Henry David Thoreau walks into a wine bar. This isn’t the start of a joke, just an image conjured up while speculating how said philosopher might have responded to Dreamcote founder Brit Zotovich’s “life’s short, make it count” approach to both winemaking and wine drinking.
Zotovich’s favorite quote is one of Thoreau’s most famous: “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”
“I’m a casual consumer. I don’t like the idea of holding on to a stack of wines, waiting for a special occasion,” said Zotovich, whose hard ciders and wines are intended to be enjoyed presently, rather than left to sit in a cellar or on top of the fridge. “Live your life. Take the shots. Live in the now.”
Unlike Thoreau’s writings, wines aren’t meant to be endlessly dissected, Zotovich believes.
“Wine can be, but doesn’t need to be, super complicated. It’s a beverage. We don’t analyze iced tea to death, but you know when you’re having a good one,” said the Ballard resident. “Sometimes it just hits the right spot, or is right for the moment.”
The term “casual” comes up again as a keyword when describing the mood Zotovich strives to set at her Los Olivos tasting room, although she’s no stranger to providing a more formal wine tasting experience for those who seek it.
“I want people to feel comfortable, to encourage the asking of questions or to encourage the tasting of our wines in whatever sort of space is needed,” Zotovich said. “Some people want to hear about the geeky scientific wine stuff. Others really just want to be left alone. We try to ferret out what kind of experience you are looking for as soon as you walk in, so that we can give you what you came for.”
Another quote Zotovich admires comes from writer and wine merchant Andre Simon: “Wine makes every meal an occasion, every table more elegant, every day more civilized.”
Founded in 2012, Dreamcote Wine Co. began to formulate in Zotovich’s mind while she was employed by a vintner, who she didn’t name, one who facilitated an oppressive work environment.
“I was working at a winery that had a super toxic company culture. I woke up every morning dreading being called out for anything by a super cruel boss. It was awful,” Zotovich said. “To keep from crying or exploding, I decided to punch down my frustration and pour it all into forming this wine brand.”
During Dreamcote’s first year of being open, Zotovich said she worked 363 days, taking only two days off to attend two weddings. She and her husband, Ryan, also a winemaker, were living in a trailer at the time, parked on “this beautiful hill that overlooked 70 acres of vines in Sta. Rita Hills.”
Living leanly was one of the reasons the couple was able to start making wine for themselves, she said, with the freedom and means to afford experimentation.
“I didn’t want to be forced into having to make the same varietals from the same places every year. I wanted to experiment, to play, to let creativity run wild,” said Zotovich, who described Dreamcote Wine Co. as a sandbox of sorts, where she feels free to play with different wines and ciders.
About a year into running the brand, Zotovich began experimenting with carbonic maceration, a fermentation technique used to create fruity, minimally tannic wines. She hasn’t stopped playing with it since, employing the process to craft unique iterations of pinot noir, cabernet franc, syrah, and other varietal wines over the years. One of Dreamcote’s upcoming releases is a new carbonic gamay.
Another technique Zotovich loves to use at Dreamcote is pétillant-naturel (aka pét-nat), which helps produce “a very blue-collar sparkling” effect in certain bubbling beverages.
“It is said that the world’s very first sparkling wine was produced with this method back in the 1500s,” Zotovich said. “Rad, right? So we certainly did not invent these old-school methods, but we really enjoy playing with them.”
For the past three years, Zotovich and her husband have lived in their house in Ballard, with a patch of property where they chose to start a small orchard and vegetable garden, and raise chickens.
“Ever since I was 3 years old, I knew I wanted to be a farmer,” said Zotovich, who studied both agribusiness and wine and viticulture at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.
A proud owner of Ladybird the dog, Muchacha the cat, and several chicks, Zotovich loves animals in general, prompting her to make Dreamcote Wine Co. a pet-friendly winery. Patrons are allowed and even encouraged to bring their pets with them to the tasting room for outdoor tastings—and that offer is not just limited to dogs, Zotovich clarified.
“Outside of the baby chicks we brought in last year, we’ve seen an iguana and a few parrots,” Zotovich said.
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood has a talking parrot on his shoulder. Send squawks to [email protected].
