Cults, Sci-Fi, & WINE

This week for our featured wines we were inspired by the free "Out of This World" summer film series. Every Friday, UCSB Arts & Lectures is playing a different sci-fi horror film at the county courthouse sunken garden. Cozy up with friends and some wine to watch one of the iconic thrillers on this summer’s line-up.

Also in this issue you’ll meet Geena and Aaron, co-founders and owners of Wine Cult. They have cultivated a wine club that brings the community together in both physical and digital spaces.

Wine Cult: The Cult You’ll Be Glad You Joined

Think running a wine business as an entrepreneur is all sips and saunters? Think again. Wine Cult is a unique wine club offering boutique, sustainably made wines from around the world.

With a mutual love for spreading the wealth of wine knowledge and representing unique local wine producers, we sat down with Geena and Aaron to talk through how to start a wine club, what trends they’re seeing, and how they ended up crafting their own wine.

Q: Can you introduce us to each of you and to how your wine club, Wine Cult, began?

Aaron: The genesis of my wine story is being, I guess what people call, a “wine industry boyfriend.” I was looking for any opportunity to spend more time with Geena and do things that she liked so that she would like me better. But that has now blossomed into something that is fairly successful and very fun for the two of us to work on together.

Geena: I started working in wine when I was 15. So I've been working with wine for more than half of my life. My parents always tease me and they say, “You'll work anywhere where they're serving food or wine.” That was true then. And it's definitely so true now. After getting my degree from USCB I started managing wine tasting rooms, which was about the time Aaron and I started dating. While he was getting his MBA he pushed us to start a company.

Aaron: We laugh now because at the time we looked at the math and thought, “Oh my god, we’re going to be millionaires. It’s automatic. All you have to do is press play.” Obviously that’s not exactly how it’s worked out, but it’s really allowed us to grow with each other and learn a lot and meet some really wonderful people.

Q: Why start a wine club?

A: We were not intending to start a wine club originally. It actually started out as an import export business. We originally wanted to export local boutique wines to other international markets, like China, that may not have access. However, we had to pivot very quickly because of trade restrictions. Because of the experience Geena had running wine clubs for tasting rooms, it made sense to move towards something that was a core competency for us and so we created the wine club.

We were also enamored with the idea of how scalable a virtual wine club could be. There’s been some great examples of companies who have achieved large scale success, like Naked Wines, which were our inspiration for what growth could potentially look like.

But the wine club has never been the end goal as much as it’s been a vehicle for creating what is hopefully going to be a vertically integrated wine operation, where we’re producing and selling to consumers and doing export distribution.

Q: How do you select which wines you carry and feature in the club?

A: We work about 50% direct with winemakers and the other 50% with local companies. Our core focus is on sustainably made wines. We’re able to meet really fantastic local people, winemakers, or restaurant owners, who are always helping us find someone who’s looking to sell their wine, or share their wine with an environmentally focused company like ours.

When we started to grow larger, we had to grow out of exclusively California based wine. So we expanded to include wine from across the globe. And that is where we started working with distributors as well.

Our original idea was, first of all, we wanted to work with people who were operating in alignment with our beliefs. So people who are operating sustainably and are growing, if not organic, at least with a respect for the land that they're cultivating. We’re also supporting female business owners, because it's still true that wine is fairly male dominated. We had this mission to try to expand the American palate.

A lot of consumer behavior today, when it comes to wine, is still dominated by folks walking into a grocery store, looking around and being like, “Oh, that label looks good.” Or if you ask somebody “What do you like to drink?”, they’ll probably respond with, “I'm a red person.” Or maybe if they're living within 50 miles of a wine region they might say, “Oh, I like Pinot or Cabernet.” But very few people have had a deeper or broader experience of wine outside of that. So we’re trying help there. We have great access to wine, we have a mechanism for selecting it and getting it out to people who don't have the same access and want people to experience that.

Q: We also understand that you’ve recently released a Wine Cult branded wine. Can you tell us a bit about it and why you both decided to produce your own wine?

A: This is really the birth of our winemaking. We were lucky enough to get our hands on some Syrah from the Sta. Rita Hills that was just absolutely beautiful. We worked with a very talented winemaker, Dusty Nabor, to finish and bottle the wine for us. His wines are definitely worth checking out and his Cabernet is absolutely incredible.

When we first started, we bottled one single bottle of Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir but sold out far faster than we anticipated. We’ve now done three vintages of Syrah and are about to bottle our fourth.

That first bottling of Pinot launched us into something that we never anticipated but has really turned into a really fun exploratory project. We’re really only doing micro-bottlings for now of 10-25 cases.

