Since he launched TwoDog Wine three years ago, Joe Padilla has had the curious and somewhat misleading distinction of being a Utah-based winemaker. His Utah address so far hasn't helped Padilla and partner Dee Erickson get all their wines into Utah liquor stores — and sometimes make them a hard sell elsewhere.

"It hurts us with some distributors because we are not an 'authentic' California winemaker because we don't live in California," Padilla says.

At this point, we probably need to define terms: Padilla lives in Sandy, Erickson in Bountiful, and TwoDog Wine is a registered Utah company. But the wine itself is made from California wine purchased in bulk from several growers in the Central Coast region, then blended, fermented, barreled and bottled in Buellton, Calif.

So, except for the labels, it's a California wine — made by Utahns.

Blending other peoples' grapes or wine to market an exceptional product has a distinguished place in wine culture, Padilla says. The French call such a middleman a négociant, an intermediary who buys grapes from dozens of vineyards to make a wine to his standards to be sold under the négociant's label. Burgundys, such as Louis Latour and Jadot, are examples of négociants combining tiny lots of grapes into an excellent wine. On the other hand, Bronco Wines' "Two Buck Chuck" is also the product of so-called négociant.

Padilla and respected Santa Barbara winemaker Rick Longoria use soil charts and maps as a first step in choosing TwoDog's grapes. Padilla says he looks for vineyards with the right black shale-slate soil, then checks the exposure of vineyards to the sun. Then come the barrel tastings. "Then you just hope to God you picked a good one," Padilla says.

The wines are carefully blended. TwoDog Red, for instance, is 50 percent syrah, 27 percent cabernet franc, 23 percent cabernet sauvignon. The TwoDog White is 74 percent sauvignon blanc and 26 percent viognier.

TwoDog Wine also produces a red and white under its premium label, Padilla Erickson. Graces is 55 percent sauvignon blanc, 25 percent pinot grigio, 20 percent viognier. El Jefe is a cabernet sauvignon.

Though he lives in Utah and sells one out of five bottles of his wine in Utah, Padilla doesn't blend his wines to appeal to some imaginary "Utahn palate." He's shooting for price and flavor characteristics — fruit-flavor forward with some serious structure. It's meant to appeal, not to newbies or to connoisseurs, but to the big middle, wine drinkers whose taste is still evolving, a description that might include the majority of Utah wine drinkers.

But 80 percent of TwoDog wines are shipped to Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, California, Alberta, Canada and — with an American flag on the label — about 3,500 cases to China.

"I lean toward the palate of what I think the market wants," Padilla says, offering a concise description of TwoDog: "Our wines are great to drink on the patio, but they do best at the dinner table."

And at $11 a bottle at Utah liquor stores — thanks to the state's small producer discount — TwoDog is a terrific deal. Indeed, you could argue that tail-waggingly friendly TwoDog targets a Utah palate. It makes a nice companion for a Red Butte Concert picnic, is reasonably priced and, to use wine-tasting jargon: quaffable.

That might not be the kind of praise a wine dealer wants to put in sales brochures ("You don't have to think. Just drink!"), but winemaking is a business before it's an art.

It says something that TwoDog wine seems to sell best in Utah restaurants that aren't known for their wine lists. Christian Schnurr, bar manager at Park City's High West Distillery's restaurant, sells a great deal of TwoDog along with the whiskey. "We're really selling it," he said. "The majority of people buy it to drink with their meals. It's real easy to drink."

High West owner David Perkins, puts it in business terms: "For price point and quality, TwoDog is one of my top choices."

Salt Lake City's The Bayou, best known as "beervana," is the top mover of TwoDog in Utah. "It's this much of our total sales," says owner Mark Alston, holding his thumb and index fingers about a half inch apart. "But people really like it."

gwarchol@sltrib.com —

How do dogs and wine go together?

The name TwoDog comes from co-owner Dee Erickson's two Labrador retrievers, Molly and Fancy. In the company's marketing, Padilla draws upon the closeness of dogs and people, claiming that TwoDog wines are "faithful to food."

Info • www.padillaerickson.com —

TwoDog 'breeds' on sale at the State Wine Store

Under the TwoDog label • Cabernet sauvignon, $11.99, only at the Wine Store, 1650 S. 300 West, Salt Lake City; zinfandel, $11.99, only at the Wine Store, 1650 S. 300 West; red, $12.99, but on sale in October for $8.99; white, $9.99 at Wine Stores.

Under Padilla Erickson label • Padilla Erickson Graces 2008, $18.50 at all wine stores; Padilla Erickson El Jefe 2007, $19.50 at all wine stores

About Utah's small producer discount • TwoDog's sales in Utah benefit from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control's small-producer discount. Producers of less than 20,000 gallons of alcohol add on only a 47 percent state markup.