San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
25 tasting rooms to visit right now
Enjoy refreshing wines, activities and scenery
It’s almost harvest time, and that means it’s time to go wine tasting.
This Top 25 Wineries list was updated to feature places that are especially well suited to warm weather and the sense of almost-back-to-normal celebration that many of us have felt this summer. That includes producers of thirst-quenching whites and rosés, like Joseph Swan in Forestville, and wineries with fun outdoor activities or board games, as is the case at Berkeley’s Donkey & Goat. And, of course, this list is extra-heavy on the scenic views, with wineries like Antica, at the top of Napa’s Atlas Peak, and Abbot’s Passage in Glen Ellen, where you might be seated in the shadow of a craggy, vigorous, 80-year-old Zinfandel vine.
Most wineries are now requiring advance reservations, so be sure to plan ahead.
Abbot’s Passage Winery
777 Madrone Road, Glen Ellen
A modern experience, with crafts, bocce and refreshing sips, surrounded by historic vines.
The owner of Abbot’s Passage, Katie Bundschu, may be better known for her association with her family’s winery, Gundlach Bundschu, one of the most popular stops for winery tourists in the region. Yet her own space feels close to the platonic ideal of a Wine Country tasting room, with cozy, private-feeling lounge areas and bocce courts sprinkled throughout an 80-year-old vineyard. In 2020, after several years of operating a small tasting room for Abbot’s Passage in the downtown Sonoma square, Bundschu bought this sprawling winery property in Glen Ellen, which was formerly occupied by Valley of the Moon Winery, and has added a retail shop with clothing and decorative home wares, focused on female producers. It’s rare at a tasting room to get such an up-close view of historic vines like these. Among the highlights of a flight is the Sightline, a zippy white made mostly of Chenin Blanc and Verdejo, which tastes like a fresh, juicy pear. There’s a thrilling little treat at the end of the flight: a light cocktail made from white wine, soda water and fruit shrub. Served ice-cold in a Nick and Nora glass, it’s an excellent palate cleanser for your next wine tasting.
Tasting fee: $40
Phone: 707-939-3017
Website: abbotspassage.com
Antica Napa Valley
3700 Soda Canyon Road, Napa
A scenic and surprisingly accessible mountaintop hideaway from one of Italy’s most famous winemaking families.
Some of the Napa Valley’s most rewarding wine tasting experiences are in the hillsides, at wineries high above the hustle and bustle of the valley floor. But most of the time, hillside wineries have strict limits on their visitor capacities, and they tend to charge more for tastings. That’s why Antica Napa Valley, perched at 1,600 feet elevation on Atlas Peak, is such a gem. The large estate is owned by the Antinori family, whose eponymous company is one of the most famous wineries in Italy. (“Antica” is a portmanteau of “Antinori” and “California.”) The visitor capacity is limited, so try to make a reservation a few weeks in advance. Once you’re here, the experience is exceedingly generous. For $45, you’ll get a private, guided tasting of four Antica wines and a hearty spread of cheese, fruit, salami and bread. Block off some time for this visit so that you can wander around the grounds with a glass of the butterscotchy Chardonnay or the rich, supple Mountain Select Cabernet Sauvignon and take in the breathtaking views.
Tasting fee: $45
Phone: 707-257-8700
Website: anticanapavalley.com
Ashes & Diamonds Winery
4130 Howard Lane, Napa
The winery that’s trying to bring some Midcentury cool back to Napa.
With its bright-white exterior, zigzagging roof and Midcentury Modern digs, Ashes & Diamonds Winery looks like something you’d see in Palm Springs, not Napa Valley. That’s intentional: The winery is going after a younger, hipper audience that might have written off Napa wines as something only their parents would drink. A survey of the crowd on any given day will make it clear that the strategy is working. The wines are solid, modeled on a rustic style of winemaking that was prominent in California a half century ago. There are several showpiece, single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons from Napa Valley’s hillsides, plus a rich Sauvignon Blanc blend and a fruity rosé. The tasting options here aren’t cheap. But then again, almost nothing in Napa is, and the hearty, colorful snacks on offer make it one of the best wineries in town for a hungry traveler.
Tasting fee: $75
Phone: 707-666-4777
Website: ashesdiamonds.com
Auteur Wines
373 First St. West, Sonoma
A peaceful retreat for single-vineyard wines in a downtown Sonoma cottage.
