One of the Santa Ynez Valley’s youngest wine brands launched in February but will wait until 2028 to celebrate its first anniversary.
The two producers behind Cote of Paint leapt into business with their first wine release on a day that only comes around every four years, co-owner Kristin Luis explained.
“It was really not that premeditated,” said the local winemaker, whose first bottles were “released into the wild” on Feb. 29.
Her husband and business partner Nick Luis came up with the leap day launch last-minute, he concurred.
“It wasn’t a grand strategy, it just kind of nicely fell into place,” Nick recalled. “We knew we wanted to release it at the beginning of the year, and we were sort of just sifting through to find any meaningful dates that might be fun to launch on, and we didn’t. But then I realized, ‘Oh shoot, it’s a leap year.’”
While the duo capped that night off with some celebratory champagne, they spent most of leap day morning and afternoon fielding wine pre-orders.
The growing brand doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar tasting space, but its wines—bottled at Dragonette Cellars in Buellton—have been featured at local pop-ups and are available for sale by pick-up in Buellton or delivery to most addresses within Santa Barbara County. Meanwhile, patrons outside the county and beyond can get Cote of Paint bottles shipped to them.
A few months after the brand’s launch, Kristin served as one of the featured winemakers at the 2024 Santa Barbara County Women Winemakers and Culinarians Celebration in May. That same month, Kristin and Nick hosted a wine party in downtown Solvang with a unique spin—far from the beaten path thanks to its pairing selections. During a collaboration with peasants DELI & MARKET, the duo used the venue’s nostalgic arcade space to pair wines with video games.
“I told Nick, ‘We have to do an event here. Period. End of discussion,’” Kristin said with a laugh.
The couple hopes to host another arcade party with peasants DELI & MARKET sometime before the end of the year. Future attendees can look forward to thoughtfully tailored pairings, evident from the duo’s approach in May with past pairings that bridged rosé with Ms. Pac-Man, for example.
“The logic with that being rosé is deceptively simple, but very difficult to execute. I think people might view Pac-Man like that as well,” Nick said. “Try to get past the second level of Pac-Man. It looks easy but it isn’t.”
Events of this kind illustrate both Nick and Kristin’s dual passions for wine barrels and Donkey Kong barrels and support the couple’s aim for Cote of Paint to feel casual and accessible.
“There is this great poetic aspect of wine, ... but when you specifically speak to that poetic side and only that, you kind of alienate a lot of different demographics,” Kristin said. “Because they think they have to speak that same language in order to participate in wine, and it’s so not true.”
Kristin described the duo’s wine philosophy as embracing the down-to-earth vibes of “how most consumers drink wine, ... usually just with friends, having a good time.”
“You’re probably not drinking wine with your friends in a three-piece suit with an orchestral band playing in the background,” Nick said.
The couple’s outlook bleeds into their branding, with language that gets straight to the point. There’s a descriptor on each bottle of Cote of Paint’s 2021 sangiovese that simply reads “It’s dry and red,” for example, while the equivalent on each 2023 sauvignon blanc reads “It’s dry and not red.”
“We work with organic and biodynamic farm sources ... and some fun and really interesting fruit,” said Nick, whose bottles are transparent about where the grapes come from, with sources including Coquelicot Estate Vineyard in Los Olivos, and Duvarita Vineyard and Christy & Wise Vineyard, both in Lompoc.
Apart from citing fruit sources, the alcohol percentage, and a few other factors, the couple tries not to bombard bottles with excessive language and avoids “ethereal, inaccessible” commentary, Kristin said.
“In some ways, we’re deemphasizing that real heavy reliance on that kind of messaging. ... It’s so much about not getting into those details,” Nick said. “Exclusivity is ... the antithesis of what we’re trying to project.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood’s favorite Pac-Man ghost is Clyde. Send inky comments to [email protected].
