Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Luftig Viste and Jasper Dickson.
Angeleno Wine Company is led by Jasper Dickson and Amy Luftig Viste. Jasper worked at Silverlake Wine for over ten years. That’s how Amy met him when she ran a local all-women’s wine club called Bottle Babes. Amy brought pizza for Jasper at these events, and he’s been hanging around Amy ever since. By day, Amy runs a County program that provides healthcare to uninsured Angelenos. Nights and weekends, Jasper and Amy are making and pouring their locally made, locally grown wines at their urban winery and tasting room.
For the last four years, we have hand-picked our fruit in a small town in Northeast Los Angeles County called Agua Dulce. Before we had our own winery downtown, we loaded it onto a truck and drove it 5 hours to Northern California to make the wine at a friend’s winery. This friend was good to us. But we would spend hours on those long drives talking about opening a winery closer to home.
That all changed when we finally found a home for our winery in the Mission Junction neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles (just north of Chinatown). The winery and tasting room is in the historic center of Los Angeles winemaking. The location, 1646 N. Spring Street, is in a 1925 building made with recycled brick from L.A.’s first City Hall. It is across from the Los Angeles State Historic Park, where the Zanja Madre – the original aqueduct for the residents of Los Angeles – used to flow (Angeleno named one of their wines after this fact). The winery is partly funded by a grant from the Los Angeles County Community Development Commission.
Has it been a smooth road?
As the first urban winery to open in downtown Los Angeles in recent times, there were bound to be bumps in the road.
The first challenge was financial – we opened this winery on a shoestring budget with the help of a few investor friends, a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign (for which we are still humbled), and a small business loan by the County. At the end of the day, we opened because of the people who helped us, and because of the people who support and buy the wines.
The second challenge was finding a space. After almost three years of looking for the perfect location for our small urban winery and tasting room (and 22 rejected applications), we found our home in Mission Junction, an area once covered in vines. That’s one reason we fell in love with it. That, and the fact that our landlord was the only person in three years to say yes to our lease application.
Finally, permitting had its own set of challenges. Being the first winery in downtown in over 100 years, the City didn’t always know what to do with us. There are no templates for the City in terms of signing off on the opening of a winery, as this has not been attempted for a very long time. This was as new to them as it is to us. A lot of the timing related to when the winery would open was in their hands, and this kept us up at night. The good news is that we hired really good, smart people who know the permitting system and process well and who helped us get this done. We would still be hoping to open without them.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Angeleno Wine Company – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Angeleno Wine Company is wine grown in Los Angeles and made in Los Angeles. It is a little known fact that California winemaking began in Los Angeles, not in Napa or Sonoma. The state’s first original winemakers made and grew their wines where our winery sits today. At its height of production in the mid-1800’s, Angelenos were making 2 million bottles of wine, several years before Napa even had their first commercial winery. It used to be that when San Franciscans and New Yorkers saw ‘California Wine’ on a label, they knew it came from L.A.
Our pride and joy is a small vineyard about an hour north of Los Angeles outside a little town called Agua Dulce. It is farmed by Juan Alonso, a visionary who planted an array of lesser-known Spanish grape varietals from his native Galicia. Tannat, Graciano, Godello, Loureiro, and Treixadura are some of the unique varietals that Angeleno makes into wine every year.
For us, Juan is the heart and soul of Angeleno. As “natural” winemakers, we use all native yeasts and don’t add chemicals, proteins, colors, or flavors to our wine. We harvest early to preserve natural acidity in the fruit. We strive to make wines that truly showcase Los Angeles fruit with our wines. For this reason, we consider Juan Alonso the true winemaker of Angeleno, as it is the character of his vineyard that shines through in our wines.
Juan is also a French-trained chef who owns an amazing restaurant called Le Chène. He makes real French food where the salt and butter run off the plate. He serves his fare with an off-the-chart wine list that includes some of his own wines made with the same grapes. Definitely check out Le Chene, scope out the vineyards, and tell him we said hello. We are eager for harvest so we can see him again.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Jasper and I agree that Los Angeles is probably the coolest and fastest changing American city to live in right now. You can’t even keep up with the food and wine scene here. The growth is everywhere, and it’s breathtaking. The innovation is in every neighborhood, and in different and unique ways that match that neighborhood.
The desire to reduce our carbon footprint and eat and drink local is strong in Los Angeles. Despite its stereotype of being a city of self-centered people, I think the residents of this city care deeply about this city and are proud of it. Angelenos are also aware of their impact on the world. People say it all the time when they visit- I want to drink local and reduce my impact if I can.
One challenge with this City is that there is so little effort devoted to sharing both the exciting and unsavory history of Los Angeles. It is crazy that we don’t have any kind of history museum here. 95% of the people who come to the winery had no idea that winemaking in California started in downtown L.A. Close to the winery, La Plaza de Cultures y Artes and The State Historic Park across the street are helping to share that history. They are doing an incredible job blending community activities, the outdoors and L.A. history. But collectively we should know more about the origins of Los Angeles. It would probably change some of the decisions we make in this city today.
Pricing:
- The Meadow Rosé – $22
- SuperBloom White – $22
- SuperBloom Red – $25
- Zanja Madre – $30
- Syrah – $35
Contact Info:
- Address: 1646 N. Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012 - Website: www.angelenowine.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angelenowine
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/angelenowinecompany/
Image Credit:
Angeleno Wine Co.
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