Urban Wineries- Part 1
East Bay / Oakland, CA
Previously I wrote about Rosenblum and Rock Wall, which
are also Urban Wineries but they are really big operations; there are probably
another 20 wineries in the East Bay that are much smaller operations. While a bunch of these smaller ones operate
out of the Rock Wall facility, there are a number of them that are stand alone
wineries and in a lot of ways are very similar to a small winery that you would
find in Sonoma or Napa. The saying goes
that “the grapes themselves really do not care where they are crushed. They
only really care where they are grown.”
The only difference is that grapes north of the East Bay need to travel
a little longer to get to the winery.
Grapes grown south though in areas such as Monterey and Paso Robles can
actually get to the winery a little faster sometimes. The East Bay is full of old warehouse
facilities capable of accommodating a wine making operation and the weather in
the East Bay is certainly suitable. In
fact, back in the later 1800’s, much of the wine that was made from grapes in
areas north of the immediate Bay Area was shipped or barged down to the East
Bay and San Francisco.
My youngest daughter and I visited three wineries last
weekend- Stage Left Cellars, Irish Monkey Cellars and Urban Legend. This was our first visit to both Stage Left
and Irish Monkey; we had been to Urban Legend previously. I think all three grew out of the owners love
and appreciation for wine, which started with making wine in their
garages.
We had seen Stage Left previously at some larger tasting
events. Sometimes at these events there
are hundreds of wineries and sometimes thousands of participants. So while
there may be a one on one experience it is followed by 10 or 15 more of these and
by the end of the day your notes or memory may be in disarray. At Stage Left we met both of the owners and
we were able to chat in a nice quiet tasting room. Stage Left concentrates on Rhone style
wines. They tasted one white wine, a
Viognier/Roussanne blend, which was good, but their red wines were really what
stood out. We tasted three Syrahs- two
different vintages from Oregon (Rouge River Valley) and one from Paso
Robles. We also tasted a Petit Sirah and
a blend called the Daily Job which included Cabernet, Grenache and
Mourvedre. My picks in order were the
older Oregon Syrah (2007), the Daily Job and then the second Syrah. You can tell they take great care with their
wines, aging them a bit longer in the barrel and then aging them a bit longer
in the bottle. We will definitely be
back here.
Our second stop was Irish Monkey, a quirky place located
on 22nd Ave. in Oakland. I
think the name comes from one of the principals wives telling her husband, an Irish
individual, to quit monkeying around with making wine in the garage and to go
ahead and start a real winery. Irish
Monkey is barely two blocks away from Stage Left in the southern Embarcadero
section of Oakland. If you have been to
Quinn’s Lighthouse it is right near there and yes, Quinn’s Lighthouse is still
there and looks the same. We met two of
the principals of the winery, Mark and Charlie and they were both very
entertaining. They were pouring a full
spectrum of red wines this day and we enjoyed both the newest vintage Cabernet
Franc and the Primitivo. They also served a great cheese and salami platter
along with fresh bread.
Our third stop was Urban Legend, which is located in the
Jack London neighborhood of Oakland.
Urban Legend is another Husband/Wife operation (Stage Left is also) and
here we tasted a slate of both white and red wines. In addition to some of the more traditional varietals,
Urban Legend was pouring a white varietal named Tocai Friulano and a red
varietal named Terodelgo. Urban Legend
sources grapes from Lake County, Clarksburg (Yolo County) and the foothills
(Amador and El Dorado). Our favorite
wine was the Barbera from Amador County.
One of the reasons we came this day is because Urban Legend has a
refillable program named for different Oakland Districts. We had previously purchased a one liter
bottle of a blend called something like Westside Red. The current release is called Uptown. Unfortunately when I grabbed the refillable bottle
from the refillable cabinet at home (mostly full of beer refillables) I grabbed
a bottle from a different winery. We did
come away from our visit with something though.
One of the nice things about these urban wineries is that
many of them are close together and can be reached on bikes. The terrain of the area is very flat. You may want to call the wineries or check
their websites as these wineries tend to be open just on weekends and in some
cases only particular weekends. There is also an Alliance of East Bay Vintners
that puts on some annual passport events where all the wineries are open on
that day.
What we liked- The short drive and friendly atmosphere.
What we bought- We are out of space in the wine
refrigerator but I know we enjoyed that 2007 Stage Left Cellars Syrah the next
day.
Vitals-
Stage Left Cellars
2101 Dennison Street
Oakland, CA 94606
(510) 434-9930
Irish Monkey
1017 22nd Avenue
Oakland, CA 94606
(510) 533-3439
Urban Legend
621 4th Street
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 545-4356
Great reviews! Nice to know there are some tasting rooms closer to home that offer delicious wines!
ReplyDelete