The Alamati Story

This is Alamati, a friendship nearly three decades in the making, and a project dedicated to beautiful wines that bring people together. 2021 marked our first vintage, and we’ve been working ever since, while balancing our day jobs — Cooper as the Assistant Winemaker at Storm Wines and Niko as the Assistant Winemaker at Dierberg–Star Lane.

We met as 4-year-olds at a Westmont College soccer camp, and we quickly became thick as thieves.

And as thieves do, we plotted. We always talked about having some kind of project together long before either of us entered the wine industry. After graduating from Santa Barbara High in 2011, Cooper headed to a small university in the Northeast to study Spanish, and Niko majored in Horticulture and Crop Science at Cal Poly.

Niko entered the wine business first, working as a ranch hand at Oso Libre Winery in Paso Robles. It was the summer of sheep and alpacas and cattle. He was thrown into the cellar, where he steamed barrels and helped with blending — he quickly realized he was deeply drawn to the wine world.

We both remember the moment the partnership really began. Something clicked for Niko and he called Cooper on his way home from working at the vineyard, “we need to think about making some wine in our future.” 

Three years passed. Niko earned a few wine harvests under his belt in Piemonte, Wairarapa, and the Central Coast. Cooper returned to Santa Barbara. Home sweet home was riddled with COVID-19. But wine country was rife with opportunity. Cooper quickly landed a gig with Ernst Storm, who, juggling winemaking duties for three labels in the middle of a pandemic, needed another set of hands. Grateful for the opportunity, he dove in headfirst. “It was just me and Ernst that whole harvest. I was with him the entire time, watching everything he did.”

We credit Storm for helping launch our path into winemaking, but the idea had always been rooted in our friendship. The two of us began tasting wine analytically together, studying the characteristics and learning about what to look for in each varietal we tried.

For the two of us, wine boils down to what, and who, joins it at the table. We mull over meal pairings while sampling our wines and planning the next dinner party with friends and family.  Community means everything to us. What two things bring people together more than a delicious meal and a beautiful bottle of wine? That’s what Alamati is all about. We call it being purveyors of a good time.