An underrated stop near Sonoma’s downtown square, Auteur Wines offers quiet, thoughtful wine tastings in an adorable bungalow. Though the space is small, visitors here will feel some privacy, whether sitting on the front porch, at tables in the backyard or in the sleek refurbished garage. Single-vineyard renditions of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon come from all over Sonoma County; the wines are balanced and approachable, and the vibrant, tangy Chardonnay from the Hyde Vineyard in Carneros is one of the winery’s most compelling bottles. Though the tastings are serious, with staff carefully guiding
visitors through each wine, they feel laid-back, giving each party plenty of time to enjoy the wines on their own.
Tasting fee: $40
Phone: 707-938-9211
Website: auteurwines.com
Corison Winery
987 St. Helena Hwy., St. Helena
The holy grail of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
All devotees of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon will eventually find their way to Corison. Since 1987, winemaker Cathy Corison has made some of the most awe-inspiring wines in the valley, though it took a long time for her reticent bottlings to get as much attention as the flashier, more powerful Cabs being made at other Napa wineries. All tastings here begin with a guide through the Kronos Vineyard, directly behind the winery, where the grapes for Corison’s top wine grow. The Corison Cabernets — elegant, long and graceful, often recalling
raspberries and fresh herbs — are the highlights here, but the basic tasting also includes the winery’s eclectic Gewurztraminer and a striking Syrah from the Sunbasket Vineyard.
Tasting fee: $55
Phone: 707-963-0826
Website: corison.com
Dashe Cellars
1951 Monarch St. Hangar 25, Alameda
A Zinfandel specialist with a light touch located in a former Alameda airplane hangar.
The specialty at Dashe Cellars is Zinfandel — but these balanced, bright, often single-vineyard wines fly in the face of any stereotypes of California Zin as jammy and boozy. The winery relocated in 2019 from Oakland to the area of the former Alameda Naval Air Station known as Spirits Alley, where a cluster of exciting wineries, distilleries and breweries has emerged. There’s ample space
for seating outside of its warehouse winery at the southern edge of Alameda Island, adjacent to a bird sanctuary and with a prime view of the San Francisco skyline. Apart from the Zinfandels, make sure to try some of the wines under Dashe’s Les Enfants Terribles label, a collection of crunchy, red-fruited, lightly extracted reds. The winery doesn’t serve food, but food trucks come to the patio on Saturdays and Sundays.
Tasting fee: $20
Phone: 510-452-1800
Website: dashecellars.com
Donkey & Goat Winery
1340 Fifth St., Berkeley
Natural Rhone-style wines and fun games in an industrial Berkeley backyard.
East Bay drinkers know that Donkey & Goat, located in a winery-rich area of West Berkeley, is one of the best places to spend a weekend afternoon. Groups gather at the picnic tables outside of the warehouse winery, playing board games — and soon they’ll bring back cornhole and bocce — while sipping lively, and often pleasantly cloudy, wines. For the time being, the winery is offering three-wine flights in the backyard, and if those pours aren’t enough, you can opt to buy additional bottles and snacks. (They were planning to add more seating along the sidewalk on Fifth Street.) Donkey & Goat identifies as a natural wine producer and makes a range of styles popular with the natty crowd, like fizzy, turbid petillant naturel and thick, tannic orange wines. They’re especially good with Rhone varieties, which you’ll see if you taste their savory, juicy Gigi Syrah or the Eliza cuvee, a soft, floral blend of white Rhone grapes including Picpoul, Clairette and Vermentino.
Tasting fee: $30
Phone: 510-868-9174
Website: donkeyandgoat.com
Faust Wines
2867 St. Helena Hwy., St. Helena
Modern Napa Cabernet in a gothic Victorian manor.
Come for the vibe, stay for the wine. The Faust Haus is one of the Napa Valley’s newest tasting rooms, having opened in summer 2020, and is also one of its most stylized. A refurbished 1870s Victorian mansion has been outfitted with lavish interiors meant to recall the sensual pleasures sought by its namesake, Dr. Faustus, the literary character who made a pact with the devil. Flights of Faust wines, dominated by rich and plush Cabernet Sauvignons, are served alongside small bites, like veggies with tzatziki dip, in the shaded outdoor patio areas, all of them overlooking terraced vineyards and busy Highway 29 in St. Helena. Like Flowers, its sister winery in Healdsburg, it’s highly Instagrammable. The basement of the mansion has a stone-walled speakeasy, purportedly haunted, but not everyone gets to trek into it.
