Justin Willett grew up in Santa Barbara, California, without knowing much about the wine being made on his own doorstep. It was only later, at college in San Francisco and working as a waiter, that wine took hold of him. It was there, too, that he met Richard Sanford, the man many call the godfather of Santa Barbara wine.
Alongside his art history degree, Willett took a job with a wine producer, and his career began the way many good ones do, with a handful of barrels tucked into a corner of someone else's cellar.
Under the name Tyler, he buys the grapes he uses. The barrels he had in the cellar at his employer's place were labeled with his middle name, Tyler, and that's just how it stuck.
His chardonnay bottled in bag-in-box was released at Vinmonopolet in the September release, and is one of the very best buys at the Monopoly when it comes to boxed chardonnay.
