Interview with Alamati Wine
Excerpt from Up in the valley.
The afternoon after an extremely successful Alamati Wine launch party, we met Cooper Allebrand and Niko Comati. The aforementioned launch party included community artists, business owners, and musicians and was a shining example of what Alamati Wine is all about. They warmly invited us into Cooper’s Santa Barbara home, where we were greeted by a goooood boy named Reuben. It was a cozy space with all the signs that a winemaker was inhabiting it: varietal poster on the wall and a full wine fridge. It was the perfect setting to get to know the two winemakers, their brand, and their wine tale that started with a 4th grade talent show. Enjoy.
Q: Can you start us off by walking us through how the idea for Alamati Wine was started and how you two got involved in the wine industry?
Niko: I was working at a ranch and vineyard in Paso Robles that had sheep and cattle for sustainable rotational grazing. I then started helping them in the cellar as a side gig. One afternoon I was walking through the vineyards with the owner and thought, “This is a cool way to live.” Being able to farm your own land, take care of it, and utilize animals to take care of the soil properly.
I remember calling Cooper [Niko’s childhood best friend] on the way home and saying we should look into the wine industry and we had no idea where that would go but we were kind of entranced by it. Cooper was on the East Coast at the time so we thought about how can we create something in this world, whether it was the farming side, the winemaking side, or somewhere in between. I ended up working a couple winery jobs in Italy and New Zealand, and then COVID hit. Once Cooper was back in town he ended up getting into the industry by working with Ernst Storm over at Storm wines. [Coincidentally also featured in today’s issue!]