Tasting fee: $75 Phone: 707-200-2560 Website: faustwines.com
Frog’s Leap Winery
8815 Conn Creek Road, Rutherford
Accessible Napa Valley wines from an organic-viticulture pioneer.
Frog’s Leap Winery began farming its grapes organically in 1989, long before it was common in the wine industry. That’s still one of the winery’s big selling points, and you’ll hear about it when you visit the scenic property, where historic farmhouse buildings are surrounded by colorful gardens and vigorous vineyards. Tastings have always been held on the farmhouse’s outdoor deck, and to accommodate social distancing, the winery constructed an additional tasting area in the gardens out of a renovated shipping container. The Frog’s Leap wines are as good as any in Napa Valley, but the pricing here is more humane than at some neighboring wineries. The setting feels more homey than luxurious — in a good way. There’s an all-star cast of wines, from floral Chenin Blanc to brambly Zinfandel, plus a Merlot that’s perennially one of Napa’s greatest. Tastings come with a small cheese plate with fruit preserves from the gardens.
Tasting fee: $45
Phone: 707-963-4704
Website: frogsleap.com
Hendry Ranch Wines
3104 Redwood Road, Napa
This unassuming family-run estate is one of Napa’s best-kept secrets.
Hendry Ranch flies under the radar, but anyone who loves Napa wine should seek out a visit here. Driving into the property, a sprawling 200acre estate hidden within a residential neighborhood at the base of Mount Veeder, feels like an amazing surprise. You’ll learn about the history of the Hendry family, who have farmed this land since 1939, and taste their uncommonly diverse wine offerings like Albariño and Primitivo, all grown here at the estate. The staff here is among the most knowledgeable of any tasting room attendants in the Napa Valley, and the guided tastings ($40-$75) on the front porch of the farmhouse-like winery strike the perfect balance of casual and informative. If it’s available, see if you can try a taste of Hendry’s Mission, a spicy, savory, lighter-bodied red that’s a rarity in Napa. For now, Hendry is limiting the number of daily appointments to ensure social distancing, so it’s best to make a reservation well in advance.
Tasting fee: $40
Phone: 707-226-8320
Website: hendrywines.com
Hudson Vineyards
5398 Sonoma Hwy., Napa
A thoroughly contemporary visitor center from one of Napa’s best Chardonnay farmers.
The 2,000-acre Hudson Ranch is one of the most celebrated properties in Carneros, and its owner, Lee Hudson, is famous in Napa for farming some of the best Chardonnay grapes around. After decades of selling his fruit to other wineries, Hudson began making wines of his own in 2004, and in 2018 opened a tasting room at the estate. The most striking thing about visiting the ranch is the landscaping, which features a rainbowcolored array of succulents and other desert plants along with extensive fruit and vegetable gardens. Customers are treated to a secluded, one-onone tasting with a staff member, typically featuring four wines. While Chardonnay is a can’t-miss specialty here, Hudson also produces an excellent, brooding, savory Grenache, and even tinkers with Aleatico, an extremely rare red grape that is fashioned here into a fragrant, peachy white wine.
Tasting fee: $65
Phone: 707-255-1345
Website: hudsonranch.com
Idlewild Wines
132 Plaza St., Healdsburg
A downtown Healdsburg bar for Piedmont-inspired wine and salumi.
Idlewild Wines’ guiding light is Piedmont, the mountainous area of northern Italy that’s famous for wine regions like Barolo and Barbaresco. All of Idlewild’s vineyards are located in hilly areas of Mendocino County, which isn’t Piedmont but, winemaker Sam Bilbro believes, comes close to approximating some of its important physical features. He vinifies Piedmontese grapes, including the most famous, Nebbiolo, which forms the base of Barolo and Barbaresco’s long-lived, tannic reds, plus lesserknown Piedmontese varieties: the floral white Arneis; the crisp, grassy white Cortese; the light-bodied red Dolcetto. They’re beautiful wines, with broad appeal for both oldschool Italian wine drinkers and the natural-wine crowd. During the pandemic, Idlewild turned its casual menu of Italian cheese and salumi into more of an involved, educational pairing with the wines. Yes, it’s a Sonoma County tasting room, but especially with the street seating these days, it passes for something a little more European.
