Four Weddings and a Wine Donation


Wine enthusiast and Orcutt chiropractor since 1991, Fred Carbone, is donating enough of his homegrown Pinot Noir to help supply four local weddings.
Carbone grew up “Italian, drinking wine with meals,” and has made his side yard in Orcutt into a mini vineyard where he has been growing wine grapes for 20 years.
His wine hobby has grown, and he belongs to local clubs like the Central Coast Home Vintners’ Association. Some of the grapes he grows in his own yard and other grapes he buys through the group co-op or gets from other local growers. He then uses his know-how to develop his finished wine and blends.
Carbone estimates he produces 200 gallons of wine a year and has won many awards including a Santa Barbara County Best in Show in 2022 for a Syrah Rosé he grew himself.
Because the vineyard didn’t get enough sun in 2023, his Pinot Noir, although drinkable as a table wine, was not up to his standards, so he offered to donate it to Orcutt couples getting married in 2025, first-come, first-served.
The lucky four couples who accepted his offer only needed to bring their own bottles and corks. On January 30, Carbone created a pedal to the metal wine bottling party in his garage with wine tastings, snacks, talk of wine making and many laughs.
Isabella Relyea, 32, who grew up in Orcutt, along with her dad, David Relyea, learned to use the bottle washing machine and how to bottle and cork the wine. Isabella will be marrying Michael Cleary, 37, at a July 26 wedding in Arroyo Grande. Isabella and Michael met on the dating app Bumble, and she knew he was “the one” after three dates. She loves that the family will be saving money because, “the average table wine is about $10. And mom, (Mia Relyea, an Orcutt graphic designer and Orcutt cow creator) made us a unique label. Bottling it ourselves makes for a good story.” Her dad, David Relyea, says, “It's not necessarily about saving the $1000 but the origin of it and getting it from the community and Fred coming up with this great idea, a story we will be able to tell.”
Andy Ostapuik, Orcutt resident since he was five, will be marrying Victoria Hernandez, his coworker at Vandenberg. "It's amazing,” he says, in the process of filling and corking his bottles; I greatly appreciate it.”
His mother, Beth Ostapuik, knows Carbone through the OASIS Senior Center. She is an art teacher at Hancock College and Ostapuik is proud that she will be creating his wine labels for his June 21 wedding in the Orcutt Hills.
Also at the bottling party were parents Bobby Parkinson and Justin Klegg of Orcutt, filling bottles for their son Dorian Sportsman. Sportsman will be marrying Sarah Garretson at a garden wedding in the Templeton area. Parkinson met Carbone while endeavoring in her new two-year hobby of winemaking, which she describes with much enthusiasm. She and Klegg will be creating their own labels and serving their own Sauvignon Blanc as well as Carbone's Pinot for the May wedding. "Fred makes excellent wine and also there's something about homemade wines and weddings, the tradition, homemade, how traditional can you get?
Carbone had fun at his wine donation event. “It felt great to get the wine to somewhere where it will be appreciated.” He is also glad that that barrel is now empty because he now has room for more wine coming in 2025.
Katy Jacobson reporting