Want a small-batch rosé with that craft-brewed IPA? Or some syrah with your saison?
Such offerings weren’t historically possible inside of a California brewery, but those questions are exactly what you might hear today at Draughtsmen Aleworks. The Goleta brewery is one of the first in the state to take advantage of a 2020 law that allows wine, spirits, and cider to be made alongside beer, and their first releases of Star Pine Cellars are now being served.
“They were looking for someone who could produce the wine and utilize the space in a better way,” said Star Pine’s winemaker Brian McKinnon, a software engineer at LogMeIn by day who’d been making homemade wine for a few years, and knew the Draughtsmen crew through brewery visits — he’s a “Lifetime Member” — and Sunday bicycle rides. “I already had a good relationship with them.”