Meet an Orange County winemaker who crushes his own grapes onsite.
For those who live in Orange County and the millions of tourists who visit each year, Laguna Beach is a world-class destination with pristine beaches, luxurious hotels and renowned restaurants.
But as you traverse down the canyon on Highway 133, those who enjoy unfiltered and award-winning wines might want to stop at Laguna Canyon Winery for an indulgent experience.
Owned and operated by winemaker and sommelier J.J. Huber, the winery is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and is home to a fleet of wines whose grapes are sourced from Napa, Sonoma and Lake County.
Huber grew up on a ranch in Canada and he knew he always wanted to be tied to the land or agriculture for a living. In the early 1990s, he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia where he met his mentor, Gianni Seminari, an oenologist and winemaker from Milan, Italy.
There, Huber began making wine and would get his grapes from California and bring them over the U.S-Canadian border. Along with his brother, they opened a winery in the Vancouver area in 1993 and three years later, they opened another.
After garnering a slew of awards and acclaimed recognition, Huber turned his sights to California. In 2004, he opened Laguna Canyon Winery, Orange County’s first urban winery.Huber, now 61, takes pride that the entire winemaking process – from crushing the grapes, fermenting, pressing, barrel aging to bottling the wine – happens at his location in Laguna Beach. In 2021, he drove 2,500 miles in five days from Sonoma County to the winery hauling three varietals.
“It gives you more control over every step of the winemaking process,” Huber said. “Every harvest you get to create different wines, and each one has a their own unique expression and style.”
Huber is a firm believer that much of a wine’s essence is lost during filtering. He has remained committed to making unfiltered wines. He only produces two barrels of each of his red wines.
“I believe that unfiltered red wines increase the quality by at least 20 percent,” he said. “The way they taste in the barrel is the way they will taste in your glass.”
Production now sits at about 1,000 cases a year, more than 2 ½ times than what Huber made when he first opened his doors in Orange County.
The results have clearly paid off. In honor of the winery’s 20th anniversary, Huber entered a dozen wines into the OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition and 10 of his entries received a medal, including Double Golds for his 2022 Due Viti-Two Point O, an Italian Style blend, and the 2020 Grenache.
“What I do now really is winemaking for a passion, more so than making wine for a profit,” Huber said. “To me, it’s about the craft and making the highest quality wines.”
The winery has the ambience of a traditional tasting room with a musical flair for Huber’s love of 80s hard rock n’ roll on a massive 160-inch big screen. Visitors can pour their own wines thanks to automatic wine tasting machines straight from Tuscany — a needed “pandemic pivot.” He also offers an educational, 1-on-1 premium wine and barrel tasting experience.
The winery also hosts monthly wine pairing dinners where the different varietals are infused into the dishes for a superb epicurean experience. For instance, one dinner featured a filet mignon that had a demi-glaze with Huber’s reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and paired with the same Cabernet.
Huber also recently hired a new enologist who was the head winemaker at Joseph Phelps Vineyards in Saint Helena for 15 years. He called her the “missing piece of the puzzle to my Picasso of award-winning, handcrafted boutique wines.”
Huber’s goal is to purchase five acres of vineyards somewhere in Southern California so he can tie it to the winery that would be the pinnacle to the dream he has made a reality for most of his adult life.
While his biggest challenge may be getting more people in the door who are on their way to or leaving Laguna Beach, Huber considers himself blessed by the profession that has provided him with so much and the people who have been along for the ride.