A young couple with astonishing energy, Becky and Dave Corey make running their two-person business, CORE Wine Company, look easy. The Coreys make and market the wine, design the labels, and—with a few exceptions—farm the grapes pretty much all by themselves.
This past Labor Day, amid the activity of their ninth harvest, the Coreys donned yet another executive hat by opening a tasting room in Old Town Orcutt. With an elegant bar made of exotic wood, original art on the walls, and a friendly ambience, the inviting space draws visitors from near and far.
“It’s great to have a place for people to come see us,” Becky said, “and to meet people who’ve been buying our wine a long time. A lot of locals know our wines, and it’s nice that they can just stop by.”
On Thursdays, the CORE tasting room stays open late for Burger and a Bottle Night. Friends and fans are welcome to bring in a meal and share a bottle of wine, family style.
Choosing Orcutt for the tasting room was a natural for Dave, whose family
first settled and farmed the area in 1873. Here, the couple is close to their home, their young sons’ schools, and their winemaking space at Central Coast
Wine Services.
Despite having to pour wine five days a week, along with their other responsibilities, the Coreys appreciate the fact that they’re no longer forced to take long marketing trips nor haggle with distributors. They have complete control over the promotion of their wines and are thrilled to see the immediate results of direct sales.
“It’s a nicer situation for us,” Becky admitted. “We can be home, and we can manage the business without hiring employees.”
CORE Wine Company bottles about 4,000 cases each year, much of it Rhône-based blends. Dave is considered a “freakish fan” of the Rhône varietal Mourvèdre, a preference that Becky said he discovered while traveling.
“We spent time in the south of France,” she remembered, “and Dave fell in love with Mourvèdre and a lot of the Spanish blends.
“He always goes for off-the-wall things,” she laughed. “He would never go for Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. It’s way too mainstream for him.”
In addition to the CORE Wine Company brand, the Coreys have partnered with family members to create three other labels. Under the C3 label, Dave and his two younger sisters produce about 600 cases of a Tempranillo-based line of wines.
“We have a blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet [Sauvignon], and Merlot called Crazy 8’s,” Becky said. “A lot of people like it, because it seems like everyone grew up with that card game.
“When they first talked about naming it,” she added, “I [suggested] something from their childhoods. Big Wheel was the other contender.”
Another label, Turchi, involves Dave’s mother, Melinda, and her brother, Tony Turchi. It debuted in 2003 and features varietal wines made from fruit grown in eastern Santa Barbara County.
Kuyam, the newest of the brands, represents a popular Bordeaux-style line of wines. The name comes from a Chumash word meaning “a place to rest together.”
“We source a lot of the grapes from Cuyama,” Corey said, “where many pictographs left by the Chumash are still intact. We thought it’d be nice to do something positive in terms of the exposure the Chumash get.
“After some research,” she continued, “I did my own version of a sun sign, and that’s the main portion of the label.”
Against one wall of the tasting room stands a museum display dedicated to Dave Corey’s long family history in the Santa Maria area. It includes the original sign from the Main Street jewelry store owned by H.C. Corey in the 1920s, artifacts from as far back as 1914, and a digital frame holding 150 old and new family photographs.
“We both felt it was important for people to know that Dave’s family was from here,” Becky explained. “His grandma’s 96 and still living in Santa Maria. She’s a big part of our life, and we thought the display would be a nice tribute to her.”
When asked why CORE Wine Company boasts all those capital letters, Corey had to think a moment.
“I guess it’s an exclamation point,” she smiled, “or we’re yelling.
“When we were looking for a name, the word ‘core’ kept coming up,” she said. “Our tagline is ‘The core of every wine begins in the vineyard,’ so that’s where it came from, but it’s nice that it fit into our last name, too.”
Having enjoyed a long and prosperous history in the region, the Corey family continues to farm the land 130-odd years later. With Becky and Dave leading the charge, the family name will likely live on, shouted from premium wine labels, for decades to come.
K. Reka Badger’s got her burger ready. E-mail comments or ideas to rekabadger@hotmail.com.
This article appears in Nov 19-26, 2009.
