Michael Keller lives his two passions of wine and advertising as co-owner and CEO of The Blending Lab in Paso Robles, and a SVP of Marketing Analytics. A seasoned veteran of creative, media and analytics functions in advertising, Michael teamed up with his life partner Magdalena and Chris, one of his friends, to launch The Blending Lab, a rare and unique winery and tasting room right in the middle of Los Angeles. Michael believes that the best part of making wine is physically getting to play with the wine, whether in fermentation or in large scale blending trials, so The Blending Lab was specifically started to bring the fun of blending and experimentation to wine lovers right here in LA. Media Inquiries: magdalena@thewineblendinglab.com | https://www.thewineblendinglab.com/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
It’s really encapsulated in our brand name – The Blending Lab. We are all about our wine blending experiences, which we bring direct to our customers to enjoy rather than stealing all the fun for ourselves. Our goal is to use these really fun wine blending experiences to make wine much more approachable and simpler, and make our customers really feel like wine is FOR EVERYONE! It doesn’t matter if you’re a novice or expert, we want you to come with an open mind and learn about your personal preferences. Instead of telling our customers what to drink and what’s ‘the best’, we really give them back the power to make their own wine choices though education and experimentation. We want to make sure that their takeaway is that wine is not uptight or pretentious. WINE IS FUN!
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained. Sky’s the limit!
Given the status of wine industry today with everyone reporting less traffic, lower sales velocities, reductions to harvest, and the constant news that consumers are moving away from wine (and alcohol in general!), we’d take on the mission to SAVE (and change) THE WINE INDUSTRY. Now that may sound a little bullish and even presumptuous to some, but we think that our concept lends itself to help build, nurture and educate a whole new generation of wine consumers. We wouldn’t do that by telling them what to drink because of this, that, 96+ rated, etc… Rather, by providing them with the concepts, vocabulary and tools to decide for themselves.
We want to give power back to consumers to pursue their own wine destinies and not feel the pressure to have to know ‘all’ of the terminology to enjoy wine. For example – in a recent class it seemed like we were talking about so many superfluous concepts that were well beyond the 101s needed to viscerally enjoy wine – the concepts felt like 501s, or we even joked some details were 1001s. Master of Wine sorts of stuff. The average consumer just won’t have the time to enjoy wine on those terms, and that doesn’t make them less deserving of the opportunity to enjoy fantastic wine.
We believe that the wine industry will blossom when it’s perceived as more “fun” to explore. To kickstart that renaissance, we envision “LABs” opening up all over the country (and world!) where people will be able to take part in the experience and enjoy our magical combo of great wine and knowledge sharing to catalyze their wine journeys based on a foundation of knowing the basics about their own preferences. We see blending happening at conventions as team-building events, at weddings as guest favors, at music festivals. Sky’s the limit! We have so many more BIG IDEAS planned to launch in the new few years, one that we hope changes the industry dramatically …but our lips are sealed for now!
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
MPS! That’s MERLOT and Petite Sirah. What a match made in heaven of two grapes that really start and finish each other’s sentences. It’s a wine of youthful power that ages to more graceful finesse when you think about how the basic chemistry of those two varietals complement each other without overly competing with each other. Check out the wine review here.
What’s the one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?
We live double lives! On top of running this business, we have other careers in advertising! We’re big on the 9 to 5 to midnight lifestyle. That’s how you know this pursuit matters to us.