Our Story
Built from the life we were already living.
Luff House brings together wine, olive oil, photography, and everyday rituals shaped by California’s Central Coast. Created by Derek Luff and Natalie Yacono, it grew naturally from their shared interests, local relationships, and the things they most enjoy making and sharing.
It started with a conversation - and a vineyard
Derek and Natalie met while traveling for work in Los Angeles. Their first conversations wandered through creativity, storytelling, and the future before arriving at a shared love of wine.
Their first date was in a vineyard, with Derek’s camera, a bottle of wine, and plenty to talk about. He later used a photograph from that afternoon to create a label for a bottle he called First Date. Natalie had long dreamed of owning a winery; together, they began imagining how that dream might take shape.
Different strengths. One shared direction.
Derek Luff
FounderRaised in rural New Hampshire, Derek began performing and recording music as a teenager before building a decades-long career in Hollywood’s sound, music, and media industries. He founded Wild Woods, a Los Angeles audio post-production company whose work included the early seasons of Survivor, where Derek served as sound supervisor. His sound-editing work earned him a Primetime Emmy Award and two additional Emmy nominations.
He later founded DL Music, a music publishing and licensing company, extending a career that had always moved between music, sound, and creative production. Photography ran alongside that work and became another important part of his creative life.
After making a home on California’s Central Coast, Derek found echoes of the rural landscapes and values of his New Hampshire upbringing. His photography drew him deeper into the region’s vineyards, ranches, agriculture, and communities, and relationships with local growers and makers eventually led him into winemaking and olive growing.
Co-FounderNatalie Yacono
Originally from Australia, Natalie began her career in film and television, working in production on feature films including World Trade Center and with director Lee Daniels. She later moved into advertising and commercial photography before transitioning into innovation and foresight.
At SciFutures, she became a partner and worked across operations, creative, and technology scouting for global clients including Ford, Coca-Cola, and AB InBev. For AB InBev, she developed future-of-alcohol presentations and helped lead workshops exploring how culture, technology, and changing consumer behavior might reshape the category.
Natalie completed WSET Levels 1 and 2 and is continuing her wine education through the UC Davis Winemaker Certificate Program. Today, she brings those different strands of experience—creative production, strategy, foresight, storytelling, and wine—together at Luff House.
Preserve What Matters
Derek has spent much of his creative life preserving people, places, and traditions. Natalie has spent much of her career looking ahead. Luff House lives where those perspectives meet.
Moving forward does not mean leaving everything behind. Craftsmanship, relationships, connection to place, and stories are worth carrying with us, not by keeping them unchanged, but by making them meaningful to the life we are living now and the one we are building next.
Live well. Gather often. Preserve what matters.