Since 2013 our mission has been find great wines of great value that are ready to drink tonight.
Most people just never take their swing. That long-held dream of theirs is ever present, but time marches on, life takes hold, and ambition for practicality and comfort masquerades as true happiness. That’s the lie they tell themselves. Matt Espiro Jaeger and Carolina Espiro Jaeger are not most people. They took their swing…
There’s a fire beneath the surface of the NV Bán White Wine Blend from Fuil Wines, our August wine of the month. You can taste it in the wine’s tension, its restrained opulence, its confident architecture. It’s the kind of wine that doesn’t just happen. It’s built—crafted—by someone who believed in the idea enough to sweat for it, to risk for it, and to live it out with integrity. That someone is winemaker Matt Jaeger, who, alongside his wife Carolina, runs Fuil Wines, a tiny, passionate label nestled in Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley. Their journey together is not just the story of a winery—it’s the story of love, risk, patience, and purpose.
Bán (meaning “white” in Gaelic) is an unlikely triumph: a non-vintage blend that earned both Double Gold and Best-in-Class Chardonnay at this year’s Peninsula Underground Under the Radar California competition. What makes it so compelling? It’s not just a great Chardonnay—it’s a Chardonnay (89%) + Viognier (11%) hybrid that delivers freshness and finesse in equal measure. On the palate, tropical fruit, honeysuckle, and blossom rise to meet you first, opening into a core of wet stone and orange zest. And then there’s that honeyed, silken texture—a whisper of Viognier adding an extra dimension of richness and complexity. This is a wine that doesn’t scream; it sings.
Behind every sip of Bán (a ridiculous value at $32) is the story of a couple who, for two decades, made wine not just a hobby but a cornerstone of their relationship. From first dates to anniversaries, wine has followed Matt and Carolina like a second language—a way to connect, celebrate, and dream. When the time came to stop drinking other people’s dreams and start bottling their own, they launched Fuil Wines, a name that means blood, kin, land, and passion. And from the very start, they committed to sourcing grapes from organic and biodynamically farmed vineyards—because you can’t make honest wine without honest farming.
Matt’s path began in rural Wisconsin—an unlikely origin for a winemaker, perhaps, but all the more poetic for it. As a kid, he watched his father fall in love with wine through a community college class, and the ritual of pouring and talking about a bottle became a rare father-son connection. From that spark came a lifelong fascination. Later, Matt worked long hours and side gigs just to afford wines that moved him, absorbing their lessons and quietly plotting his own future among the vines.
Carolina’s path was more instinctive. Raised in a Chilean household where wine was an everyday staple, she understood wine as both nourishment and culture. But it wasn’t until she began working in restaurants and wine bars that she came to appreciate wine’s storytelling power—how a single sip can reveal a place, a climate, even a moment. As a filmmaker, that resonance stuck with her. Now, as co-owner of Fuil, Carolina brings not just vision but a deep emotional intelligence to every decision they make, from vineyard sourcing to storytelling.
This blend, Bán, embodies everything Matt and Carolina set out to do. It’s a wine made with patience and thoughtfulness, where the Santa Ynez sunshine is met with an Old World sensibility. It doesn’t lean too hard in any one direction—it just moves gracefully from brightness to depth to texture. There’s no flash here. Just finesse. And in the world of boutique California whites, that quiet confidence is everything.
With just a few hundred cases made, Fuil remains one of California’s best-kept secrets—but that secret is getting harder to keep. In just four vintages, they’ve racked up eight Best-in-Class wins at Peninsula Underground’s Under the Radar California competition, a staggering feat for any winery, let alone one so young. And their wine club, Kindred Fuils, keeps growing. It’s not hype. It’s not marketing. It’s just what happens when two people take their swing—and hit something beautiful.
Learn more about Fuil Wines, follow them, and purchase their wine here:
@FuilWines
