I’ll be in San Francisco with a group of friends Memorial Day weekend. Doesn’t look like we’re going to make a trip up to wine country this time, but I’m curious if there are any spots worth hitting in the city. There’s a growing network of urban wineries in Portland, is there anything similar in San Francisco? I’m interested in more restrained or elegant Zins, Cabs, Syrah, etc. Ridge is a favorite California producer. Anything worth checking out at the Winery Collective?
If there aren’t any urban wineries to recommend, does anyone know of any good tastings happening next weekend? Is there a good resource that tracks tastings in the city?
Lots of really good stuff at the WineryCollective…Copain/Arnot-Roberts/VIE/SolRouge/Core/Skylark/Tercero. Not sure exactly what they’re
pouring, but those are all good wineries.
BrianKane (SolRouge/VIE) has a tasting room over on TreasureIsland. In lower Berkeley, is Eno/Donkey&Goat/Dashe/JCCllrs…all worth a trip over on BART or a drive.
Would highly recommend Harrington, but that requires an appt.
Tom
Yeah, I second the Winery Collective. They have stuff there for you. It’s in Fisherman’s Wharf though and near Ghirardelli. Whole area’s a tourist mob and I would imagine especially crowded over Memorial Day weekend. Plan accordingly.
Many retailers have excellent tastings: K&L Wine Merchants- May 25: Red wines of Italy-North to South! - Buyer Greg St. Clair will feature his latest and greatest red wines from Friuli to Sicily. Not to be missed!
Press Club on Market circa Yerba Bueno. It’s a higher end more swanky (?) wine bar but selection is good and they have some older wines by the glass (including Ridge MB), so that’s always fun. Pretty pricey, though.
Jug Shop on Polk at Jackson. You could arrange a private tasting (I’m not affiliated but know the Italian/Burg buyer really well and could introduce you). They do a number of different regional tastings (8-10 wines from a specific region and can choose from half dozen regions).
Wine bars — on Chestnut Street there is Bin 38 & Wine Star (otherwise known as California Wine Merchant). The latter is self explanatory, the former has more of a rounded/international selection. On Union, there is Ottomista. All are cool environs in a fun and yuppie part of the city. Also, there is Ferry Plaza Wine Market in the Ferry Building (which is an amazing place). Their selection is generally pretty good and tend towards old(er) world style wines. There are a ton of other wines bars in SF, just do a search.
[quote="TomHill BrianKane (SolRouge/VIE) has a tasting room over on TreasureIsland. Tom[/quote]
Treasure Island has 3 other winemaking facilities/tasting rooms in addition to Brian’s and a couple of those host multiple labels.
Treasure Island has 3 other winemaking facilities/tasting rooms in addition to Brian’s and a couple of those host multiple labels.[/quote]
Including Stewart’s label, Kendric! I’m not sure that he’s got a tasting room yet but you can probably make an appointment with him. I’m in the middle of helping out on two days of bottling with Bryan Kane on the island, so he’ll have a bunch of new Vie and Sol Rouge releases out.
Tom was correct that Harrington Wines in SF is usually appointment-only, although we’re having an open house on Saturday 6/1 - info is on the Harrington Wines Facebook page.
Eno Wines in Berkeley is also by appointment, although in the same facility is Broc Cellars, which now has a tasting room open on weekends. Right around the corner from Donkey & Goat’s winery and tasting room.
Another appointment-only place in SF is Ed Kurtzman’s winery, where he makes Sandler, August West, and Roar. And in the same spot is John Fones’ Cellars 33 plus a couple of labels that Scott Shapley is working with - Waits-Mast and Furthermore (might be another one I’m forgetting too). All appointment-only as far as I know.
Andrew Vingiello also makes A.P. Vin in SF - another appointment-only place, I believe.
If you can make an appointment at Waits-Mast, I would definitely hit them. They had a very impressive lineup at Pinot Days in LA. I also just stumbled across Cellar 33 at a tasting on Sat and thought they had the best chard I tried all day.
My place on TI is still a construction zone and not recommended.
+1 to Cellars 33. Didn’t know about them until running into them at a tasting about a month back, but thought both their Chard and Pinot were excellent.
Haven’t logged in in a couple days, but really happy with these comments. Sounds like there are several good options for wine tasting and/or visiting wineries in the city. Thanks for all the advice.
BTW, I opened a Cellars 33 2010 Keefer Ranch Chardonnay last night. It was good last night, but the rest of the bottle was really singing tonight. Good stuff, John!
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