Q: You have a front row seat on being able to see how consumer habits change. Are there any emerging trends you’ve noticed or have been happy to see come about?

A: It’s clear that the trend of sustainable wine has gotten a lot more approachable. When we first started we thought we were going to run out of wines to represent real fast. But then you open your eyes and you start to do a little bit of research and people from all over the world are producing wine sustainably. You just have to find them. We’re now seeing entire wine shops open up that are dedicated to sustainably made wine, which we think is really important.

We’ve also seen a greater number of women in wine that are absolutely killing it. There’s a lot of people to shout out but we think Sunny Doench at Future Perfect is making incredible wine locally.

Ultimately, the goal for the industry collectively should be to bring more people into wine and help expand the circle of people who love or want to explore wine. A rising tide raises all ships.

Also, we love seeing more orange wines (laughs).

Q: It’s obviously difficult to start any business. What are some lessons you’ve both learned having to become entrepreneurs?

A: Wine Cult has almost become a troubleshooting mechanism for our relationship. We’ve had to learn how to debate effectively and also look at each other and hear one another. That has probably been the biggest, ongoing, never ending hurdle that we're constantly having to jump over just to improve our partnership and make sure that we're doing it in a way where we both feel represented.

Another really important thing has been learning what to say no to, and when to say no to to other people. When we started, it was just the two of us and the whole world was in front of us. We felt a need to do everything. And really we struggled a lot with how much energy we should commit to any single thing. There's a lot of distractions out there constantly. So the ability to identify a distraction, and set it aside was really important for us. Now today, it's more about which opportunities presents us with with the most growth upside.

Q: What’s the best way for people to support you?

A: You can go to our website, where we have an online shop for anything that doesn't get shipped out to our wine club members. Our website is joinwinecult.com. We also host events that we’re encouraging people to come to. But most importantly, if you’re interested in joining us, we have multiple club tiers that you can join starting as low as $40 a month. We feature really fun wines and, if you're in Santa Barbara, it’s hand delivered to your door. It is a really eclectic community of passionate wine lovers who we bring together as often as humanly possible to share a wine experience. So if you're interested in what we're doing, we will welcome you with open arms.

A big thank you to Aaron and Geena for taking the time to sit down with us. There’s really no better way to learn about wine and get exposure to such high quality wines from around the world than through a club like this.

Ready to join Wine Cult? Check out their wines available for sale and learn more about their wine club through the links below.

Uncorked

Final Girl Pétillant Chenin Blanc

Open up Anna and Peter’s website and you’ll be greeted with their slogan, “Scary good wines for wine and horror lovers alike.” As you may have guessed, the winemakers at Final Girl Wines are horror fanatics and the first conversation they had revolved around what they would bring to a zombie apocalypse. Together they make small batch, sustainable wines. Ironically, the grapes for this bubbly Chenin Blanc Pet Nat come from Happy Canyon in Santa Barbara County.

Nose: pear, lemon zest

Palette: grapefruit, honeysuckle

Pairs well with: fish and chips, Chinese chicken salad

Available at: Santa Barbara Wine Collective, Clean Slate Wine Bar in Solvang

Paul Lato’s Space Cadet Red Blend

A wine described by the sommelier turned winemaker, Paul Lato, as “hauntingly beauitiful.” It is 80% syrah and 20% grenache from both Bien Nacido and Larner Vineyard. It’s deep and dark like space and juicy like any good thriller film.

Nose: blackberry, cranberry

Palette: black cherry, cedar, sage

Pairs well with: carnitas tacos

Available at: Vino Divino in Santa Barbara

What’s happening?

• Summer concert series at Biddle Ranch: Live music with the Kevin Graybill Trio at Biddle Ranch Vineyard in SLO on Thursday, July 13th at 5 pm. Tickets are only $5 for entry.

• California Wine Festival: One of the biggest wine festivals of the year in Santa Barbara right on the water. Need we say more? Happening Friday and Saturday, July 14th and 15th in downtown Santa Barbara with tickets starting at $80.

• Tasting with Outward Wines: The summer tasting series with our friends at Midtown Wines continues Saturday, July 15th at Midtown Wines in Ventura. Tickets are $30 with a tasting included.

• Linden Hall Dinner Paired with Ashkahn Wines: Dig Pizza and Wine? Us too. Monday, July 17th at Revolver in Santa Barbara, pair some delicious Pizza with Ashkahn Wines. This is an intimate event with only 10 seats available. Email lindenhallrestaurant to secure a seat at $185/person

• Saints Barrel Winery Takeover: Sea Creatures Winery takes over Saints Barrel in SLO, Wednesday, July 19th. Purchase a flight and get a complimentary slice of pizza.

Cheers!

Issue #9