More than a decade into Las Jaras, winemaker Joel Burt and his cofounder, comedian, actor, and director Eric Wareheim, have settled into a clear shared sensibility. Founded in 2015, the winery began as Burt’s escape from corporate winemaking and as a way for Wareheim—best known for Tim & Eric, Master of None, and various food‑driven projects—to channel a long‑running obsession with wine (he even used to bring his own stemware to restaurants) into something lasting.

“We started in 2015 and really tried to make wines that have the spirit of old California—lower alcohol, food‑friendly, sunshine, but really about balance,” Burt said. “We try to make it so it’s not too much of a good thing.”

That balance wasn’t immediate. Early fruit sources were “not great,” as Burt puts it, and the first few vintages were exploratory. But by 2017 to 2018, the winery’s sensibility had crystallized: fresh, elegant, and structurally restrained wines with a clear point of view. “At first, maybe we were a bit rudderless,” he said. “Now all of our wines have a real cohesion. They taste like Las Jaras.”

Part of that cohesion comes from the way the winery has grown. Las Jaras now functions less like a single label and more like a small ecosystem. There’s the fine‑wine tier, where Burt channels his most technical, site‑driven work into Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir. There’s the more casual tier of “vibe” wines, blends built for freshness and drinkability like Glou Glou and Super Bloom. And there’s the canned Waves line, which extends the same sensibility into a more portable format.

Burt’s background provides some context for that consistency. He grew up in a farming family, worked his way through restaurant kitchens, studied winemaking at Fresno State, and learned early on to value balance over power. “In restaurants, you’re trying to create balance in food. Same thing in wine,” he said. His palate was shaped by lower‑alcohol Zinfandel and Pinot Noir, and later by Loire Chenin Blanc which he studied obsessively before attempting his own. That analytical streak shows up everywhere: in his move away from carbonic maceration (“a terroir eraser”) and in his experiments with what he calls “reverse saignée,” a technique that lightens red wines by increasing juice‑to‑skin ratio.

Wareheim approaches the project from the hospitality side. “Certain pairings are a hug,” he said, recalling the kind of familiar, comforting combinations that drew him to restaurants where hospitality is taken seriously. “It’s that familiarity that feels good.” From there, the connection deepens into something more personal. “When you love a winemaker and you look forward to that style, it’s trust. Some wines are like works of art… it’s nice to care for them like that.”

That trust shows up in the Las Jaras wine club, which Burt describes as “crazy loyal”—attrition is low; curiosity is high. And as the broader natural‑wine world has shifted away from instability and toward precision, Las Jaras has found new traction in restaurants, not just bottle shops.

Their recent Steakhouse Series collab with Thompson Hotels, a trio of dinners meant to celebrate Wareheim’s book Steak House, became a natural showcase for the winery’s more structured wines. “We made a Cabernet for the book that’s so good,” said Burt. “People are shocked, because they’re used to American Cabernet being big and oaky. Ours is elegant.”

For Wareheim, the dinners were a chance to show that Las Jaras isn’t just about the playful blends—it’s a winery making everything from bright, chillable reds to serious, age‑worthy bottles. “All the wine is really good, but now we have these fine wines Joel’s made," he said. "And they’re so incredible that it’s fun to show people this other side of our company."

Joel Burt’s Las Jaras Wine Picks

2023 Cézanne Chenin Blanc (Mendocino County), $36

Burt’s Chenin Blanc is the clearest expression of his technical rigor. He tasted “hundreds” of Loire Chenins before attempting his own, and he’s adamant about what he doesn’t want: “I don’t want a wine that’s soft, flabby, oxidized, or off‑dry,” he said. “I’m very adamant about no skin contact.” The result is a tightly coiled, mineral‑driven white with the saline snap of Saumur and the precision of a winemaker who presses lightly, protects aromatics, and avoids phenolic heaviness. It’s a wine built for oysters, goat cheese, and anything that needs a clean, architectural line of acidity.

2023 La Belle Promenade Chardonnay (Chehalem Mountains, Oregon), $58

From a 900‑foot vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains, this Chardonnay is pressed gently, fermented for a full year in tight‑grain Austrian oak, and then moved to stainless steel to firm up the structure. Burt adapted the approach from top Burgundy producers, and the result is a wine with clear definition and acidity—built to handle seafood, roast chicken, or anything that benefits from a clean, structured white. “This is really it for me … exactly the Chardonnay I feel I should be making,” he said.

2023 La Belle Promenade Pinot Noir (Chehalem Mountains, Oregon), $65

This Pinot Noir comes from two distinct blocks at La Belle Promenade. The first—the “orchestra block”—is a massal‑selection planting, meaning it’s made up of many different Pinot Noir clones interplanted at random. Instead of a single commercial clone, the vines come from cuttings taken from the best plants in the vineyard, creating natural variation in ripeness and flavor. Burt picks this block on the early side because he doesn’t like to add acid later in the winemaking process.

The second block is Pommard clone, and Burt ferments about 20% of it as whole clusters to bring a subtle spice note. In the cellar, he keeps extraction extremely light. When red wine ferments, the grape skins rise to the top and form a thick “cap.” Many winemakers punch that cap down to extract more color and tannin; Burt doesn’t. “I don’t even punch down … I just kind of get the cap wet,” he said. That gentle approach produces softer, finer‑grained tannins and a more delicate structure. The finished wine is red‑fruited, lightly savory, and versatile at the table—easy with duck, mushrooms, or seared tuna.

2025 Slipper Sippers (Nouveau‑Style Red), $25

Born out of the 2020 fire year—when carbonic maceration was the only way to avoid extracting smoke taint—Slipper Sippers has since become a cult favorite. Burt doesn’t usually love full carbonic wines; he finds they can taste volatile or too similar to one another. But he kept refining the approach, and by 2025, he said he’s “fully nailed this wine … mega light, super juicy, bright acidity.”

His solution is a hybrid technique he calls reverse saignée. Instead of bleeding juice off the skins to concentrate a red wine, he does the opposite: he adds juice back to the ferment to raise the juice‑to‑skin ratio. That dilutes the carbonic signature and keeps the wine fresh. The result is bright, crunchy, and effortless—the bottle you chill, open, and finish without thinking.

2022 Steak House Cabernet Sauvignon (Blend—87% Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley, 13% Zinfandel from Mendocino), $36

Created to pair with Wareheim’s Steak House book, this Cabernet is a deliberate throwback. “Old‑school Cabernet … soft and lush but still has acidity,” Burt said. A touch of Zinfandel rounds the edges, and extended aging gives it the suppleness of a wine from another era. It’s built for ribeye, lamb chops, or a classic wedge.

2022 Sweet Berry Wine (Blend—57% Zinfandel, 25% Petite Sirah, 18% Carignan; primarily Mendocino County), $42

The wine that started the partnership remains one of its most expressive. “The most elegant one we’ve ever made,” Burt said. “I kind of make all my reds to be shaped like a Pinot Noir even though they’re made of different varieties.” Here, Zinfandel, Carignan, and Petite Sirah come together in a dark, aromatic wine that finishes with surprising finesse. It’s the bottle for barbecue braises, holiday dinners or drinking by a fire.