Forever Journey Begins for 10 Ninths Wines in the Sta. Rita Hills

Ten divided by nine is 1.1111 … forever. 

“In my eyes, it symbolizes continual improvement and continual advancement,” says Michael Mente, the ecommerce fashion mogul behind the Sta. Rita Hills estate winery 10 Ninths. “That’s philosophically how we’re approaching things. We enjoy the wines that we drink now, but we also think that there’s progress to be made. It’s like a forever journey.”

Mente is the creative force behind the online clothing sales engines FRWD and Revolve, which went public in 2019 and is now worth more than $1 billion. Two years later, the 45-year-old purchased the former Hilliard Bruce estate, home to a modernist winery and 21 acres of pinot noir and chardonnay vines. Originally planted in 2004, it’s a prime chunk of the appellation, situated on the north side of Highway 246 about five miles east of Lompoc, with undulating aspects on sandy hills that face almost every direction. 

A fan of fine wine since before he could legally drink, Mente first started coming to Santa Barbara wine country about 20 years ago. One of the first places he visited was Melville Winery. “Fast forward 15 years later, I was looking for a family getaway,” said Mente, who thought the property, which had been on the market for three years, was super beautiful. “And it’s like two doors down from Melville.” 

With his brother Stephen Lou and childhood friend Charn “CJ” Premyodhin, Mente enlisted consulting winemaker Frederick Ammons, a Bordeaux-trained winemaker whose Napa résumé includes Rudd and Harlan estates. He had taught some of the UC Davis classes that the team took after buying the property, and they kept in touch.

“We felt like we could have a good, natural working relationship,” said Mente, who was generally impressed with the folks he started meeting. “In the wine world, people are very open and very welcoming and really into the community. We just clicked with Frederick.”

With the suggestion of superstar somm-turned-vigneron Rajat Parr, Ammons enlisted winemaker Alice Anderson of Âmevive to handle the day-to-day winemaking. That happens in the property’s gravity-fed contemporary facility — complete with changing neon-ish lights.  

“It’s been interesting making wine in a discotheque,” laughed Anderson during a recent visit over lunch and many bottles this summer. “But now I’m used to it!”

The first vintage was 2021 from the inherited vines, and Anderson and Ammons have spent the ensuing years tightening up the vineyard, which had gone more for quantity than quality as it sat on the market. The 2021s are solid, but the recent release of 2023s reveal 10 Ninths’ potential: chalky, acid-driven chardonnays reflective of the Sta. Rita Hills’ best, and savory, chaparral-inflected pinot noirs that recall the famed Domaine de la Cote bottlings crafted by Parr and Sashi Moorman.  

“We want to do something that is an honest reflection of the place,” said Ammons, who is happy to be working for a team that has the required patience and financial wherewithal to make good things happen. “There was a realization and honesty from the beginning that it takes time.”

The absence of overwhelming pressure to immediately turn a profit leads to experimentation, such as the planting of some syrah and the development of a sparkling wine program. 

“This turned out way better than we would have thought,” said Mente. “And sparkling is one of those things where I’m a little particular. It’s hard to drink a lot of the mainstream brands for me. It ended up becoming like a real hit.” He’s also stoked on the rosé they’ve made, which only goes to friends and family. 

Born in Malaysia but raised around Los Angeles, Mente recalls his dad enjoying wine on occasion, and having a bottle of Opus One propped up on the top-shelf. “He probably got it at Costco way back in the day,” said Mente. “He never opened it.”

After briefly attending USC, Mente started working for a software startup at just 19 years old, traveling around the country on sales trips.

“I’m in my early 20s, and my friends are home having fun, and I’m on the road with my boss,” said Mente, who’d dine at old-school steakhouses in places like Dallas and Atlanta when he wasn’t quite 21. “I remember the first time I had a solid glass. I believe it was a Dominus. I was like, ‘This is different. This is cool. I like this.’” Meanwhile, Charles Shaw and other low-priced bottles were flying off the shelves of Trader Joe’s, giving him a broader, more affordable appreciation. 

Though his tech job vanished in the early 2000s dot.com bust, Mente knew that the Internet was here to stay. In 2003, he turned his fashion passion into an online marketplace called Revolve, one of the first to develop style influencers into a successful sales force. 

That gave him the ability to drink better regularly. Around 2006, when the 2004 vintage of Kosta Browne scored high with critics, he was intrigued. “I was able to hunt down a bottle. That got me hooked.” 

The name for 10 Ninths came to him late at night when he was trying to relax, which is when his best creative thinking happens. 

“Stylistically, it’s trying to make it perfect and balanced, but also making it a little extra, a little bit more than one,” said Mente, who is very aware of his newcomer status in the industry.  “We knew that we were coming from a different perspective. We’re not industry folks. We’re not formally trained. We’re not multi-generational. We don’t want to fake it.”

Grapes won’t be the only game. “In my ideal world, we’d have a total farm,” said Mente. 

The property is home to horses and sheep, which is the source of delicious meat for the family and could become part of a fiber program for the clothing lines. He recently started dabbling in the fragrance market and sees potential in growing flowers and herbs to supply that as well. 

“It’s a bit more of an efficient use of space than, like, growing squash,” he said. “We already have a ton of rosemary and lavender. So, this is already working. We should do something with that.”

The bucolic spread would also be a great place for farm-to-table winemaker dinners down the road. “What’s right in front of us?” said Mente of how he’s approaching future moves. “The goal would be to execute a really nice dinner and get it down. Then we can think about how to scale up from there.”

10 Ninths (10ninths.com) will be pouring at the 41st annual Santa Barbara Vintners Festival on Sat., Oct. 18, 1-4 p.m. at Vega Vineyard & Farm. Tickets range from $25 (non-drinking) to $2,500 (private cabana), with GA set at $125. See sbvintnersweekend.com.