Miguel Lepe, the founder of Lepe Cellars, is determined to make wine. From crowd-sourcing the funding for his first commercial vintage, starting his own label, and consulting for custom crush clients, Miguel makes good wine for good people. I sat down with Miguel recently to discuss his journey into winemaking and what is in store for him in the future.
Miguel, how did you initially get into wine?
Well it actually started at Hartnell College, the community college here in Salinas. I stumbled across a class that was all about vineyards. It was a vineyard production class. And I took that class just for fun. Just because I needed a few extra units to graduate from community college to be able to transfer to a university. But this one class I ended up falling in love with. I think what was so unique about that class was we took field trips to the local wineries and vineyards here in Monterey. Because it was in the fall, during the harvest I got to see the production of wine from the vineyard to the winery.
I didn’t know anything about wine at that time. I didn’t know what people were doing, but I just thought it was like the coolest thing. I just remember walking into the winery and smelling the fermentations, all the grapes, the barrels. And I was just so intrigued by it. I was like, what is all this? This is a whole new world and I wanted to learn more about it.
I found out from my instructor at Hartnell that you can actually major in wine. Once I found that out, I decided to change my entire career path, education and just focus on wine. I ended up going to Cal Poly to major in enology and viticulture.
Tell me about your time at Cal Poly studying Enology and Viticulture.
It was a great experience. It’s all very hands-on. Cal Poly is very known for being a hands-on school. They have a vineyard on campus, 15 acres, and then a small winery as well. At the time when I was there, it was just a little tiny winery. Now they have this large commercial winery, all run by the students and overseen by the professors. That was built after I was there, so I missed out on that, but it was a great experience.
The unique thing about going to Cal Poly and majoring in wine and viticulture, is you actually have to do an internship at a commercial winery. You’re required to take the quarter off, not take any classes, and just go work at a winery.
That’s interesting that students are required to do an internship at a commercial winery. Did the program place you at a winery or do you have to reach out yourself?
You have to reach out yourself. It’s just like applying for any other job. It’s all about gaining real world experience. I ended up working for Claiborne and Churchill. They’re in Edna Valley. Small little winery. It was just me, one other intern and the winemake. I got to do everything.
That was a great introduction into commercial winemaking. And then on top of that we also got to work in the vineyard on campus and the winery as well. We had a student project where we had to make our own wine, write out the entire wine making plan from start to finish, from grape to bottle. And even a marketing plan, like how are we going to label it? What’s it going to be called? Where are we going to sell it? It literally covers everything.
At that time did you already know you were going to start your own label, Lepe Cellars?
<laughs> No way. No. That came many years, many years later. I knew I wanted to be a winemaker. I always thought I’d work for somebody else and just do that. Never did I think while I was in school that I would start my own label. It wasn’t until after graduating that I crossed that bridge.
How did you get your first winery job after graduation?
I just started cold calling, sending emails out and Figge [Cellars] responded. I scheduled an interview with Peter Figge. I met with him one day and it was a really long interview. It was like five hours. I had no idea. I just walked in. We talked in the winery and the cellar and he just kind of gave me a little tour of how things work in his winery. And then he took me out to lunch right after. And then he took me to his vineyard in Carmel Valley where I met his vineyard manager. I was not expecting any of this. I didn’t know we were gonna go out to the vineyard. I wore my nice shoes, clothes.
We really hit it off, connected and he actually offered me a full-time job even though I was just interviewing for a harvest. Because I already previously arranged my job down in Chile [to work the harvest] I was already committed to that. And so I told him, that’d be great, but I already have this commitment where I’m gonna be gone for at least three months. And he said, that’s fine, come work with me and leave when you need to go do that. When you come back, I’ll have your job waiting for you. So I did that harvest with Figge, then went down to Chile right after and when I came back I continued working for Figge for about three years.
Was Peter Figge a big influence on your work?
He’s the reason I started Lepe Cellars. One day we were just hanging out in the cellar having lunch, me, Peter and his vineyard manager Poncho. He [Peter] just asked me if I wanted, if I was going to make wine that harvest. And I was like, I didn’t even think that was an option. Didn’t even cross my mind. I never made my own wine, I made wine for other people and following orders and so to have this opportunity to do things exactly how I want to do, I’ve never done that. And so I didn’t really, I was excited for it, but definitely didn’t plan for it.
I was like, yeah, of course. This is what I want to do. I wanted to make wine and he helped me secure some fruit. He let me use his barrels, all of his equipment, I just had to pay for the grapes and he covered everything else. That harvest, I just did one barrel of a Gewurztraminer.
That’s what I did. I didn’t think anything more past that. I’ll make a barrel of wine, bottle it and drink it. There was no business thought behind it. And then the following harvest, same thing. He’s like, so are you gonna make any wine this year? I was yeah. He’s like, well if you’re gonna keep doing this, you should actually really consider going through the process of becoming a licensed business so you can actually sell your wine and make some money. So I did.
The next year Is that when you started the kickstarter?
I did. All the licenses, all the permitting was really expensive and working for a small winery It’s not like I was getting paid so much. I had to figure out a way to just make ends meet, So yeah, I did the Kickstarter campaign, I had a lot of supporters, locally and nationally, random people from other states just wanting to donate and I was shocked that people were actually willing to support me. I couldn’t have done it without the Kickstarter in the beginning, just to get through that hurdle.
That’s great so many people were willing to support you as you got started. What was your next step?
