These winemakers bottled the vibrant bohemian spirit of 1930s drifters into serious California Wines. Meet Tyler and Rachel Eck of Dunites Wine Co.
After years of hemisphere hopping, chasing harvests from Sonoma to Tasmania, through the southern tip of New Zealand to the heart of Northern Rhone—who knew this couple would land together on the ancient dunes of San Luis Obispo, raising a glass to the 6th vintage of Dunites, their cool-climate, California coast wines.
Meet // Tyler & Rachel Eck
of Dunites Wine Co.
Winemakers Tyler and Rachel Eck make wine the old fashioned way–hand picked, barrel pressed and fermented unadulterated. From savory Syrahs to crisp California Chardonnays, this husband-wife duo produce pure, elegant wines that respect the coastal influence of their vineyard sites located on the uplifted seafloor of the SLO Coast’s ancient sand dunes.
As for the muse behind their craft? Enter the Dunites of 1930, an eclectic group of bohemian pioneers ( artists, hermits, mystics, nature lovers and nudists) who championed creativity, expression and free thought. They were a community who preserved the natural beauty of their ancient dunes and rejoiced all walks of life, a progressive ambition poetically expressed today throughout Tyler and Rachel’s small-batch wines.
How did you get started in the wine industry?
TYLER | I became interested in the wine industry while living in Santa Barbara after graduating from UCSB. After many trips to the local wine country and visits to my Aunt and Uncle’s house in Los Olivos I decided to change my career and enrolled in the Viticulture and Enology program at Lincoln University in New Zealand. At that point I was pretty interested in traveling, so after graduation I spent the next five years working in vineyards and wineries around the world before returning to the Central Coast.
RACHEL | I gained interest after taking an introductory class in winemaking at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. One of the things I absolutely love about the wine industry is that there is no way you could learn everything about it. Sure, there are experts in their respective fields, but I love that every growing season is different. Wine in the bottle changes every year as it ages. There is just so much variability!
Perhaps the most fascinating concepts I learned was the diverse ways in which winemakers chooses to artistically express each vintage. I suppose it was the uncertainty of seasons and freedom of expression that ultimately led me towards getting a degree in Viticulture from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
Photography by: Olivia Hayo
Seems like you have a pretty sweet yin-yang set up for a winemaking duo. What roles do you and Rachel play in producing your wines?
Both of us work full time in the wine industry and fortunate that our passion is able to seamlessly coincide with our careers. Rachel is a Pest Control Advisor and Assistant Vineyard Manager for some of the top vineyards in the county.
She’s the reason the main ingredient of our wine is the best in the west! Simply put, Rachel grows our grapes. Not so simply put, she’s a Cal Poly trained viticulturist who understands the meticulous nuances involved in growing fine wine grapes. Sustainable growing techniques and biodynamic principles are the guiding force behind her practice, and it’s this process that protects the environment, supports social responsibility and produces much of your favorite, high quality wines.
So if Rachel is the farmer, I guess you can call me the vintner. I oversee the entire winemaking process, from grape harvesting through bottling and fermentation for Dunites as well as Fess Parker Winery.
Tell me more about the muse behind your wine brand.
Because we are focusing on vineyards from a pretty specific area of southern SLO County, it was important the name represented that area’s history and culture. The Dunites were a relatively unknown group of individuals who lived in small, makeshift houses in the coastal sand dunes of this region roughly from the time of the Great Depression until WWII. Collectively they were artists, poets, nudists, and mystics who didn’t really fit within the cultural fabric of the time, but they were also very intellectual and political. Both Ansel Adams and John Steinbeck made numerous visits to the Dunites. The more we learned about the Dunites, the more we became inspired by their creativity and pursuit to dedicate their lives to it. Not to mention, the dunes are a stunning place to visit and are within sight of two of the vineyards we work with.
On the back of each of our wines, you’ll find original excerpts from the Dunites, hand-written by Rachel. And our labels are original designs from local artist’s own interpretation of the dunes.
We’re sure there are many years and tiresome hours behind your beautiful designs, but we can’t help but feel your knack for florals is in your blood. Is there a history of floral artists in the fam?
A life centered around flowers is in my blood. My Grandmother had a flower shop in the lobby of the Mark Hopkins and Fairmont on Nob Hill in SF in the 40’s. Following that, she opened her own flower shop in West Portal. My Mother had a forty-year career of being a landscape designer and my Aunt also did garden design in Berkeley.
You lived in San Francisco for years with an impressive clientele—what inspired the move to Chico, CA?
My husband and I knew we wanted to move and had been looking in Marin. In the Fall of 2020, we were visiting my Mother in my hometown of Chico and literally opened up Zillow on our now-home was the first on the list. We decided to tour the house and the second i saw the mature Dogwood and Magnolia trees I had a feeling, this may be out house. We had never thought about moving to Chico but 2020 was a year of rethinking everything and taking risks. When our offer was accepted we took 8 months to remodel it and move from San Francisco, where we had lived for almost 25 years, to Chico.
Who would be your dream client to style?
Doing flowers for Martha Stewart (and have her love them) would be my dream. She’s the OG!
Now for the fun facts! What makes your wine so good? I know it goes beyond good grapes and chemistry.
