Room for Tasting: The Coolest New Wine Tasting Rooms in California

Tasting wine is as much about the wine as it is the place you taste it in. Got great wine in your glass but a self-indulgent server, and who cares? Sampling Sauvignon Blanc in a run down hut might seem cool, but the ambience wears thin. But great wines in a great setting equals a memorable time. These new tasting rooms in each of the main California wine country destinations combine killer juice with a unique vibe; memorable wines with a visceral appeal. (NOTE: this is an expanded version of an article originally published in The Hollywood Reporter)

Santa Barbara: Riverbench Winery

Just a block from the Pacific Ocean, Riverbench’s tasting room, located in Santa Barbara’s downtown trendy Funk Zone, is best known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. But they are also one of the few who make sparkling wine in the area and they offer flights of bubbly, and occasionally Riesling. The brown-shaded tasting room has an entire wall made from the wood of the historic San Ramon Chapel in the Santa Maria Valley built in 1908 (and near to their original tasting room). The wood wall seamlessly blends into the leather benches, giving the feel of rustic chic, with pops of color from accent pillows –it’s a rural setting with sophisticated juice.

Nearby: Head to the Mediterranean influenced restaurant Cadiz for immensely flavorful tapas while you wile the hours away on State St.

Paso Robles: Paso Robles Underground

Though it’s not actually located underground, this hip and funky converted garage co-op is about being under the radar. The four boutique wineries here craft small lots, less than 500 cases each, made by dudes working at Four Vines, Halter Ranch and L’Aventure, located near the Norman Rockwell-ish downtown park. Considered “the next Napa” by uber critic Robert Parker, Paso is best defined by the lush, ripe wines shown here from tiny wineries like Aaron, Edmund August, Clos Solene, and Turtle Rock Vineyards. The space itself feels more college dorm décor, hastily placed curtains and wood planks atop wine barrels, nothing we haven’t seen before. But the minuscule production of these four terrific wineries is why you’re here. You’ll find a predominance of Rhone whites and reds along with Petite Sirah and a Sauvignon/Riesling blend.

Nearby: The steroid and architecture combination known as the Hearst Castle is a mere 30 minutes away at the coast

Napa: Amici Cellars

Located in Calistoga Amici is not a new player but for years they had no tasting room. Winemaker Joel Aiken was with BV for 27 years making Georges de LaTour private reserve, so it’s a safe bet he knows exactly what he’s doing with Cabernet. The yellow hued tasting room on the second floor of the winery seats just 6 to 8 people, keeping it intimate and comfortable, with French doors leading to a balcony for views of the rugged Mayacamas Mountain range. All wine tasting comes with a cheese platter, all the better to go with their heady, intense and sought after Cabernet Sauvignons. To further insure intimacy, Amici is not easy to find - there isn’t a winery sign on the road, you have to know where it is (wink, wink).  Nearby: The coolest art gallery in the area is at The Hess Collection.

Sonoma: Ram's Gate

Most wineries seem to think crowded tasting rooms replete with forgettable local art is what people crave. But at Ram's Gate you feel like you're visiting a friend's weekend house in wine country, albeit designed by an interior designer who has worked with Mandarin Oriental group. You can choose from a variety of areas in which to taste the wines: the pavilion with a view of the pond, on either side of the double-sided outdoor fireplace, inside at the bar, in the library or even at the chef's table and there are various wine and food pairing options. The 30 foot ceilings, exposed beams, weathered wooden walls made of reclaimed snow-fencing from Wyoming, and massive floor-to-ceiling glass walls that open to sweeping vineyard views are in concert with their Pinot Noirs, Chardonnay and quite excellent Syrah – expansive and remarkable. This is not sport tasting, this is a multi-hour experience.

Nearby: You’ll love the Sonoma/Marin Cheese Trail sampling the area’s artisan cheeses.

Monterey: Talbott

Talbott Winery has long been one of the go-to Monterey producers for excessively good Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. When owner Robb Talbott opened up a new Carmel Valley tasting room in May he combined two other of his passions: motorcycles and vintage peddle cars. You read that right…peddle cars, as in those tinny things your grandfather peddled round in when he lived in the Old Country. With a stellar collection of motorcycles and peddle cars from France, the U.S. and Germany, the sleek, polished wood toned room is imbued with the wow factor the moment you enter. The wines too are made to wow and Talbott’s Pinots and Chards reign as some of the best; seamless and beautifully seductive in this region known for top quality Pinot and Chard. Therefore to have both is exceptional and an experience you will remember.

Nearby: 17 Mile Drive and the Monterey Bay Aquarium offer diverse experiences.

Sierra Foothills: Andis

The Sierra Foothills, known as gold country due to the 1848 gold discovery, brought the world to California. These days the gold has dissipated but wine has exploded. Grapes have been grown here since the early 1850s and the oldest commercial winery still stands in Coloma. The Andis tasting room puts that old stone building to shame. Sleek, clean lines and a soft color palette like a pastel Italian spot overlooking Lake Como, this pulls you out of history and places you squarely in the 21^st Century. Andis is at the forefront of a resurgence of the region, proving that a gold rush comes in many forms. The flagship Barbera and a racy Semillon are just part of a vast portfolio. Located in the small town of Plymouth just 10 miles from the perennially cute gold mining town of Sutter Creek, Andis is why you need to visit the Foothills.