And then in ‘15,I became officially fully licensed. I’m a business, I have some inventory now, I can start selling something. So I did, but it was all wholesale. Peter Figge put me in contact with a few locations just to kind of help me out as well. He’s the one that directed me to the Star Market. Star Market was one of my first buyers. And then Carmel Valley Ranch was also a client at Figge because they have their own private label. They ended up buying my wine, putting it in the restaurants. That was a good intro. From there I started kind of branching out and then I started pouring at Urban Wine Row as well. Just trying to get out there. I grew my brand quite a bit since I started at Figge. I started with one barrel, two barrels and then I think I eventually got up to like 10 barrels while I was there. I was growing my brand, I was getting into more wholesale accounts and finally the business was paying for itself.
So after your 3 years at Figge Cellars what was your next career step?
At that point, let’s see, that was in 2016, that’s when I moved on to work up in Sonoma. I was still a client at Figge. I left my wine there. I still had access to the winery. I could go there anytime just work on my wine. I wanted to go work up at Sonoma, work for a larger place to keep gaining more experience, because Figge was tiny, so there’s only so much I could do there. I loved it, every moment of it, but I knew I needed to keep growing. I was still young. I wanted to do as much as I could.
I went to work at Paul Hobbs. I was up there for just a year actually. But while I was up there, that’s when I found out that Peter Figge passed away. That was really hard. You know, there were a lot of changes happening during that time. At first they [the family] thought maybe they’ll keep the brand going, but then, it was too much for them, so they sold the [winery] and it became Seabold.
What brought you back to Monterey?
When they made the transition to Seabold, the owners of Seabold called me and asked if I’d be willing to come back and run the winery as a winemaker since I already knew how to do everything then. So I did. I had a great time up in Sonoma, great experience, but I started to feel like I really want to come back to Monterey. Something always kept drawing me back here.
I moved back, right away and started working with Seabold and making different wines working with different vineyards. It was a completely different business model. Different styles, like everything was like night and day. But regardless, I knew how to run the winery and I could make whatever style they wanted. So that’s what I did. I was there for maybe two harvests.
It was nice being there, back at Figge where I have so many memories. After that, I kinda felt like it was still a small winery, so they didn’t have room to grow and expand. I did what I could and that’s when I moved over here [to Wrath.]
How long have you been here at Wrath Wines?
This is my fifth harvest. I found out there was an opening because the previous assistant, he ended up moving away from here to go work for a large winery. I moved over here and obviously I wanted to bring my wine with me, my barrels.I want to apply for this, but I also have Lepe Cellars. So, you know, if you’re okay with me making Lepe Cellars here, then let’s do this interview. They’re, the owner and Sabrine [the winemaker] who’s been here forever, they said it was totally fine. I could be a client here as well. So it really worked out. I have my own clients as well that are separate from Wrath.
That’s great that you’ve been able to keep your own branding going while working at Wrath.
This has been a great place for me to be because we have so much space here and so it’s allowed me to really grow my brand. I think I’m up to like 70 barrels. I just kept growing, growing, because the wholesale accounts that only got you so far, I knew I needed to find a way to really grow.
I started doing consulting. I make wines for private labels, private brands. Zabala [Vineyard] being one of them. I’ve made wine for Deer Park Wine and Spirits up in Aptos. I do private label for Village Wine and Tap Room they’re in Carmel Valley Village.
Zabala was my new one this year. They don’t have a brand, they’re just a vineyard but they want to get into that part of the business. I’ve been doing a lot of consulting, a lot of custom crush work. All under my brand, like my umbrella. That’s really helped me grow a lot.
Tell me more about working with your custom crush clients, do you get to put your own spin on the wine you make for them?
It depends on the client. Some clients just want to be hands off. Just make sure it’s good, we’ll talk next year. I have some clients that are like that, so I get to put my own spin on it. Make it the way that I want to make it.
Are other custom crush clients more hands on?
So for Zabala they want a certain style that they feel really represents their vineyard, because obviously they know their vineyard. And so they know what their overall goal is stylewise. There’s more direction there on the methods that they want to see done on their wine. Which is also great. I meet with them once or twice a month. We’re able to build that relationship, that connection, [it] helps build trust. They come here then we taste through every single barrel. I love that. I love being able to build that connection. I’ve also been buying grapes from there for so long. That’s where my sauv blanc sparkling comes from and my grenache as well comes from their vineyard.
And you opened your own tasting room almost 2 years ago?
That was exciting. I never thought that I would reach that point. Everything just finally aligned, you know? And so many things kind of fell into place. So where I’m at now [the tasting room], before that was Scratch, but before that it was Figge. And I actually used to work there when it was Figge. During the off season when it wasn’t harvest he would put me in the tasting room. II’m right there is the same spot where I first started.
What’s next for Lepe Cellars?
Every year I always do something new, always a new variety. I have my flagships, the varieties I’ve started with that I’m passionate about. But I always like to explore and I always want to learn. I’m always out there exploring, especially vineyards. One of the new varieties that I did this harvest was Gamay. It’s tasting great now, I can’t wait to just bottle it and get it out there. I think it’s gonna just blow people’s minds.
Do you have any advice for aspiring winemakers?
I’d say to do everything you can to gain as much experience as possible. You don’t want to stay stuck in one place for too long. I think you should always kind of keep exploring for ways to continue to grow. And so whatever that happens to be, always just keep your eyes open, build connections, relationships, you know meet everyone that you can in the industry. There’s a lot of people out there that want to help. It’s good to get out there. I have three interns from this past harvest that are all making their own wine this year. I helped secure the grapes for them and I’m guiding them through the winemaking process.
—
Thank you, Miguel, for sharing your winemaking journey with me. To buy Miguel’s wines, visit the Lepe Cellars tasting room in downtown Carmel, CA, or buy directly online from www.lepecellars.com. His wine is also for sale at Star Market in Salinas and Deer Park Wine & Spirits in Aptos.