Tasting fee: $35
Phone: 707-385-9410
Website: idlewildwines.com
Iron Horse Vineyards
9786 Ross Station Road, Sebastopol
Relaxed, rustic tastings of sparkling wine with achingly scenic views.
On certain days, when the weather is especially dazzling, being at Iron Horse can feel so wonderful that you might wonder if you’re dreaming. Down a dirt road in Sebastopol, in an appellation known as Green Valley, this outdoor tasting bar overlooks dramatic, rolling hills of vineyards. The style of wine tasting here has always been casual, with guests standing around wine barrels outdoors. You can also book a picnic table in Iron Horse’s gazebo ($30) and order bottle service. Wherever you taste, the stars of the lineup here are the Champagne-method sparkling wines, and they range from slightly sweeter styles (like the Russian Cuvee, which is still dry enough to be classified as brut) to more bracing, austere styles like the Ocean Reserve. Rounding out the portfolio are still versions of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but really, the vistas here are best enjoyed with a flute of bubbles in hand.
Tasting fee: $30
Phone: 707-887-1507
Website: ironhorsevineyards.com
Joseph Swan Vineyards
2916 Laguna Road, Forestville
Classic, old-school Russian River wines in a blissfully unfussy setting.
The pandemic forced Joseph Swan Vineyards to move its tastings from the indoor barrel room to an outdoor patio overlooking its sloping Russian River Valley vineyards, and the experience is better for it. There’s nothing fancy here — this is as old-school as it gets in Sonoma County, and anyone who’s grown tired of formal, overpriced tasting rooms will find Joseph Swan to be a breath of fresh air. An exceedingly fair $20 fee gets you a flight of six wines, which might include the neon-magenta Syrah rose; a side-by-side tasting of Grenache Blancs (one made traditionally, the other fashioned as an orange wine); a quaffable, light-bodied Valdiguie; and a comparison of single-vineyard Pinot Noirs made in an elegant, finessed style. If you don’t get to taste a Joseph Swan Zinfandel, it’s worth buying a bottle to take home; the winery has always been one of the standout producers of balanced, rustic Sonoma County Zin.
Tasting fee: $20
Phone: 707-573-3747
Website: swanwinery.com
Lola Wines
916 Foothill Blvd., Calistoga
Artisanal bottarga and affordable wines in a verdant Calistoga backyard.
Lola Wines feels like a breath of fresh air in Calistoga. Its youthful energy, accessibly priced wines and specialty in bottarga make it quite unlike any other winery at this sleepy northern end of Napa Valley. The winery makes Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and rosé that are distributed across the country, but the tasting room, which opened in 2020, also offers the chance to try some of its more esoteric tinkerings, like Malvasia, Chenin Blanc and Riesling. It’s the rare Napa winery where most of the wines on the menu cost less than $35 a bottle. Winemaker Seth Cripe is also one of the only U.S. producers of the Italian delicacy known as bottarga, a type of cured fish roe that he harvests off the coast of Florida, where he grew up. Visitors here can order a plate of Cripe’s bottarga and other fish conservas ($40), and, really, everyone should. The thin, translucent slices piled onto baguette with a swoosh of butter are a real treat — and a hauntingly delicious pairing with Lola’s white wines.
Tasting fee: $25 Phone: 707-342-0623 Website: lolawines.com
Matthiasson Wines
3175 Dry Creek Road, Napa
Intimate, serious tastings of some of Napa Valley’s most unconventional wines.
Steve Matthiasson first made his name as a viticulturist, helping promote sustainable farming practices at other people’s vineyards throughout California. Over the last decade, however, he’s earned a devout following for his own wines, which don’t always follow the traditional Napa Valley playbook. There’s skin-fermented Ribolla Gialla and peppery, vibrant Schioppettino, two obscure Italian grape varieties. Even Matthiasson’s more typical-sounding offerings, like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, tend toward the taut, lean side of the spectrum. Tastings at Matthiasson are intense, with a staff member leading your group through
each wine, currently supplied in cute little lab vials so that you can pour them yourself. It’s an experience geared less toward someone who wants to snap vineyard selfies, more toward someone who’s ready for a wine master class.
Tasting fee: $50
Phone: 707-637-4877
Website: matthiasson.com
Medlock Ames Winery
3487 Alexander Valley Road, Healdsburg
Cabernet and Chardonnay in a former biker bar in Alexander Valley.
