When Hilary Graves graduated from Moanalua High School, she had no idea what she wanted to do. While studying business at Fresno State, she worked in a library, liked it, so went to graduate school at Texas Women's University to get a degree in library science. In 1996, that led her to a job back at Fresno State — in its Viticulture Enology Research Center.

"I started taking classes because I needed to learn more about wine to help clients coming into the library, and I loved it," Graves said. She found her special purpose.

Just a decade later (and with a master's in viticulture from California Polytechnic) Graves is one of California's rising winemaking stars, with hits such as Monkey Wrench, a grenache blanc, and Rock Candy, a blend of syrah, grenache and mourvedre, made from the grapes she and her husband, Simon, grow at their Ohana Vineyard in Creston, Calif.

"There's a current trend for students to declare their major before they're accepted," said Graves by phone from her vineyard, "and I'm a great example of why that's not a good idea."

She is one of a gang of respected winemakers, established and emerging, who will be at the Hawaii Lupus Foundation's annual fundraiser at Hiroshi Eurasion Tapas and Vino on Friday.

With the chefs of D.K. Kodama restaurants — Hiroshi Fukui, Vino's Keith Endo, Jonathan Haag from Sansei Waikiki, and Jason Miyasaki of d.k. Steak House — cooking, and a brace of wine experts that Vino partner Chuck Furuya works with, the fundraiser, dubbed Furuya's Favorites this year, is an intimate event that draws a who's who of Island food-biz people.

Inside tip: Miyasaki will unveil his latest creation, brined and smoked pork chops.

Furuya organizes the event in memory of a friend who died of lupus. He first met the Graves at last year's Kapalua Wine & Food Festival, and has since visited their Ohana Vineyard.

"It's quite a drive southeast of Highway 101, which up until that visit I had thought was the 'wrong side' (for grapes)," said Furuya. "It is an 8-acre, rocky whitish soiled, rolling-hill vineyard. It is also cooled by the winds, gusting in through the Templeton Gap."

That's the kind of detailed vineyard talk that will flow, along with wine, at Furuya's Favorites.

Furuya calls Monkey Wrench "a pure, seamless, pretty, bright and fresh grenache."

A shipment on Maui sold out in one day. "It's very popular in Hawai'i," says Graves. "I think it's because it's a dry, very crisp minerally type of white wine, but it also has a lot of grapefruit and honeysuckle. It goes well with Asian flavors; I think that's why it's taken off in Hawai'i."

Graves' 2006 Monkey Wrench is sold out, but fundraiser attendees will get to sample a secret stash Furuya kept for the event.

Another Graves wine you can taste is the Trim Stinger, which takes its name from the surfing term. Graves was reading a friend's article in The Surfer's Journal (it's the favorite magazine of her husband, a South African and former professional windsurfer who was Hawai'i State Champion in 1992). One passage reads: "Trim happens when board, body and wave are in perfect symphony."

"I love that concept of trim," says Graves. "And I thought that can apply to more than sailing or surfing — when things go well in the vineyard and the winery, you can make a trim wine too. I wanted to use the word, but every time I came up with a name it sounded like a diet thing."

Then one day while they were processing grenache, "there were bees flying all over and my dad got stung a couple times," explains Graves. And the Trim Stinger was born.

The Graves visit Hawai'i often with their two daughters, but coming to take part in a grassroots fundraiser is particularly appealing to Hilary.

"It is so exciting to come back to Hawai'i with my wine. I've always felt such an attachment to Hawai'i," she said. "For me to come back with my wines and do these kinds of events is exciting and fun."

And if the Monkey Wrench sounds intriguing, fans will be pleased to know she'll be bottling the 2007 batch in April — this time upping production from 125 cases to 250.

"Winemaking is not the hard part," says Graves, "it's the grape- growing that's the challenge. Mother Nature does it. I don't inoculate any of my wines. I'm just a caretaker of the grapes, making sure nothing goes wrong. You put in a lot of effort growing the grapes, you grow a high quality product. It's like being a chef — you look for the freshest, best local ingredients you can get, and in grapes its the same."

Can next year's Monkey Wrench beat this year's popular result?

"The Monkey Wrench got its name because it's very difficult to make. The whole process from beginning to end was a pain. But it was fantastic, and I knew I needed to make it again. And I wanted to."

And so far, she says, "there's a few more layers of flavor that I don't think was there last year. It's hard to say, it's still fermenting, but I think it's going to be as good as or better than last year. ... All of my wines are representative of the place they were grown."

It must have been a good year at Ohana Vineyard.

Reach Lesa Griffith at lgriffith@honoluluadvertiser.com.