New Sacramento winery pairs wine with cannabis, Marvel characters, movies and more

Everyone knows white wines pair well with fish, and red wines are best with steak. But for the average college student who’s evening consists of noodles and Netflix or a book worm who’s looking for a glass to pair with their favorite Jane Austen novel, Lucid & Voluptuary Wines has a wine pairing for them.

And for many others too.

Each bottle of wine from this award-winning winery is paired with food, music, literature and life. For instance, Lucid Winery’s “Delirium”, a cabernet sauvignon, is paired with the song “Apple Tree” by Erykah Badu, a quote from a Dr. Seuss book and a ride into battle atop of a stallion.

Kevin Luther opened Lucid Winery in March 2022 with the idea to create a wine tasting experience friendly for people from all walks of life. Not only are patrons given the opportunity to pair their wine with movies, Marvel characters or colors of the rainbow, but the menu consists of wines infused with original ingredients, such as sage, hibiscus, cider and beer.

“You basically tell us what you like, what you don’t, or give us a story,” said Jerome Luther, the brother of the owner. “We can pair you a flight of wines based off of that.”

Lucid Winery’s menu of original wine recipes has earned Luther the reputation of being experimental for even the most experimental of winemakers.

“He’s not following a recipe, he’s creating recipes,” said Taira Mulliken, the owner of a small, local vineyard who regularly donates her grapes to the winery. “I’m not aware of any commercial winemaker who, for instance, is putting sage into a white wine blend.”

The winery that almost wasn’t

The year of the pandemic was hard for everyone, eccentric winemakers included. Luther and his brother lost their father in January 2020, and each had ended a long-term romantic relationship.

Two months later, COVID nearly upended plans for a business Luther had poured a majority of his savings into.

When the pandemic canceled Lucid & Voluptuary Wines’ launch party on March 28, 2020, the winemaker found himself among the 44% of small businesses in California at risk of permanent closure due to the pandemic. By August 2020, one in four small businesses would not survive the next three months, according to a small business majority survey, with another one in five small businesses predicting they would close in four to six months.

“I knew that if I didn’t do something, I’d go out of business,” Luther said, who cashed out his retirement and invested most of his savings into opening Lucid Winery. “We couldn’t launch physically, so we decided to launch virtually.”

Luther developed a pack of five mini wine bottles, unheard of in the sale of traditional wines which typically sell individual bottles, for the use of at-home wine tasting kits. For a virtual wine tasting experience, Luther and his brother hosted Facebook lives where they paired their wines with music, literature, food and even cannabis.

“We’re just getting progressively drunk and cracking jokes, talking about wine,” Luther said.

The Facebook streams went viral, Luther said, picking up nearly 100,000 views after a few weeks. This caught the attention of corporate groups such as Google and Amazon, who asked Luther if his business could lead their wine tastings.

“I was like, ‘Have you seen our videos? We’re not exactly PG,’” Luther said, meaning the videos weren’t exactly prim and proper, just laid back, good fun. “They said, ‘No, that’s exactly why we want you. Most wineries are stale and boring– you guys are having fun with it.’”

Within the first year and a half from the start of his new business in 2020, Lucid & Voluptuary Wines sold $3 million dollars worth of at-home wine tasting kits, “an insane amount of money” to bring in for a startup winery, Luther said.

“I had this incredible upswell of good fortune. Some of it hard earned but also, you know, there’s a degree of luck in everything,” Luther said.

R Street corridor

This historic part of Sacramento is a mostly warehouse-lined stretch of buildings dating back to the late 19th century, home to some of the oldest structures in the city. The buildings in this corridor are undergoing redevelopment as part of the city’s mission to reuse and preserve the “historic character” of Sacramento, according to the city’s R Street Historic District Plan.

Luther, who started his winery as a side business in 2017, said he wanted to strip off the “snootiness” of the average winery and focus on a fun, experimental vibe. Opened in one of Sacramento’s oldest buildings on the R Street corridor, the large warehouse winery is filled with over a hundred plants, a thousand books, games and instruments.

“I wanted to share the reason why I launched this winery,” Luther said. “Sustainability, plants, books and good vibes.”

