Britta Roberts Of Work Street Wines

April 1, 2022 – Say hello to a young woman who really knows how to pick a portfolio and work a crowd. Salinas native Britta Roberts had an Ag career in mind when she attended Cal Poly as an Ag major, but she wasn’t really thinking about wine. She signed up for a study abroad program in Australia thinking it would be fun, and it literally changed her life, as venturing forth into the world with half a plan often does.  

“Basically, it was an excuse to travel,” Roberts admits. “When I got there and met the locals, they took me under their wing, taking me to many wineries off the beaten track. I met all these seriously legitimate local winemakers, and I was absolutely hooked!” 

The trip down under helped her set her sextant towards a career in the wine world. “When I came home, I told myself that I needed to learn there is everything there is to know! Yes, it was a lofty goal!” For a couple of years, she lived in San Luis Opisbo and worked with several different wineries, including with Scheid for a harvest. She also did a stint in the tasting room at I. Brand & Family in Carmel Valley.

While living in Paso Robles, she began working for a boutique winery (Bodegas de Edgar) doing wholesale and discovered that this was her space in the industry. She really enjoyed the challenge and the interaction with the buyers, and started the paperwork to become a broker a couple of years ago. 

Roberts admits the whole concept morphed during pandemic, and is now a mix of direct to consumer and wholesale. “My dream was to have an online wine shop, so I got a combined license, which is essentially two businesses in one. The retail part is the website, and I am shipping currently to California, New Mexico and DC, while working on a couple of other states. I do local deliveries every Thursday.’’

She’s now living back in Salinas where she grew up, occupying part of the building her parents own. They used to have towing and auto repair shop that was sold in December 2019, and she now occupies that side of the building, which is shared with a computer software shop. Work Street Wines is named for the street where her wine storage unit and offices are located.

She says that while the direct to consumer part of the business is all online, the wholesale side keeps her bouncing all around the Central Coast. “I have some amazing accounts that have put together workshops and popups with me. They get really creative and fun, like the recent Veggie and Wine Pairing Night at Hacienda Hay and Feed. All of the wines are sustainably grown and small production.” 

Her focus on sustainably grown fruit and minimal intervention in the cellar has enabled her to put together a portfolio that is strong in both local Central Coast producers as well as imports from Spain, France and Italy—which she sources from Bon Vivant Imports.  

Says Roberts, “Locally, I represent Tamara Franscioni’s canned rosé, Mini Vacay. Also from Paso Robles, I have Avenales Ranch, Rangeland and Slamdance Koöperatieve Wines—which is the debut label for the assistant winemaker at Thacher. All of the wines have really great stories behind them and are made with a lot of care and intention. All follow the same ideology. All are sustainable, and some are organic and even biodynamic. It’s the thought and care put into how the grapes are grown, along with hands off winemaking, that creates the story I want to share.”

Her wholesale accounts are mostly smaller family owned restaurants and small wine shops and bars. The majority are in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles because of her previous business connections. Some appreciate the stories and can relate to the small scale of the wineries whose products Work Street represents, but it’s really the end consumers who are asking the questions like “Where does this wine come from? Is it sustainably grown? Is it organic?” and so forth. It’s that consumer interest in what they are drinking that drives her.

Roberts is expanding in the Salinas area, including Gifts on the Go. She also has her wines at Vertigo in San Juan Bautista, and in Carmel she’s expanded to the Cheese Shop, Brophy’s and La Playa Carmel, with more in the works.

Her hope is to bring on a broker or sales rep that can help her cover the rather sizeable territory she’s bit off. “Right now, I’m trying to keep the portfolio manageable and get my name out there, to advertise the retail side of it. Wholesale has its benefits, in that I get to see people face to face to share the stories, which is a easier than through a screen!” 

She is working with her accounts to do more events where people can taste some of her wines from producers like Alex Kemp, the head winemaker at Rangeland. Says Roberts, “He called me up and said, I made all this wine and I don’t know what to do with it!!” He has Pinot Noir from Chenes Vineyard in Edna Valley (from which Lady of the Sunshine sources) and Semillon from Vogelsang Vineyard. 

She also carries winemaker Daniel Callan’s Slamdance CA Red Wine, a red blend of Negrette from Siletto Vineyard, Cinsault from Glenrose Vineyard in the Adelaida district of Paso Robles and Valdiguie from Shell Creek (25 years old). She says he handed her a tech sheet that was 8 pages long. “He’s trying to create a wine that reflects California, but not in modern times. Instead, he’s searching for the grapes that were first planted in CA, older varietals. He is super gentle and methodical. Each is hand bottled and hand labeled, and he chooses to make a blend vs a single varietal, because that accurately reflects the way wines were made from the outset here. This a serious project: not a hipster wine,” says Roberts.

“Avenales Ranch is actually the owner of Shell Creek Vineyards, which is where Daniel Callan got his Valdiguie for Slamdance. So, it is the same fruit! Small wine world…”

She wants to keep it that way, but she’d like you to be part of it. Check out her portfolio at Work Street Wines.