Las Jaras Mendocino County Sparkling Wine NV

More about Las Jaras

As a rule, celebrity endorsed wines are best to be avoided. They are the contemporary equivalent of all those perfumes we were subjected to a decade or so ago, and usually don't taste any better. So when Eric Wareheim (irreverent comedian from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job and lurch-like best friend in Aziz Ansari’s Master of None) first started hinting about his own wine label we were both skeptical and intrigued.

We were skeptical for the obvious reasons, but intrigued because we have been paying some attention to his food/wine journey on social media where he ate and drank a lot of the same things that excite us.

It wasn't always like this. Less than a decade ago Eric was more of a Colt 45 kinda of guy. With the success of Tim and Eric he started to experience the finer things in relation to food and drink, hitting up Beverly Hills wine tastings always dressed in all pink. Along with Aziz Ansari, he started haunting some of the most exciting restaurants in the U.S.: places like Night Market in LA, the Four Horsemen in Brooklyn, where they made quick friends with the chefs and sommeliers.

Along the way, Eric met Joel Burt, a seasoned California winemaker who worked for Domaine Chandon as well as many other smaller labels. He became Eric's wine shepherd and at some point they decided to start their own label, Las Jaras. It took about three years to get the thing up and running. During that time Eric immersed himself in wine: he visited winemakers in their cellars, participated in harvests, and tasted countless samples. He eventually started consulting on the blending of wines for Las Jaras.

Like many of the wines Eric drinks, the wines of Las Jaras are made with little or no additives and sourced from sites that are sustainably farmed. This natural approach suits Joel’s winemaking beautifully. His years working for large and small producers gives him the insight into making the hundreds of tiny decisions that go into making great wine. He looks for inspiration in those legendary bottles California produced in the late '60s and '70s, with their lower alcohol levels; deliciously drinkable and long-lived.

Las Jaras wines are a pleasure to drink. They are filled with rich fruit that’s never heavy. Naturally made but clean and precise. They are perfectly suited for a steak house or some Thai street food. They are made with care and an obsessive attention to detail but don't take themselves too seriously. It's either a testament to the wine, or my ingrained skepticism towards celebrity wines, that every time I open a bottle and take a sip I am surprised at how downright delicious these wines are.