Mass Alla_Cleo and husband Jordan.jpeg

We’ve all done it: Declared sky-high ambitions at the peak of inebriation only to abandon them once the harsh light of days comes calling. But occasionally, dreams plant in fertile soil. Like the seed that took root for Más Allá (Spanish for beyond), a new wine label from owners Cleo de la Torre and husband Jordan.

It was February 2020. They were out at their favorite sushi place. It definitely wasn’t Valentine’s Day, De la Torre recalls. They never go out on Valentine’s Day. “‘Cause that’s a sh*t show,” she says. Beer and sake flowed as freely as their conversation, revisiting a recurring theme: their dream to make wine.

Declarations were made.

In a blink, De la Torre quit her teaching career in Los Angeles, and by 2021 the pair began making wine from Central Coast grapes without any additives, dyes, added sugars, or acids—natural wine, also known as low-intervention wine. Though those terms aren’t legally defined, the way the (incredibly-difficult-to-obtain and costly) organic certification is.

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They also moved to San Diego in 2021, shortly before their daughter, Xenia, arrived.

“My husband and I are very zero-to-60 when it comes to big life things,” De la Torre says. Shortly before they married they moved in together and Jordan started a new job, then they tied the knot—all in the same week. “That’s just how we roll,” she says.

So starting a business in a new industry in which they had only a tangential connection to tracks. Before teaching, De la Torre wrote about the craft beer and food scenes in Orange County and LA. Her husband brewed beer.

De la Torre credits her malleable constitution to her teaching career. Inflexibility isn’t an option when the classroom tech won’t cooperate, or an unscheduled assembly pops up, or especially when kids are having a (very human) moment, she says. “As a teacher, you can have a perfect lesson plan, but life isn’t something you can plan for,” De la Torre says. At least not all of the time.

This became clear as they forged ahead with Más Allá’s first vintage. Getting the proper operating licenses granted by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) felt like nails on a chalkboard for the couple.

“There are so many ridiculous forms and nuances, it’s amazing how many times things get sent back,” De la Torre says. And getting her wine labels approved? “Comical.”

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Turns out, what every person considers a front label on a bottle of wine—which likely includes a logo and maybe the style of grape—is considered the back label by ABC. All the technical stuff on the back label, like a bottle’s ABV level, should be the front label. It can be confusing.

“That took way longer than it needed to for sure,” De la Torre says.

Yoga is the other secret to her chill. The breathing and mindfulness techniques she cultivated with regular practice buoyed her through an unmedicated home birth. Floated her through the frustration of pandemic-related supply chain delays that held hostage the glass, cork, and labels needed to bottle their first vintage. Granted her access to the (very deep well of) patience and empathy she drew from when she was responsible for classrooms of 30-plus students.

Más Allá’s wines made its way into the wild earlier this year. The portfolio features popular varietals like Pinot Noir, and newer-to-the-average-wine-drinker grapes like Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc. Orange wine is trending, and Más Allá’s interpretation of the ancient winemaking technique where white grapes ferment with their skins and stems, is made from Chenin Blanc.

They’re food-first wines: high-acid, dry. California wines can be intense, De la Torre says. “Which is why we reached for Cabernet Franc versus Cabernet Sauvignon.”

Now that her wines are on the market, the family is moving again. But they’re staying within the county. She’s also on the hunt for organic, SD-grown grapes for their next vintage.

“I’m trying to become more San Diegan,” De la Torre says. “I think I need to make San Diego wine.”

Más Allá wines are available online, at Vino Carta Solana Beach, The Fishery restaurant in Pacific Beach, and at Mesa Agrícola farm dinners.

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