Coming to you commercially in Greater Sacramento in early 2026…

Wine doesn’t have to come with a white tablecloth or a shiny price tag. It doesn’t need a sommelier telling you what you should be tasting. Some nights, it’s just you, a cheap glass, maybe your dog at your feet, and the sound of the stereo bleeding out of the next room. That’s where Commoner Wines lives.

It didn’t start in some manicured vineyard. It started in the hills and mud. Mike Thornburg grew up in the rough folds of Calaveras County. Luke Laubaugh tore through the woods of western Michigan, muddy boots, scraped knees, no vineyard tours in sight. Neither of them came from money or some long bloodline of winemakers. More like band shirts, busted knuckles, and loud music.

Luke did ten years jumping out of planes with the Army. Mike spent decades running into burning buildings, finally retiring as a Sacramento Fire Captain in January of this year. They met in 2017 at the Sacramento Home Winemakers Club—two guys, swapping homemade bottles, laughing at Pinot Noir’s attitude. By 2022, the joke had turned into a plan.

They weren’t after polish or prestige. They wanted wine that didn’t flinch at everyday life. Wine you could drink without checking your bank account. As Luke puts it: “We wanted to bring wine back into the realm that normal people could appreciate—truly premium wines, not just in name, but in quality.”

No crystal chandeliers. No velvet ropes. Just good grapes, two friends, and bottles built for the table, not the shelf.

The Spark

Luke’s origin story? A girl. He thought wine might impress her. “Long story short, the girl was not impressed, but my first winery tour had me enthralled with wine production and the science behind it,” he laughs. The wine? A sticky, syrupy Muscadine from North Carolina. Terrible.

California fixed that. In Amador and El Dorado, wine tasted alive, wild, surprising. Working as a defense contractor by day, Luke started thinking: why not me? His future wife, a UC Davis alum, pointed him toward the enology program. By 2014, he began his winemaking studies at a junior college, eventually earning admission to the UC Davis Viticulture and Enology program as he pursued wine with intent.

Mike? He stumbled into it. Fruit wine experiments, curiosity, then the Home Winemakers Club. Mentors shoved him in the right direction, and he never looked back. That year, Luke brewed up a Viognier and Alicante Bouschet big enough to fill a few barrels. Both took gold medals. He’s since racked up double-digit wines with 92+ scores from Wine Enthusiast. Mike has his own ribbon pile too, but he cares more about people opening the bottle than putting it in a case.

Luke keeps it straight, “To make outstanding wine, you can’t be afraid to step on the toes of mediocrity. There are no shortcuts to excellence.”

Grapes, Hands, Sweat

For Commoner, it always comes back to the fruit. They respect Bordeaux—Cabernet, Merlot, Franc—but the grape they can’t shut up about is Touriga Nacional.  Luke began making Touriga in commercial settings starting in 2018, while Mike developed his own appreciation for the grape through home winemaking. Their first joint experimental batch came together in 2023; by 2024, they had produced three expressions of the grape.

Each batch is small. A barrel or two. No conveyor belts, no faceless crews. They sort the grapes themselves, pitch the rot, brush off the bugs, and haul the fruit into barrel. They bottle it by hand. They label it themselves. It’s about knowing your wine in a way that only happens when you do it yourself–

Wine for the Rest of Us

Commoner isn’t after shelves lined with trophies. Their angle is simple. Wine should fit into your life the way cold beer fits into a football game—with ease, no explanations.

Think porch on a Tuesday. A table with three friends and one lousy corkscrew. Think about just wanting a good glass after work without dressing it up as a special occasion.

Luke puts it bluntly, “It’s not a museum piece. It’s for you to enjoy right now.”

By keeping sourcing smart—rarely more than $2,000 a ton—and cutting out frills, the bottles stay cheap enough to actually drink. Surplus bottles, secondhand barrels, decent corks, and no stupid foils to peel off. The math works: most bottles sell for under $20, never more than $25. Tasting fees? Either nothing or next to nothing.

 

Sacramento, Beer Town with a Secret

The hardest part hasn’t been making wine. It’s finding the right place to make it. They refuse to hand their grapes over to big facilities. They want control, even if it makes the road harder. Right now, they’re chasing winery bonds and scouting spaces in Sacramento. Eventually, there’ll be a tasting room—standalone or tucked inside a winery.

Sacramento is home. And it makes sense. From the city, you can reach Touriga in El Dorado, Syrah in Amador, Picpoul in Lodi, Merlot up in Alexander Valley. Grapes are never far.

Still, Sacramento’s a beer town. Ninety breweries strong, while wine gets overshadowed. Mike and Luke see the gap. “People shouldn’t have to drive all day just to taste wine,” Mike says.

They found their footing in the Sacramento Home Winemakers Club—a community where mentors handed down the torch, where now Luke and Mike hand it forward. That spirit of grit and generosity is what they’re bringing with them into the next phase.

The Road Ahead

The plan is simple: secure the bond, lock down space, and grow deliberately—debuting their first bonded commercial vintage in 2026 and focusing exclusively on direct-to-consumer sales to preserve quality over quantity. Two thousand cases max, sold direct. Enough to be real, not so much it gets factory-like.

And that’s the promise they keep circling back to wine stripped of spectacle. Bottles that shout less about money and more about life. Bottles you don’t hesitate to open, because you know another one’s waiting and it won’t cost a week’s rent.

From muddy hillsides to burning buildings and midnight shifts, now to barrels and bottled violet-tinged reds, Commoner Wines is exactly what the name says: for the rest of us. For Tuesday nights, for porches. For anyone who just wants a good glass in their hand without the bloody sermon.

The wines featured in the Wine Recommendations section were provided by the winery for the purpose of review. The selection and tasting of these wines were independently conducted. No compensation or incentives were provided for inclusion in the story. As always, the top priority is to provide readers with informative reporting.

Wine Recommendations

2022 Syrah, TKC Vineyards, Amador County – offers a generous core of blackberry, blueberry layered with cracked pepper and a touch of smoked meat. Plush and velvety on the palate, it balances its richness with impressive freshness and fine, polished tannins. The finish is long and savory, leaving behind notes of spice and dark chocolate.

2024 Touriga Nacional, Lodi – aromatics of dark berry, violet and a touch of licorice and spice. Supple and polished with fine grained tannins and a savory, earthy finish while showcasing both floral charm and depth.

2023 Cabernet Franc, Clarksburg – a profile of ripe red fruit, green pepper, and fresh herbal notes with approachable tannins and a balanced structure. Expressive, delivering both savory earthiness and bright fruit.

2023 Cabernet Sauvignon, TKC Vineyards, Amador County – explodes with intense black cherry, and dark plum, underscored by bold layers of black pepper. Powerful, it boasts plush yet firm tannins and a rich, lingering finish.

2022 Cabernet Sauvignon, Munson Vineyards, Alexander Valley – opens with blackcurrant, blackberry, and cassis aromas, framed by subtle hints of mocha, and tobacco that reflect both fruit and oak integration. On the palate, this wine delivers layers of dark plum and black cherry backed by firm, chewy tannins, which provide freshness and balance.