January 21, 2010
Hush Hush Crush, Scoopin the Barrio Winery
When Miriello Grafico moved to Barrio Logan in 2007, it was to become a part of an authentic, emerging and vibrant community. And there are no regrets. Quite the opposite. It’s been an electric few years being a part of a community hungry to be better understood and more appreciated for what it is. A visually rich place that makes you kick yourself whenever your out without a camera by your side. A place where you see families actually walking and holding hands.
So when my friend Enrique Limon from Riviera Magazine stopped into MG this week to compare cool Barrio-finds, he one-upped me with his report that there’s now a winery starting-up in the Barrio. Time to give the Barrio Logan Winery and Enrique Limon their due. (We’re heading down to meet Juan and his Nebbiolo.) Here’s Enrique’s scoop:
Hush-Hush Crush
An industrial warehouse just a stone’s throw away from the Navy Exchange complex and surrounded by auto mechanic and upholstery shops, is about the last place you would expect a budding winery to be housed. Just don’t tell that to 62 year-old Juan Díaz; who with a zest for life and a need to help out his community founded Barrio Logan Winery . Located in the back of Díaz day operation -a construction products testing and inspecting center- it’s the up-and-coming hood’s best kept secret. “I wanted to help out local barrio charities, but didn’t have any money to donate, all I had was my wine,” he recalls. “Then a little light when off in my head…it was one of those 2am things.” The result –thanks in part to his Valle de Guadalupe imported Vitis, is a winning sulfite free/organic combination whose sales have already helped organizations like the Urban Corps and the César Chávez Service Club .
His reward? Watching ladies leave kiss imprints in the casks of his not yet open to the public tasting area for good luck, as he sips on a glass of ANP–his trademark Anglicano, Nebbiolo and Petite Sirah blend. “It’s funny–30 years ago they used to kiss me, now they kiss the barrels,” he jokes.
-Enrique Limón
A different version of this appeared in the January issue of RIVIERA magazine. Enrique Limón is a San Diego-based writer and a recipient of the 2009 Academy for Alternative Journalism residential fellowship at Northwestern University.