The Roots
We come from both ends of Italy, north and south, two traditions that don't fully agree on anything except the things that matter most. Meals belong alfresco, that stories are how you pass something forward, that the table is not a backdrop for living but the thing itself. North brought structure, the discipline of doing things properly, the patience of a long winter, the belief that restraint is its own form of abundance. South brought warmth, the instinct to feed people before you even know their name, the orchard meals that stretched long past dark, the kind of generosity that doesn't keep track. Somewhere between those two ends of the compass, our family became its own thing. A medley. A blend. Neither one alone.
Then came east and west, chosen rather than inherited. The Templeton Gap draws its wind from the Pacific, pushing through the pass and shaping the valley on the west side, where some of California's most celebrated wines are made. The mentorship, the craft, the relationships that shaped Sage as a winemaker, they came from that tradition. The west side gave us the education. The land, Hawks' Perch, sits on the east side, with its own kind of power: quieter, more wild, less announced. This is where the roots go. Where the vines will go. Where the hawks return, season after season, as they've done for generations.
The Land
On forty acres in Templeton, two red-tailed hawks return every season without announcement. They belong here. This is Hawks' Perch, the original homestead on Almond Drive, where the Templeton Gap breathes its wind through the valley and shapes everything it touches. Ancient chert, a heritage almond grove, and three-hundred-year-old oaks, where the hawks perch alongside a deodar cedar that has watched every season pass.
Straw bale houses hold warmth the way old things do, because they've been here long enough to know how.
The family is planting the estate's own vineyard blocks now, with fruit expected online in roughly three years.
A Question, a Quest
Qu'est was born from this place and this lineage. A name that carries a question, a quest, the Italian word for oak, and a French provocation, all at once. Because the best things resist easy answers. They ask you to stay. To look again. To pour another glass. Qu'est is where that lineage and that training meet. Wines made in Templeton, California, by someone who learned the table before he learned the trade.
The People
Sage WINEMAKER & CO-FOUNDER
Getting his start as an intern at Saxum, and now cellar master at Turtle Rock Vineyards, mentored by local legend Don Burns, Sage carries a lineage that runs deep through the Central Coast wine community. He learned craft the old way. Through proximity, trust, and repetition, through deep listening, watching people who care deeply do the work. He is continuing a tradition, quietly and unmistakably making it his own. The wines he makes taste like this place, this family, this moment. It's simply what happens when someone grows up rooted.
Gabby BRAND & VISUAL IDENTITY
Gabby is Sage's fiancée and the artist behind Qu'est's visual identity, first catching his eye at eleven years old. She is the person who sets the table like it matters, who notices the quality of light before anyone else does, whose presence makes ordinary evenings feel like occasions.
Music, sound, and stories traveling are as much her language as paint and canvas. She is also the namesake of the Gabby Rosé, one of the estate's first two releases. Her presence and eye shape both the wine and the brand.
The Family THE ROOTS
de•fi•ni•tion: the roots from which the winemaker grows. We could not tell Qu'est's story without the families behind it.
Parents, sisters, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. The generations here make this truly a family affair.
"To our children we give two things: one is roots, the other is wings”