It’s hard to miss the tasting room for Medlock Ames Winery when you’re driving through Alexander Valley, a peaceful, vineyard-dotted oasis in the outskirts of Healdsburg. Located at a main intersection in the valley, the winery occupies a historic building that was built as a country store a century ago, then became a biker bar and a gas station. (No gas pumps remain, but there is still a furtivefeeling bar tucked away in the back.) The place has been given a contemporary makeover, with its outdoor tables nestled around architectural gardens and a bocce court. The basic option here is a leisurely guided tasting of four wines, centered on Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. But you can also reserve a slot for a picnic in the olive grove, which comes with a bottle of wine and a snack basket with cheese, bread, chocolate and olive oil. For those who want a more in-depth experience, it’s possible to arrange for a visit to the nearby Bell Mountain Vineyard, where Medlock Ames grows its grapes.
Tasting fee: $25
Phone: 707-431-8845
Website: medlockames.com
Reeve Wines
4551 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg
An elegant, vineyard-adjacent tasting terrace in Healdsburg’s Dry Creek Valley.
Reeve Wines channels such a California-cool vibe that it would be worth visiting for the Southwestern-style decor and scenery alone. But there’s an even more compelling reason to visit, which is that the wines are distinctive and exciting. Not much about visiting Reeve had to change during the pandemic; visitors still sit at tables shaded by sun umbrellas and are treated to table service, with an employee pouring wines one by one at a leisurely pace. This stone terrace overlooking grapevines, shaded by live oak trees in a secludedfeeling corner of Dry Creek Valley, is a nice place to pass a late morning or afternoon. Crackers, almonds and other small nibbles accompany a flight of wines that might include one of Reeve’s single-vineyard Rieslings, Sonoma Coast Chardonnay and some gorgeous Pinot Noirs from Anderson Valley.
Tasting fee: $35
Phone: 707-235-6345
Website: reevewines.com
Ridge Vineyards — Monte Bello
17100 Montebello Road, Cupertino
Famous mountain Cabernet worthy of a pilgrimage.
Ridge Vineyards is an anomaly in California wine. Despite the fact that it’s located on a remote mountain top in Cupertino, far away from the
world-famous Napa Valley, it produces what many connoisseurs consider to be California’s greatest wine: a Cabernet Sauvignon blend called Monte Bello, named for the peak on which it’s grown. Visiting the property requires a shaky drive up winding roads (and watch out for the cyclists), but it’s worth a pilgrimage for the spectacular views, rich history and superb wines. Not all visitors will get to taste the Monte Bello Cabernet, which sells for $225 a bottle, but the cool thing about Ridge is that it also produces quite a lot of interesting wines that are much more affordable, including a roster of bestin-class old-vine Zinfandels. If Cupertino is out of the way for you, Ridge has a second tasting room in Healdsburg at its Lytton Springs estate — and reaching it does not require driving on any winding mountain roads.
Tasting fee: $15
Phone: 408-867-3233
Website: ridgewine.com
Robert Sinskey Vineyards
6320 Silverado Trail, Napa A Napa Valley bucket-list stop with gorgeous grounds and food-friendly wines.
Since it started in 1991, Robert Sinskey Vineyards has been a quiet iconoclast in the Napa Valley, turning out lower-alcohol wines and unfashionable grape varieties like Pinot Gris in an era when big Cabernets were all the rage. The winery practices biodynamic farming and grows most of its grapes in Carneros, at the southern end of Napa Valley, but the tasting room is farther north, on the Silverado Trail. Visiting here is a revitalizing experience, with outdoor seating that offers beautiful views of the valley and wines that pulse with energy. During the pandemic, visitors pour their own wines from single-serving carafes into reusable plastic GoVino glasses. Don’t forget the Abraxas, an aromatic white blend, or the earthy, elegant Cabernet Franc. And take advantage of any chance to try some of the winery’s food pairings, which, thanks to Robert Sinskey’s wife, chef Maria Helm Sinskey, are consistently among the best in Napa.
Tasting fee: $40
Phone: 707-944-9090
Website: robertsinskey.com
Saintsbury Winery
1500 Los Carneros Ave., No. 9742, Napa
One of Napa Valley’s few top-notch wineries for Pinot Noir.
