With his long dark hair and laidback vibe, you could easily mistake Chase Carhartt for a surfer, but spend a few minutes with this fourth-generation Californian and you’ll soon discover that he’s quite intense—at least when it comes to wine. “The biggest audience for wine is 60 plus and I want to change that. I want the next generation to embrace wine the way they have beer and spirits.” Young and passionate, Carhartt is part of a new generation of winemakers who are working tirelessly to debunk wine myths.
Carhartt was born into the business, growing up on his parent’s vineyard, Rancho Santa Ynez, in the heart of the Central Coast. Though his parents, Mike and Brooke, never set out to make wine (they planted grapes as a project), Carhartt never considered anything else. “I was seven when we planted, nine when we had our first vintage, and I worked on the farm my whole life,” he says. He earned a degree in oenology from California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, where the program dictated a practical. “Most people stayed nearby, but I wanted to go abroad.” He chose South Africa. “I turned 21 in the air and when I landed, I realized I found my people.” He stayed for four months, learning the process, and seeing winemaking in a new light. “I realized that winemaking is really an international business. Almost every country makes wine.”
He returned to the family farm with a fresh take. “The thing about the wine business is 60 percent of the industry is controlled by seven or eight large corporations. Carhartt Family Wines is in the other 40 percent. We’re a family farm.” However, Carhartt sees their size as a selling point. “We’re small—we produce 7,500 cases a year—but out of those cases, we make 35 different wines.” They also only sell directly to consumers, “which means our wines are taken from onsite to tasting so there’s no need for preservatives and we’re able to use more natural products.” Just as consumers are increasingly interested in knowing where their food comes from, Carhartt hopes they’ll also learn where their wine comes from. “Wine is a live product. It’s healthy—it’s made from real ingredients. It also has a story…I think wine is the most interesting thing in the world.”
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Still, Carhartt sees an uphill climb to get his generation to love wine the way he does. “Wine is often seen as something for your parents or something that has an elitist attitude. That needs to go.” To that end, he’s created a social media series called, “Not a Dumb Question.” Whether he’s extolling the pleasures of bagged wine (“Yes, it’s good"), demystifying natural wines (“Most wine is natural; it’s just marketing”), or predicting the future (“Good wine will move from glass bottles with corks to bags and cans for sustainability”), he engages his audience with his trademark “affable guru” style. It’s all part of his campaign to bring awareness to the younger audience by making it fun, a word that until recently brought shivers to old-school winemakers.
“We make premium-level wines, but they don’t have to be consumed in a stuffy environment," adds Carhartt. "Surround yourself with friends, play some music—it’s more than just what’s in the bottle; it’s an experience.” That ethos translates to their own tasting room, the Carhartt Cabin, in downtown Los Olivos, where they’ve practically bottled casual-cool. And, in case you’re wondering why the name sounds a bit familiar, they're indeed related to the famous rugged-cool clothing company based in the Midwest.