Nearby: Head to the regions only dining destination, Taste in Plymouth. Visit historic Coloma where gold was discovered on the banks of the American River in 1948, setting off a worldwide stampeded to California.

Mendocino: Phillips Hill

Phillips Hill in the Anderson Valley integrates history and the cool factor with their all-wood open air tasting room, an antique apple dryer building. Come again? Apples and hops were the main draw in this Valley back in the day, not wine grapes. Being so remote the apple crop needed to be dried prior to interminable shipping to parts unknown. Now, no one dries out at Phillips Hill in their upstairs apple dryer tasting room. It’s mainly Pinot Noir here and a crisp little Gewürztraminer served in this tree-house wine pad. Surrounded by old, verdant green trees, you might lose a sense of time here, everyone else does. That’s the beauty of Phillips Hill - small, remote and still undiscovered.

Nearby: The nation’s first certified organic brew pub, The Ukiah Brewing Co. in Ukiah will give your wine palate a break with beer and grass fed beef.

For other alcohol and booze related info including reviews of wine, spirits and beers, visit my other blog BOOZEHOUNDZ

Crazy Characters of the California Gold Rush

Gold!!

The California Gold Rush saw tens of thousands of people descending into the Sierra Foothills (AKA Gold Country, and the Mother Lode) to make their fortune on gold and silver, or to provide lodging, services (legal and otherwise), and virtually anything as long as it made money. In fact it was these business people who did significantly better financially than any prospectors. Of necessity, certain key figures emerged during this time, allowing for Mother Lode history to be entertaining and always interesting.

Charles Bolton, AKA Black Bart

One of the key personalities was Black Bart the gentleman robber. His real name was Charles E. Bolton, a respected San Francisco citizen who committed 28 robberies against Wells Fargo stagecoaches before he was finally arrested. At first he mined for gold like so many others on the American River but that never amounted to much. There were easier ways to make money. His first hold up was in 1875 and he kept up his spree until 1883 when, during his last robbery near Copperopolis, just outside of Murphys, he was wounded, then finally arrested. He never took the personal belongings of the stagecoach passengers only the Wells Fargo loot, occasionally left poetry at the scene of his crimes, and was so scared of horses he committed his robberies on foot. It was said he was personable, even polite, when committing his crimes. He was known to have stayed at the Murphys Historic Hotel and you can stay in the room he once occupied. After his arrest he was sent to San Quentin and served just four years, but by 1888, the 59 year old, in poor health, vanished and no one knows whatever happened to him.

John Sutter

The name John Sutter will always be linked with the discovery of gold, though Sutter himself did not discover it; his partner John Marshall did in January of 1848. Prospectors were known as the 49ers, because by 1849 the “rush” to the Foothills was on and word about gold had spread to all parts of the globe. The gold was found at Sutter’s Mill, a sawmill on the banks of the American River in the tiny town of Coloma, north of Placerville not Sutter Creek. Originally from Switzerland, Sutter was never a good businessman and he racked up debts throughout most of his life. Generous and kind, he was often taken advantage of by the unscrupulous people he hired. He was granted 50,000 acres of land where the American River and the Sacramento River meet and set up his sawmill operations. He crafted a town nearby he called New Helvetia, what we now know as Sacramento. He fought for California statehood, worked with Russia to secure Fort Ross on the California coast, gave aid to immigrants in the area and his name is nearly everywhere in the Foothills. But the gold discovery did not make him rich. 

The exact spot where gold was discovered in 1848

Word got out and squatters came quickly, as early as March 1848 from San Francisco, and Sutter could not get them off his land. “By this sudden discovery of the gold, all my great plans were destroyed,” he wrote in 1857. “Had I succeeded for a few years before the gold was discovered, I would have been the richest citizen on the Pacific shore; but it had to be different. Instead of being rich, I am ruined, and the cause of it is the long delay of the United States Land Commission of the United States Courts, through the great influence of the squatter lawyers.” He was broke when he died in 1880. Today you can stand on the banks of the American River on the exact spot where the mill once was, and, at least for a moment or two, imagine what transpired that day in January of 1848 – a pivotal day which changed the face of California forever.

The One and Only Mark Twain

The most singularly well known person of the gold rush however was Mark Twain (Samuel Longhorn Clemens is his real name; Mark Twain is actually a nautical term he adopted) who migrated from San Francisco to the Foothills in the early 1860s, writing about the arduous mining life. While visiting friends in Angels Camp he heard a story about a frog jumping contest and how one frog lost because someone had fed the frog buckshot to weigh it down. No doubt amused by the absurdity of the situation Twain penned “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” which was published by the New York Saturday Press in November, 1865, and Twain became a media sensation and eventually an American icon. Even today the frog jumping contest is alive and well and as you walk along the stuck-in-time town of Angels Camp, just like the Hollywood walk of fame, there is the Angels Camp Frog Walk, with the various winners immortalized in bronze in the sidewalk. Twain published 13 novels in total (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are the most well known) as well as short stories, travel writing and his autobiography, published in 2010, 100 years after his death became a bestseller!