Napa Valley is known for Cabernet Sauvignon, with a climate that’s mostly a little too warm for coldloving Pinot Noir grapes. The exception to that rule is Carneros, the region at the southernmost tip of Napa County abutting San Pablo Bay. Here, cool temperatures and wind allow vintners to grow world-class Pinot Noir, and one of the finest practitioners is Saintsbury. Named for George Saintsbury, a 19th century British historian and wine writer, the winery specializes in single-vineyard renditions of Pinot Noir and its white-wine companion, Chardonnay. Tastings here include several versions of each, intended to highlight just how differently each vineyard’s terroir can manifest in the bottle. The setting is charming, with tables set up in the gardens outside of Saintsbury’s winery.
Tasting fee: $35
Phone: 707-252-0592
Website: saintsbury.com
Schramsberg Vineyards
1400 Schramsberg Road, Calistoga
Napa’s mandatory stop for the sparkling-wine lover.
In non-pandemic times, the best thing about visiting Schramsberg Vineyards was the chance to tour its miles of underground caves, where millions of bottles of nascent wine are stored as they undergo the secondary fermentations that make them fizzy. There’s no better way to learn about the complicated process of Champagne-method winemaking than seeing it in action. That spelunking is off-limits for now, but it’s still very much worth visiting Schramsberg to taste what is among the best bubbly made in California, from its affordable, everyday bottlings like the Blanc de Blancs to the pricier, longeraged J. Schram cuvee. Tastings are currently being held in outdoor areas under tents, and visitors who don’t want to drink sparkling wine exclusively can book a tasting that includes still wines like Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon from Schramsberg’s sister label, Davies Vineyards.
Tasting fee: $50
Phone: 707-942-4558
Website: schramsberg.com
Thomas Fogarty Winery
19501 Skyline Blvd., Woodside
Distinctive Santa Cruz Mountains wines and sweeping views of Silicon Valley.
Many Bay Area residents think only of Napa and Sonoma when they’re planning a wine-tasting adventure, but there are hugely compelling wines being made south of the city, too. They don’t get much better than what’s on offer at Woodside’s Thomas Fogarty Winery. Perched along Skyline Boulevard, the tasting room overlooks all of Silicon Valley, whose patchwork of tech campuses looks surprisingly beautiful from this vantage point. The wines here are excellent, taking advantage of some of the best vineyards within the Santa Cruz Mountains growing region, focusing on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. There are some surprises in the lineup, too, like a refreshing Champagne-method Blanc de Blancs and a Nebbiolo that Thomas Fogarty Winery grows itself, which results in a fragrant, structured red wine.
Tasting fee: $35
Phone: 650-851-6777
Website: fogartywinery.com
Unti Vineyards
4202 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg
One-of-a-kind Mediterranean wines in a laid-back Sonoma County barn.
There’s no other winery in Sonoma County quite like Unti, where you’ll find Italian-style wines like Aglianico and Vermentino alongside morefamiliar-to-Sonoma options like Zinfandel and Grenache. It’s all part of the Unti family’s multigenerational project of growing grapes that thrive in places near the Mediterranean Sea, from Italy to France to Croatia. Tastings here have moved back indoors, at a casual tasting bar. You’ll get to choose six wines from a long list of options while a staff member — sometimes winemaker Mick Unti himself — provides each one’s backstory. Some high points of the menu include the minerally Fiano, the crisp Vermentino and the cherry-laced Sangiovese. It will feel hard to choose just six, but you really can’t go wrong here.
Tasting fee: $25
Phone: 707-433-5590
Website: untivineyards.com
Vinca Minor Wine
1335 Fourth St., Berkeley
Vibrant natural wines in a sleek Berkeley warehouse.
West Berkeley has quickly become a hot spot for low-intervention wineries, and one of the most exciting newcomers is Vinca Minor, which set up shop in this industrial neighborhood in 2019. You won’t find any vineyard views here; the feeling recalls an urban wine bar more than a typical tasting room. Whether you’re tasting indoors or outdoors, you’ll be just a few steps from the equipment where winemaker Jason Charles creates his refreshing, low-alcohol wines. He makes several versions of Carignan, a grape that can produce earthy, berry-forward reds, including some from special, old-vine sites. Lately, Charles has also been experimenting with ciders and fruit wines, to delightful effect. You can try them all alongside cheese and charcuterie boxes.
Tasting fee: $25
Phone: 707-331-0450
Website: vincaminorwine.com