Q & A With Municipal Winemakers' Dave Potter: On Surfing, Sourcing Grape Stigmas + His New Tasting Room

JGarbee

Potter In The Former Scuba Shop That Will Become His Tasting Room

If you need an excuse to for a coastal drive, winemaker Dave Potter is your man. He is the face behind Santa Barbara-based Municipal Winemakers, a small but mighty 600 cases per year operation that he tends to between barrel hours as the Director of Winemaking Operations for Fess Parker's Santa Barbara County facility, a 150,000 case day job.

Yes, he's busy. But if you're lucky, you might catch Potter at his tasting room on weekends explaining the benefits of selling directly to the end drinker rather than via a distributor ("instead of trying to convince a gatekeeper to like your wine... of course, that means I have to do everything myself"). Or as when we were there, surveying a gutted former scuba gear and dive certification shop a few doors down from his current digs that will soon host his expanded tasting room. "I'm going to try and keep that demolish vibe it has now rather than fix it up too much," he says. The very same vibe that turned us on to his wines. Turn the page for our interview.

JGarbee

The Patio Window View Of Municipals' Current Tasting Room

Squid Ink: We love your website. There is so much silly 'cutesy' wine branding junk out there now, but you seem like a genuine sarcastic ass. We mean that as a compliment.

Dave Potter: Really? Thanks. That actually means a lot. I try to keep it interesting.

SI: So you've got your own wine label and this tasting room. Running a tasting room has to take up a lot of time. And you still have a full time winemaking job. You're busy.

DP: Yeah, fortunately at Fess Parker we work 10 hour days, so I get Fridays to work on my own things.

SI: You're making your wines there, too?

DP: Yes, I'm lucky. They let me use the facility.

SI: We gather you are sourcing your grapes?

DP: Yes, I've got eight different growers from different regions. Who has $2 million to open their own winery and grow their own grapes?

SI: Ha, right. It's interesting how growing your own grapes seems to have gotten this reputation as somehow more desirable than sourcing grapes. In the restaurant world, it's the opposite. Chefs are proud that they source their produce from the best potato farmer, the best strawberry grower -- the expert growers -- so they can focus on creating something great with it.

DP: Yeah, exactly. And I actually like working with different growers. You get more variety that way.

SI: And you can make whatever you want. Those investors coughing up the $2 million are going to have something to say about the wines you make.

DP: Right. I couldn't do that.

SI: So how did you get into winemaking?

DP: [Laughs] Well, I like scrubbing tanks and I like to surf.

SI: Ha. People think making wine is so glamorous. But like being a chef, it's an awful lot of backbreaking work. Are you from around here?

DP: I went to UCSB, and I always had winery jobs working harvest. After school, it was one of those "What's next?" sorts of things. I thought about going to law school, going to get an MBA. Then I went to Australia... to surf and whatever... and within three days of landing I decided I can't do any of that. I had to make wine. So I applied to graduate school [in winemaking] and did that for the next three years.

SI: You applied to the the oenology grad program at Curtin after you arrived in Australia?

DP: [Laughs] Yeah, my mom got my acceptance letter back home and called and said, "What is this? What are you doing?" It's not like it is here. Over there, you apply to school and it's a pretty quick process, you don't have to wait months and months and spend so much time thinking about it.

SI: Sounds like that was a good fit for you.