There are so-called “rock star winemakers,” and then there’s Steve Clifton, who was, in fact, a lead singer in a successful touring and album-cutting San Clemente band called The Movement back in the late 1980s. By 1991, the USC-educated, musical-theater-trained, coulda-been-a-Broadway-star Clifton shifted his artistic pursuits to making wine in the Santa Ynez Valley, where he started his Italian-varietal brand Palmina in 1995. The following year, he and Greg Brewer started Brewer-Clifton, which rose to be Santa Barbara’s shiniest success story, winning widespread critical acclaim and, just last February, selling a majority stake to a Chicago-based wholesaler.
When that happened, both Brewer and Clifton promised nothing would change. But by this past fall, Brewer had left his winemaking job at Melville to focus on the new B-C, while Clifton and his wife, Chrystal, were effectively out. Was it amicable? “Not at all,” Steve admitted to me honestly over lunch with Chrystal at Wine Cask last December. But this man with the golden smile and cherubic cheeks was more upbeat than ever, explaining that he preferred focusing on his own projects rather than doubling down on the new B-C partnership. “I’d rather invest in myself,” said Steve.
When you see and taste the Cliftons’ new La Voix wines, you’ll see why that’s a happy investment. Adorned with attention-grabbing but artistically contemporary labels, each bottle is an ode to one of their favorite songs while showcasing the best wines that can be made in the region. The three available pinot noirs — Reflektor, Rebel Rebel, and Satisfaction — are single vineyard and mostly single clone, and the She’s Crafty rosé, which is Chrystal’s baby, makes no bones about being a full-bodied, pinot-packed pink. There are two chardonnays, one syrah, and a cabernet-merlot-malbec blend on the way.