Luther practices environmentally-friendly techniques in the creation of his wines, sourcing his grapes from biodynamic farms, allowing natural yeast to ferment the grapes and mixing the barrels by hand (which are sanitized, of course).

Biodynamic farmers, similar to organic farming, avoid the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers on their crops. Unlike organic farming, this approach includes adding “fermented manure, plant, and mineral-based preparations” to the farmer’s soil, crops and compost, according to an article published in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture.

“If we just spray tons of chemicals and pesticides on the farm, we get crappy produce that isn’t as healthy for us and is bad for the environment,” Luther said.

Mulliken, who took viticulture and enology courses after she and her husband purchased Oro Vista Vineyard in 2018, said she was “astounded to learn” of the harmful effects common viticulture and enology practices had on the environment.

Viticulture is the study of grape cultivation. Luther studied at UC Davis, which offers a major in viticulture and enology, the study of wine making, that focuses on the scientific breakdown and chemical process of transforming grapes into wine.

Mulliken said Luther was one of the few biodynamic winemakers she could find within the Sacramento area.

“Nobody in the El Dorado County was doing what Kevin and Jerome were doing,” Mulliken said. “He’s revolutionary.”

A salute to Sacramento

The paintings which decorate the labels of Lucid Winery’s bottles were created by a local Sacramento artist, Micah Crandall-Bear. He said Luther branching out to start his own business reminded him of his peers in the art world, launching projects they’re passionate about, even if it’s a long shot.

“I have a lot of respect and admiration for anyone who gambles on themselves,” Crandall-Bear said. “Artists do that a lot.”

With the freedom to dive into his own “crazy ideas and weird wine making approaches,” Luther worked to bring the taste of Sacramento into his wine flavors by combining the use of “locally foraged elements.” The winemaker said he was inspired by the diversity and culture of Sacramento when he returned after years of working at vineyards across the globe.

“It’s a surprisingly rich town that, when you grow up here, you don’t see that. But once I had that zoom out in the world I realized how interesting Sacramento actually was,” Luther said. “I wanted to be part of that.”

Luther and his brother visited charity events on a weekly basis during the pandemic, donating their wine and their time as a way to help take care of people and spread word about their new up and coming business. After Lucid Winery blew up in sales by the end of their first year, the business continued to donate to local charities and rent out their space out, free of charge, for fundraising events.

“It’s the community that raised us,” Jerome said.

Linda Glassel, president of the California chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, said Luther had been supportive of the National MS Society for several years and considered him an “integral part of the community.” During the pandemic, Lucid Winery donated their at-home wine tasting kits as part of a virtual fundraising event, and the National MS Society regularly holds fundraisers at the winery’s donated space.

“He does feel really strongly about giving back to the community,” Glassel said.

The mission to give and support their local community was inspired by the Luther brothers’ grandmother, Clarice Luther or “The Flower Lady,” as known by many in the East Sacramento area. Their grandmother raised 12 children as a single mom after her husband died, but always had room at the table for an extra plate, despite the many mouths she had to feed.

“The doors were always open, there was always a seat at the table with an extra plate,” Jerome said. “Never in the 30 years I knew her was that door ever locked a single time. People were free to come and go, everyone was welcome.”

Clarice was locally famous for her efforts in preserving historic trees, as well as planting trees, around the Sacramento community, which earned her special recognition through an award by The Sacramento Tree Foundation. After her death in 2017, Clarice was remembered by loved ones through the purchase of a Memorial Tree that was planted in her honor.

“They live here, too” is Lucid Winery’s first company policy, and the concept their grandmother lived by, who never turned away a person in need from her doorstep.

“Anybody can come through those doors. They deserve water, respect, conversation,” Jerome said. “You live here now, too.”

If you go

For those looking to try this experimental winery, Lucid Winery is located at 1015 R Street, open:

• 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday

• 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday

• 11 a.m. to 10 pm. on Saturday

• 11 a.m. to 9 pm. on Sunday

Wines, event reservations and memberships applications can be found at Lucid & Voluptuary Wines’ website at lucidwinery.com.