Municipal Winemakers owner Dave Potter started making wine during his undergraduate studies at UCSB.

He landed a job at Sunstone Vineyards and Winery pouring wine, and befriended winemaker Blair Fox, who introduced him to work in the wine cellar scrubbing tanks and cleaning barrels.

Potter then moved to Santa Cruz, working at Byington Vineyard & Winery, then received his master’s degree in oenology and viticulture from Curtin University in Margaret River, Western Australia.

“I spent some time working in France, and the nicest thing about working there was how self-sufficient everything is,” Potter said. “Everything is produced and consumed within that same municipality. It’s a small production for locals.”

Municipal Winemakers, at 28 Anacapa St. in Santa Barbara, follows a similar by locals, for locals mentality, with the company producing about 700 cases of wine each year since Potter began making wine in 2007. He opened a tasting room last February.

“When you’re a small brand like us, it’s all about customer relations and trying to build those one-on-one relationships with customers,” Potter said. “We do a good job differentiating with our packaging; it doesn’t look like most wine brands. We’re also trying to make wines that are a little bit interesting, styles that I personally like to drink myself that are a little more interesting than the ‘vanilla’ varietals.”

Among the most popular wines featured at Municipal are a 2008 sparkling Syrah called Fizz and the 2009 Bright White, a Riesling.

“We have three different wines on tap,” Potter said. “We fill up a kind of reusable glass bottle with a swing top, and you can bring it back. It’s $25 the first time, then $20 per liter to refill it.”

Potter said he doesn’t like to play the “green card,” but his winery strives to be as eco-friendly as possible. Municipal Winemakers works to use paperless receipts and as little water as possible. All of the grapes used to make wine are from sustainably farmed vineyards, a couple are organic and one vineyard is a biodynamic vineyard.

“A biodynamic vineyard is one step beyond organic where you’re also farming for processes and routines,” Potter said. “You harvest on certain lunar cycles, and you’re in touch with the Earth’s way of farming.”

Municipal’s outreach to the Santa Barbara community includes donating wine for 1st Thursday events.

“I get a lot of requests for wine donations, and I do as much as I can to help out with those things,” Potter said. “We’re just trying to be present and part of it all. I love Santa Barbara, and it’s just what I wanted to come back to.”

The tasting room at Municipal Winemakers is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Click here for more information.

— Noozhawk business writer Taylor Orr can be reached at torr@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @NoozhawkBiz, @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.