I’d say our reverence for nature and ethical responsibility as producers is at the heart of our craft—from our vineyard sites, to how we farm and process our grapes.
It starts with our vineyard sites which reside along the rugged coastline of the Central Coast, fully engulfed in thick coastal fog. This promotes a long growing season for our grapes to soak up those marine-derived soils–a powerful flavor profile expressed in the finished product. All of the vineyards we work with are at a minimum sustainable SIP certified with most being farmed organically or biodynamically.
In the cellar we use traditional winemaking techniques such as spontaneous native yeast for fermentation, gentle basket pressing, and neutral oak barrels. The end result is a lineup of wines boasting complex flavors, moderate alcohol levels, and high acidity.
Product Photography by: Olivia Hayo
Where is the most obscure place you’ve made wines?
Both of us worked in the small region of Martinborough at the southern tip of New Zealand’s north island. I also worked in Tasmania, which sounds obscure here because most of the wines are consumed domestically in Australia.
Clearly you love drinking your own wine, but do you have any bottles you’ve been saving for a special occasion?
We have a few special bottles tucked away. While I was working in France I visited Domaine Clape in Cornas (one of my favorite producers), and I brought two bottles of their 2010 Cornas back home with me. I think I paid 25 Euros for each bottle and literally a week after visiting, Robert Parker gave that wine a huge score. These bottles are now over $300 each!
We toasted with one of the bottles during our vows and passed around our head table on our wedding night. The second bottle is stored away in a little box with some notes that we wrote to each other. The plan is that on our 10th anniversary we will open the box and read each other the notes while sipping every last drop of that Cornas.
Speaking of aging. Sometimes it ruins a wine, no? How do you know when to age a wine and when to drink it ASAP?
For the most part we are pretty good at drinking the wines in our cellar! Wines that are built to age typically are higher in acid or tannins, both of which will help the wines avoid the negative effects of oxygen that they are slowly exposed to over time. Bordeaux, for example is an age-worthy wine that needs time for tannins to soften. Most of the wines we buy are fresher and meant to be drunk younger, which is a style of wine we enjoy drinking.
What does natural wine mean to you?
Natural wine has become sort of an umbrella term to describe wine without any clear definition. I prefer to describe our wines as traditional. We try to source from unique vineyard sites that are farmed with organic or biodynamic inputs that build soil health and promote a healthy vineyard ecosystem. In the cellar we try to respect the sites by avoiding additions or manipulating the wine. We use native yeast and bacteria for fermentation, neutral oak barrels that do not contribute any flavor or tannin to the wine. We use minimal sulfur to protect the wine from oxidation and bacterial spoilage, and avoid fining and filtering the wines. This ethos has been around for centuries in growing and making wine, but of course we have modern equipment and scientific knowledge to be more efficient and better understanding of how and why we can avoid over manipulating the vineyard or the wine.
Any new additions in the works for the Dunites roster? Annnnd if so, when will we be able to drink them?
Yes! This year we sourced Pinot Noir from two new vineyards. We are making a methode champenoise Blanc de Noirs from the Chene Vineyard in Edna Valley. The vineyard has a cool blend of volcanic and marine soils and is farmed biodynamically by our friend Gina Giugni from Lady of the Sunshine. This wine will spend a couple of years aging on its lees en tirage so will probably not be released until the Fall of 2021.
We also just released a Pinot Noir from the Bassi Vineyard, which is owned and farmed organically by Mike Sinor of Sinor LaValle, who’s site is less than two miles from the ocean. And good news! This vintage is bottled and ready for your consumption now!
Photography by: Olivia Hayo
What do you find Dunites fans like most about your wine?
We have fans?! I think that people like that our wines are approachable but serious. A lot of wine buffs have an idea of what a Syrah or Chardonnay from the Central Coast will taste like, but because of the vineyard sites we work with, the wines tend to be fresher and have more acidity than expected, while still having clean fruit. I like to think that they challenge people’s preconceived ideas about wines from this region.
What do you love most about making wine?
Being in the vineyards during a crisp Fall sunrise or sunset. When you are in the middle of harvest and dead tired, it’s those moments when you have to appreciate the beauty of our surroundings. That feeling alone is priceless.
Dream restaurant or bar to serve Dunites…
Local, responsibly farmed food and drink. We love some of our local owner-operated places like Ember and Spoon Trade.
Go-to casual Tuesday night bottle…
Something playful, fresh and easy to drink. Maybe a Chablis, Beaujolais, or Crozes Hermitage.
Go-to places to shop for yourself and your kids...
Kids: Lula Land, Little Occasion, Zara and I am excited for NooMoon to open in SF that is all second hand curated kids clothes.
Mama: ?
In 5 years you’ll find us…
Here on the SLO Coast hopefully working with the same vineyards and friends who farm them.
We’re addicted to…
Thai food and Champagne. They are amazing together.
Wine icon(s)…
Carole Meredith, she is a grape geneticist who uncovered the parentage of many varieties. A very inspiring woman in the industry.
If you weren’t making wine, you’d be…
Our back up plan is to have a food truck in Hawaii. It was in our vows so I guess pretty official.
Meal, music, bottle - go.
Anything Steel Pulse. A rustic pot of stew. Cornas.