The Frog Walk of Fame in Angels Camp

For a look at the gold & silver mines in Southern California head over to my other travel blog: CALICO GHOST TOWN

California’s Historic Wineries: Time in a Bottle



Old wine in old bottles

Wine has been in California since 1779, thanks to the Spanish who brought it up from Mexico and planted it at Mission San Gabriel in Southern California. The rest is, as they say, history. Here then are both historic winery buildings, as well as wineries that produce wines from historic vineyards. Yes, you can taste history.

Northern California

Gold has always been integral to the fabric of the Sierra Foothills (El Dorado, Amador and Calaveras counties) and people still flock to Gold Country in search of new discoveries. The main one these days is wine. With the massive influx of people searching for gold in 1849, enterprising men and woman planted vineyards to make wine to sell to the miners. In many instances formerly drinkable water from local rivers became so heavily polluted by mining that cheap wine was preferred, and safer. California’s gold rush faded by 1855 and the throngs of people moved to the larger city of San Francisco. That move caused the demise of the Sierra Foothills wine region, where there were hundreds of wineries. The mass exodus however spawned the growth of another wine region…Napa.



The old walls of the Coloma Winery still stand

One of the first commercial wineries in the entire state, the remains of it, still stands today not far from where gold was discovered in Coloma, north of Placerville. The Coloma Winery was built in 1852, believed to be the very first commercial winery in California. It’s known that the first vintage of their wine, made by Martin Allhoff, was in 1858 which was distributed throughout the region and western Nevada. Sobon Estate is on the site of the first commercial winery in Amador County, dating to 1856, and the original winery, though not functioning, can be toured and it’s free. The old cellars are heavy with must and age, but it’s very cool. (http://www.sobonwine.com/) Just down the road, Deaver Winery in the Shenandoah Valley still has original Mission vines from the late 1800s and they make a port with it. (http://www.deavervineyard.com/). Scott Harvey Winery makes a zinfandel called “1869” from a vineyard planted in, well, 1869, also from Amador County. In Napa, the Charles Krug Winery was built in 1860 (the Mondavi family has owned it since the 1940s).

The Redwood Cellar at Charles Krug

 The original redwood cellar was recently restored to its stunning glory and it’s a state historic landmark. Robert Mondavi (Peter Mondavi’s brother) still presides over the wines at age 97. (http://www.charleskrug.com/)  





Southern California

Grapes were grown throughout the California Mission chain as sacramental wine, but also to produce raisins – easily portable food sold to travelers. The “Mission” grape, a hybrid of different grapes, was high in sugar, low in acid, and produced a thin rustic wine which by most accounts was pretty bad, even though wine and brandy production was a significant source of income for some of the Missions. Mission Santa Barbara established a vineyard and winery between 1824 and 1834. About 1820 San Antonio winery was built in what is now Goleta, just north of the City of Santa Barbara for use as sacramental wine. The lonely historic adobe winery is still standing nearly 200 years later, though on private land. I had the good fortune to visit and see the old barrels and winemaking equipment. 

Santa Cruz Winery - in its heyday

In Santa Barbara in the late 1890s about 200 acres of grapes were planted on Santa Cruz Island, just off the Santa Barbara coast, the remnants still standing on the interior of the island. And while you’re in Santa Barbara, if you drive on De La Vina Street,
well, it used to be covered with vines.

Saucelito Canyon Winery in the Edna Valley in San Luis Obispo County was so remote, when they originally planted vines in 1880, the Feds trying to find it during Prohibition, couldn’t. Good thing too. Great zinfandels come from these true old vines and if you ever get a chance to visit the original homestead (it’s not open to the public but their tasting room is) go! Their “1880” zinfandel is made from grapes grown on original rootstock. It’s a magical place – and it’s where I asked my wife to marry me.



Saucelito Canyon Zinfandel vines on their 1880s rootstock

Gypsy Canyon Winery off Highway 246 near Lompoc has original Mission grapes on site too, and they produce Angelica, a sweet wine made from brandy and Mission grapes from an 1860’s recipe. (http://www.gypsycanyon.com/). In 1919 the first known grapes went into the ground in Monterey County, a remote place called Chalone, where the Chenin Blanc still produces fruit! And around the same time, commercial vineyards were planted in Paso Robles.

Grapevines can be amazingly hardy. (While I was in Spain in 2010, I visited a fat old vine still producing grapes which is 140 years old). So visit some of California’s historic wineries, sip history and be part of that continuum.

Santa Barbara Mission with grapevines (now gone) in front

For more information about California's wine and wineries, take a look at my books, Santa Barbara & The Central Coast, and California Wine Country. 
http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Cervin/e/B004APYU4S