Potek Winery · Santa Barbara · Since 2012
A reverence for site. A search for balance.
Potek is a small-production winery in Santa Barbara. We work with individual vineyards across the county, bringing traditional techniques to the grapes grown here.
We believe in celebrating traditions and family, and that wine is a part of both.
The family name · Dave Potter
A name carried forward.
In our family’s telling, Berl Potek came from Romania in 1917 and became Benjamin Potter as he passed through Ellis Island. He was my great-grandfather. The name Potter stayed with us for three generations.
He worked in the fabric trade in New York. The photographs that remain show the family’s working life: the shop, the cutting table, the rolls of cloth.
I began producing Potek wines in 2012. His move, and the work of adapting to a new place, inform how I think about making wine. Calling on tradition, but allowing it to evolve.
The lettering and the patterns
The story is in the details.
The label lettering takes its cues from old Romanian type and hand-drawn alphabets. The patterns come from textiles, carried into the winery’s black-and-white tile.
The family story is part of the room as well as the name on the bottle. Old forms, adapted to new surroundings.
The vineyards
A belief that place matters.
I’m interested in lessons from the Old World, without trying to replicate its wines. Santa Barbara County has its own microclimates and vineyard sites to explore.
Each year we learn a little more about the vineyards we work with. We work closely with growers, finding particular rows and keeping an eye out for places we haven’t worked with before.
I have been producing Riesling from Kick On Ranch since 2009. In Los Alamos, fog and cool ocean breezes give the fruit time to ripen slowly. At Sanford & Benedict, our Pinot Noir comes from the original 1971 own-rooted plantings.
Different places, kept separate. Their names go on the bottles.
Harvest and the cellar
Tradition, still evolving.
“We believe in winemaking traditions of generations past, but not without evolving.”
We work with growers to fine-tune our vineyard blocks and experiment with techniques in the cellar. What we do changes from year to year, because nature is not static.
Our fruit comes straight from farmers’ hands into ours. We open the bins and check the fruit when it arrives. From there, we apply as little winemaking overlay as possible, keeping the vineyard in the wine.
Potek
The current wines.
The winery at The Mill
A place to share it.
Sharing our wines with people, and connecting them to what we love and what we do, is part of the work.
Come for a tasting, or settle in with a glass or bottle. Find us at The Mill, 406 E. Haley Street, Suite 1, in Santa Barbara. See the visit page for current hours and reservations.
We want to make something beautiful.
