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Legend of the Family and the Farm “A family that embraced the vision and made it manifest!”

The renowned wine leader – Archie McLaren -- and Central Coast Wine Classic organizers eulogized Gary Conway and family in the 2017 Central Coast Wine Classic Event most notably in five pages of the 2017 Catalog. The organizers championed the Conway family as Central Coast pioneers who over the decades and generations of vine growing and wine making were fervent in their family commitments and passions. Examples from the Catalog:

“This family-farm, administrated for over 20 years by Kathleen Conway, did not veer off into an impersonal corporate enterprise.” “The farmer proprietors/vintners bring deep passions and hands-in-the-earth commitment to the farm. They champion Natural Wine which derives from the world’s supreme soils and Premium Growing Area.” “Challenging the status quo, the family has taken us back to the future, revealing the essential nature of superlative vine growing and wine making not dependent on artificial additives enhanced with chemical formulations.” “Handcrafted wine creation as it was always meant to be. One of the most comprehensively fascinating people in the wine industry.” “The art works and wine are unique and extraordinary, just as the family that embraced the vision and made it manifest!”

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We were all farmers once; this country was founded by farmers. If you’re a part of the roughly 99 percent of the North American population that doesn’t work on a farm, there is still the inborn desire to support and respect our farmers (our true farmers). Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Sheryl Crow and famed performers sing the songs for the farmers: “With your help, family farmers can fight... to stay on their land, to grow good food for all of us, to raise a new generation of farmers to take care of our soil and water.” The compelling story of Gary Conway and his family not only appeals to the outstanding wine aficionados and luminaries attending the Central Coast Wine Classic but the narrative is also captivating to the international public at large. The Wine Classic lavished their praise on Gary Conway and, of course Marian, but equally exuberant has been the veneration for their children who have brought individual creativity, values, and ideals into the equation over the years. Examples from the Catalog regarding Gary Conway:

“One of the most comprehensively fascinating people in the wine industry is Actor, Artist, Vintner Gary Conway, whose vision of the unique and special vineyard property of Carmody McKnight not only has not wavered, has expanded and enriched our knowledge of the specific terroir.” “We rousingly cheer internationally recognized Renaissance Man, Gary Conway, for his continuing gracious and generous offerings of his remarkable art and his superb wine!” “Once you meet Gary and hear him effuse on his vision, you will get the picture very comprehensively, and it is a fascinating one. “Gary Conway is truly a Renaissance Man in every sense of the word. He has graciously and generously brought his creative energy to the Wine Classic for many years. His fine wine and his breathtaking art. Special Labels and limited edition fine art and classic wine.”

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Marian McKnight Conway:

Marian was a high school valedictorian, magna cum laude, and straight-A student throughout her schooling career, which included receiving an unprecedented four full scholarships for academic achievements and outstanding leadership qualities. Marian took advantage of her Miss America scholarship and attended UCLA where she met Gary. Marian was selected as one of the top 11 Miss Americas of all time; and in Life Magazine -- Miss America’s 90th Anniversary Celebration chose the 12 Hottest Miss Americas which featured Marian.

Marian’s work with non-profits and local and national charities has been unflagging. She is a gifted communicator, and it is difficult to find any woman in the wine industry with a more extensive and richer background, especially meaningful to women who are the major wine buyers. They love and respect Marian’s message in which they can believe and take to heart.

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It all began more than forty years ago, Marian and Gary Conway purchased a 19th Century homesteaded ranch west of Paso Robles, California, and six miles from the seacoast art colony of Cambria in stunning Big Sur country. The real estate broker was on the way with Gary to show him this land of destiny, when his helicopter hit high-tension wires and had to crash land. Terrifying seconds split into infinity. Gary’s eyes, still fixed upon the valley floor and the ranch below in this cataclysmic moment, vowed that if he survived he would buy this valley ranch.

Somehow… Gary and the pilot pulled through… miraculously.

As Gary staggered from the helicopter crash site, he dusted himself off and promptly announced to the still stunned real estate broker, "We made it. I’ll buy this place."

This auspicious event launched a family sojourn, an enchanting country adventure even to this day. Indeed, in the ensuing years this bountiful acreage, now known to lie prominently in the rarest premium wine growing area of the United States if not the world, evolved into a legendary domain.

This family adventure is so extensive and rich in content it is difficult to put in words, and when Gary attempted to just that with the first part of this adventure… it became a best seller -- Art of the Vineyard. Gary and Marian’s unusual talents and careers have encompassed many creative pursuits and experiences, but the intrinsic values of farm living were at the very core of their lives.

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Marian and Gary’s daughter, Kathleen, devoted most of her life to the farm and vineyard and became a talented and conscionable farmer and an unusually creative vintner in her own right. With her instinct of broad market appeal, her own K Estate Wines pioneered sparkling wine on the Central Coast but also other wines that attained instant popularity.

Carmody McKnight’s companion wine, Motif, evolved from the world-renowned university studies on the vineyard as a wine linked to the unique multiplicity of soils and nutrient-natural flavors. Art of the Vineyard, as its name suggests, approached winemaking as an art form.

The family was also the first to plant the Tuscan olive tree on the Central Coast and premiered the first estate Tuscan olive oil, which won the gold in the Los Angeles International Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Competition, the world’s largest olive oil judging!

With Kathleen directing much of the long-evolving family “business,” the Conway’s son, Gareth, developed into a vintner in his own right in the midst of a stellar career as an executive producer for Voice of America. Gareth introduced the idea of including another generation into the family saga – the story of Gary’s Sicilian grandfather – Angelo. Gary’s first memory at four years old in Boston was bringing up the family wine, lovingly made by Angelo, from the cellar for all the family to enjoy and on which they depended for their health. Gareth employed an old photograph of Angelo for his label. Three generations of wine passions demonstrate in full life-force the essential values of the family farm, planting in nutrient lush soils, and creating wine classically and responsibly for our well-being.

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The family understands this is a message that must be shared now because of its huge symbolic significance, underscored by troubling scientific revelations on a world-scale of how the takeover by industrial farming is introducing life-disruptive repercussions. On this farmland ensconced in the Santa Lucia Mountains, nature assembled a masterpiece when a trio of volcanoes emerged from the mantle of the earth in fire and fury. A cataclysmic event with cosmic consequences lasting to this day and bringing forth great gifts as well as socially demanding insight.

The adventure of the family and farm will be admired by all and certainly will the principles that the family stands for such as pure and natural wine making without chemicalization of the wine or the vineyard. This is urgent information that everyone must come to terms with and share with their own families and communities.

These issues resonate as never before and will underscore this family’s life purpose and conscionable pursuit of farm-crafted wine and food. This is the story of our time for it illustrates in blazing color our essential humanity.