Blues Cuvée

History of the Blues Cuvée artist series

The story of what inspired the Blues Cuvée label begins of course with wine. Rick bottled one of the first varietal Cabernet Franc wines from Santa Barbara County in 1990. At first, many wine buyers were hesitant to support the wine, saying that they didn’t have many people coming in asking for a Cabernet Franc. Restauranteurs explained that they didn’t have a category for Cabernet Franc on their wine list. Rick felt too strongly about the potential of this noble grape in our area and vowed to continue bottling it. He decided perhaps a change of packaging might help overcome the hesitation to buy the wine. A devotee of the Blues since his teen years, Rick decided to commemorate this musical genre with an artistic label. He named the wine “Blues Cuvée” and introduced the wine in 1993. Every other year Rick selects an artist to create artwork for the new releases of the Blues Cuvée. You will see the Blues Cuvée art labels with a brief background of each artist. Lithographs on archival paper for all of our labels are available at our tasting room or in our webstore.