanksgiving with a side of barley or couscous, or roasted honeynut squash. 

This course was also paired with a barrel-fermented 2021 Chardonnay from a vineyard in Woodside, aged in 30% new French oak for 23 months, which presented a creamy butterscotch-wrapped palate that picked up the pecans and the sweetness of the figs. 

With the Tomatoes Farci, Stewman poured a 2021 Roberts Ranch Estate Pinot Noir, which exhibited earthiness, dark blackberry, and ripe plum. He also opened the 2018 Estate Pinot Noir, showing more concentration and a bit more oak. Four vineyard blocks, started between 2008 and 2014, are planted to Pinot clones 667, 777, 828 and Wadensvil, while the latest block, planted in 2019, contains heritage clones including Calera and Mount Eden. 

Baby Doll Sheep

As exciting as clones of Pinot Noir might be, Baby Doll sheep, prized for their shortness of stature so they can’t reach the vine canopy of most vineyards, are not just endearing, they are beyond adorable. It didn’t take much to get them to come over to me so I could scratch their wooly muzzles and pick foxtails and burrs out of their sweet faces and ruffs. 

Each one had a distinctive countenance, and you could see how quickly these little cuties could chomp their way into your heart. I was particularly fond of the little wooly ewe whose malt-colored muzzle contrasted with her oatmeal coat.    

Sarah told me that they were inspired to get sheep after attending a “Grazing in the Vineyard” seminar on Paicines Ranch this summer where they met Kelly Mulville and Garret McKee, who have been running sheep in the vineyard there for several years now. They acquired their beautiful Baby Dolls from Morgan Hill, including two Moms, Helen and Polly, and 3 lambs, Peter, Susan and Lucy—all named after The Chronicles of Narnia. 

“We mainly have them among the vines post-harvest, up through bud break in the spring,” Sarah shared. “But even part season, they are a blessing in our pursuit of regenerative agriculture!”

She says they added a little ram, Caspian, from a small flock that happened to be nearby at Partage on Ben Lomond Mountain, to introduce new blood and good stock. “The little ram is small and compact, just what we will be looking for in his offspring,” says Sarah. “We hope to breed them for our use and eventually in coming years offer for sale, too. They are friendly, mild mannered, great little mowers, and we love them in the Vineyard and on the property, and suspect that there may be more local vineyards and farms that would want to add them in coming years.” 

The Stewman’s had a great time building their “sheep shed” barn with their five boys this summer, using milled redwood from the property for the structure and siding. She says that Dave Grant, the local San Lorenzo Valley (SLV) high woodshop teacher, helped then with milling trees that were lost in past storms or thinned for fire prevention. 

Talk about a win-win for wine and animal husbandry, two things those boys are already becoming quite familiar with, as they become active participants in the multi-generational farming operation. 

With their keen love of food and hospitality, the Stewman’s have established Roberts Ranch Vineyard as the place for monthly food events, as well as a music venue. They have several events upcoming: check out their website and join their mailing list to keep in the know. robertsranchvineyards.com