Iconic Wines owner Birk O’Halloran’s entire career has consisted of “drinking his way up the supply chain.” While studying at Cornell University’s Hotel Program, wine became his subject of study and he never looked back. Birk helped build three wine retail stores on the east coast before working for a small import company and growing it into a national company. In 2011, Birk started to make wine on the side. He created Iconic Wines with the goal to establish a new benchmark for California wine, producing wines with more restraint that was the norm at the time. After years of juggling his sales position with winemaking, he focused all of his energy into Iconic Wines.

Iconic Wines have an irreverence to them. Birk does not follow a specific winemaking philosophy. He has taken things he has learned over the years from both Californian and European mentors to come up with his own “Dogma Free” style of winemaking.

Starting with 90 cases of neutral oak aged Chardonnay, Iconic Wines now produces more than a dozen different wines, ranging from $18-$55. The labels are eye-catching with images of comic book art and some wines have playful names, such as “Heroine”, “Secret Identity”, “Myriad”, and “Shapeshifter”.

Myriah is the name of the Cinsault. The wine was named Myriad to represent all of the other synonyms for Cinsault (Cinsaut). The synonyms are numerous: Black Malvoisie, Blue Imperial, Bourdales Kek, Budales, Calibre, Chainette, Cincout, Cinq-sao, Cinquien, Cinsanet, Cinsault, Cubilier, Cubillier, Cuviller, Espagne, Espagnol, Froutignan, Grappu De La Dordogne, Hermitage, Malaga Kek, Marocain, Maurange, Mavro Kara Melkii, Milhau, Morterille noire, Moustardier Noir, Navarro, Negru De Sarichioi, Oeillade noire, Ottavianello, Ottaviano, Ottavianello, Pampous, Papadou, Passerille, Pedaire, Picardan noir, Piquepoul D’Uzes, Pis De Chevre, Plant D Arles Boudales, Plant D’Arles, Plant De Broqui, Plant De Broquies, Poupe De Crabe, Pousse De Chevre Rouge, Prunaley, Prunelas, Prunella, Prunellas noir, Salerne, Samsó, Samson, Senso, Sensu, Sinsó, Strum, Takopulo Kara, Ulliaou, West’s White Prolific, Black Prince, Boudales, Oeillade, Picardin noir and Ulliade. And some of these names have funny translations. For example, Pis De Chevre means “goat utter”, Poupe De Crabe mean “crab butt, and Pousse De Chevre Rouge means “Red Goat Shoot”.  As a result the Myriad Cinsault label has a fantastical creature on it that was created by artist Jesse Lonergan.