April 2, 2024 – The women at premium custom canned marketer Maker Wine Company have pretty high standards when they choose their winemaking partners.
Serious entrepreneurs with Stanford biz school chops and real-world experience, Sarah Hoffman, Kendra Kawala and Zoe Victor gravitate towards winemakers with colorful, often powerful, stories.
Among the first winemakers they recruited was Aptos-based Nicole Walsh of Ser, who has since become a consistent contributor. In fact, her Grenache Rosé has been one of their best sellers.
Maker works with small production wineries to develop unique offerings for their constantly changing portfolio of beautifully decorated cans, accessible via their website and through their Wine Club. Get on their mailing list, which they affectionately address as “Can Fam.”
News is that local Monterey favorite Miguel Lepe of Lepe Cellars has joined the canwagon, as it were. Maker just announced a new exotic white blend from Lepe Cellars, available in cans for purchase at makerwine.com.
The new Maker wine from Miguel Lepe is an unusual white blend of 46% Albariño, 36% Verdelho and 18% Grenache Blanc. We should probably call the latter, Garnacha Blanca, to stick with the Spanish theme.
Lepe, who scored a Gold medal for the first Chardonnay he ever made (a 2014 from the Pelio Vineyard, back in 2016 at the SF Chronicle Wine Competition) is the son of migrant workers who didn’t drink. Neither did his friends.
It wasn’t until he got to college that he discovered the mystical connection of grapes, climate and wine. He transferred to Cal Poly where he earned a degree in viticulture.
When he went looking for work, he met Peter Figge, who wanted to hire him right away. Figge, who planted and managed the Pelio Vineyard for owners Les and Nini Pelio in the easternmost reach of Carmel Valley until his untimely passing in 2017, became Lepe’s mentor. His guidance helped Lepe land a job with mega-brand Justin in Paso Robles, giving him some big company perspective.
The contrast between the corporate world of Justin and the small cellar he later worked in with Figge, helped give Lepe the confidence he needed to take the leap and establish his own brand. With the encouragement of Figge, Lepe Cellars was bonded in 2014.
The Lepe Cellars tasting room is currently in the Winfield Gallery, the exact spot where Figge once had a tasting room for his Figge Cellars brand. It’s also where Sabrine Rodems opened her first tasting room for Scratch, before relocating it to Carmel Valley Village in 2021.
Lepe tells us, “I met the Maker team last summer and we started chatting about creating a fun unique white blend for their can. We met through a mutual friend who put us in contact and she thought I would make a good fit for Maker’s philosophy and vision. I made this wine specifically for them.”
Asked if the blend of three varieties that aren’t typically seen performing together was inspired by anything he’d tasted in particular, Lepe tells us, “I’ve never had a white blend like this before. While researching white varieties, these three stood out to me and I thought they would complement each other so well in a blend by providing complex layers. Each variety was made separately until it was time to can. And the entire Maker team visited me at my tasting room and we did blending trials to see which one we all liked the most.”
Lepe obtained the Albariño from Centennial Vineyard, managed by Steve McIntyre and sourced the Grenache Blanc from the San Lucas Vineyard, which is managed by Scheid. The Verdelho comes from the St. Jorge Vineyard in Lodi, known for its Portuguese varieties.
“I’m absolutely in love with this blend!” Lepe enthuses. “There is a perfect balance of fresh citrus and tropical fruit intertwined with bright acidity and a beautiful richness that fills the palate. Sipping on this wine just makes me extremely excited to share it with everyone. This was a very fun wine to make and I’m looking forward to continuing my partnership with Maker.”
When friends recently visited the Lepe Cellars tasting room in Carmel after picking up their Caraccioli wine club shipment, they were told about the new blend, but alas, it was not available for tasting or sale there. Too bad. Lepe confirmed that he won’t be selling it in his tasting room. Maker will distribute the cans to their network of retailers, through their website and wine club.
You, too, can get in on the action at makerwine.com also to read this article visit ediblemontereybay.com/blog/miguel-lepe-joins-the-maker-wine-canwagon