Usually, when you combine a group chat with a couple of bottles of wine, all you end up with is blurry photos and typos. But if that group chat includes a wine industry veteran, a former NHL player and the ex-culinary director of Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star The Little Nell, the result is something else entirely: As One Cru, a portfolio of approachable, terroir-driven West Coast wines that is quietly shaking up the industry.

In 2016, renowned vintner Chris Radomski, co-founder of Hundred Acre and Layer Cake wines, launched the brand with a mission to bring cult-level wines to everyday drinkers. Then came 2020. With in-person gatherings off the table, Radomski and his fellow oenophiles turned to a group chat, swapping recipes and favorite bottles. When his friends learned about his project, they wanted in.

Six years later, As One Cru has grown into a lineup of highly rated, small-batch varietals, including cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and chardonnay, crafted by stellar winemakers. It’s also evolved into a partnership with Radomski’s longtime friend and fellow wine lover Darius Rucker (the musician who fronted Hootie & the Blowfish), a YouTube channel and a forthcoming cookbook.

Forbes Travel Guide sat down with Radomski to hear more about the brand’s beginnings, what he wishes more people knew about wine and which bottle he’d reach for if the world ended tomorrow.

What’s the origin story of As One Cru?

The name comes from my crew of friends. During COVID, I had all my wine sitting in a barrel. We were all texting each other. Matt Zubrod, a dear friend of mine, was the culinary director at The Little Nell [he now serves as culinary director for Viceroy Snowmass in Aspen], and I’ve always had a big culinary focus. Another good friend, Russ Courtnall, who played in the NHL for a long time, is very well-connected. All these wine lovers from different backgrounds, different countries.

Darius Rucker is an old friend of mine, a singer and a big wine lover. And he said, “I want to be part of this, grow this and be part of a wine brand.” So, it’s not a celebrity-endorsed product.

That’s what the crew really embodies, just a group of friends, wine lovers, wine drinkers, trying to broaden people’s experiences. It’s a friendship. It’s almost like a spiritual experience. It’s not just drinking.

What’s the brand’s mission?

My biggest goal is to introduce people to wine who normally wouldn’t be associated with it. For instance, our chardonnay, which we launched last year, is an exquisite wine, and [even] people who don’t like chardonnay enjoy it. And to me, that’s the greatest.

I’m not a big chardonnay drinker. I said, “I want to make something I like to drink.” Yes, it has oak on it, but does it taste oaky? Absolutely not.

What is it like working with friends?

I started the project. I didn’t even have a name for the brand yet. When COVID hit, it made it impossible to do almost anything.

I put together a group of my friends through a text chain, and we all started taking pictures of food cooking, talking about our families, this and that. And they heard about my project and said, “That sounds really cool.” And I said, “I’d love to have you guys involved. I’m not going to ask you for your money.” But everyone gets a little piece of this.

So, what is it like working with them? It’s great. We all support each other. We’re putting a cookbook together. There are obviously professional chefs involved, led by chef Matt, but I’m doing a couple of recipes. Darius is doing a couple of recipes. My other dear friend, Russ, is doing a couple of things. What I found is that there are so many people from different walks of life who, for the most part, love to drink wine and love to cook.

Where can we find these recipes?

If you go to our website, there are links to the episodes we filmed. We’ve already released a few of the short episodes on our YouTube channel. Those are the early-stage ones. I have more things we’ve shot with different chefs who come aboard. I want to build a platform with these videos.

But for the cookbook itself, we have a draft, and we’re expanding it right now. Chef Matt is putting something together, and we’re looking at different packaging formats. We’re working with one of our favorite charities, Best Buddies. All the proceeds will go to that. The goal is to have it formally introduced by September for the fall season and launch it.

I’m hopeful that we’ll bring this concept to the public, like, “Hey, listen, this is fun. You could do this at home.”

And I think Darius is doing bolognese and a smashburger. I have old family recipes. Russ’ mother-in-law, who passed away, was Sarah Vaughan, a very famous jazz singer in America. Miss Vaughan had an incredible recipe, and so Russ is going to do a recipe of hers.

We’re going to pick and choose. It’s not quite like grandma’s recipes, but it’s things that mean something to us and are time-tested. And stuff you can pick up in the grocery store, and stuff you could do at home. No one needs a sous vide to make these recipes.

What’s the No. 1 thing about wine you wish more people knew?

Not to be intimidated. I say to people, “If you like the taste of wine, that’s all you need.”

If someone tells me, “I like wine, but I’m not familiar with the difference between pinot and cab.” It’s okay, as long as you like wine. If you want to learn, I’ll pour out glasses of pinot, cabernet, maybe something else, and just put them there. Try them all. Do they taste different?

You have to learn through being shown. There are no blindfolds here. So, not being intimidated and keeping their minds open.

If the world were ending tomorrow, which bottle of wine would you drink?

Well, definitely a three-liter. I probably would be sleeping when the world ended. But, of everything I have that I’ve done myself right now, I would say cab franc, or maybe a Carneros or Willamette Valley pinot. But the cab franc — I could sit down there and slowly sip it gracefully.

What does the next chapter for As One Cru look like?

I’m very happy with where we’re at in terms of the varietals. Next is to raise more awareness and have more people experience the wines. I am a big advocate for culinary, so I want to develop our cooking wine pairing platform, Cru Uncorked. The idea is just to make it very serious, but a little fun. A lot of fun.

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