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Northern California
Our Story and Mission- Ever since we were old enough to drink wine, we have been frequenting winery tasting rooms throughout California. Our trips in the late 70’s involved stops at 6-8 wineries (or maybe more) in a day. My first date with my wife was a day of wine tasting in Sonoma 31 years ago. So we are experienced with this stuff. I think there are several ingredients to a satisfying Tasting Room experience. The wine has to be good for starters and generally the known wineries all put out pretty decent wine. But there are other key factors in making the experience memorable. Sometimes a classy tasting room works for us, but sometimes standing around a barrel outside does the trick. At other times it is just good service that pleases us. Certainly one of the keys is the person serving the wine. So there are a whole bunch of things that make visiting a Tasting Room a positive experience. The point of this blog is to talk about and recommend Winery Tasting Rooms where we have had good experiences.The blog was conceived after spending a weekend with my sisters who normally do not frequent wineries and running into a couple of disappointing stops.

Friday, March 8, 2013


Two Mile
Oakland, CA
 

I know, we are getting lazy and not taking the time to drive to the real wine country but Two Mile (or twomile as it is shown on their tasting list) was a surprise find and right in the heart of Oakland.  We had planned on visiting another winery in Oakland that we had visited before and really liked (Stage Left) and I guessed that there must be one more winery that we had not visited.  I did some research and found Two Mile and quickly emailed them to see if they would be open on Saturday.  Quickly, Adam, one of the owners, responded and said come on by. 

Two Mile is on 25th Street, just off of Telegraph.  It falls into the new ‘Art’ district that runs for several blocks along Telegraph starting near Grand.  They have been running monthly ‘First Friday’ events and in fact had one just the night before.  Locals galleries and shops open or stay open late on this evening and there are food truck vendors and so on.  Two Mile is located in kind of an artsy oriented building with several other vendors selling hand made products and such.  Two Mile has built a little tasting room within the former factory (apparently a screw factory) building.  It is a small space, maybe 12 by 12 with bar seats around three sides.  Outside the little bar area is some winemaking equipment but I think some of the wine may be made in various spots around town.  I understand that some is made at Urbano Cellars, another one of our favorites, about 3 or 4 miles away in Berkeley. 

 
 
The history for Two Mile is pretty limited.  They have little printed info and their website is very low key.  We were able to gather a little bit out of Deborah, our host.  Apparently a bunch of guys with some amount of wine knowledge got together back several years ago and started making some wine.  The group today is now down to just two, one of them being Adam.  The name Two Mile is associated with a law enacted in the late 1800’s that prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages within two miles of the Cal Berkeley campus.  I’m guessing 25th Street in Oakland is about two miles from the campus and I am also guessing that law no longer exists.  Two Mile makes wines from grapes grown in Napa, Sonoma and the Central Coast and some of their vineyard sources are well known.  My observation is that they have winemaking figured out.  All the wines we tasted were well balanced and smooth.
 

We tasted a 2007 and 2009 Sangiovese. Both were very good.  They were also pouring the 2008.  The ’07 was very elegant and you could tell the ’09 would probably be similar with some aging. These wines were from the Dry Creek area of Sonoma.  The ’07 was priced at $38.00 but the ’09 was about $10.00 cheaper.  Then we tried the 2007 Syrah from the Unti Vineyards in Dry Creek.  This was a very dark colored wine and like the first two was well received by all in our group.  The last wine we had was an Organic Blend called Founders Rock.  This is a blend of Petite Syrah from Livermore and the Dry Creek Syrah.  At $16.00 we all thought this was a great value.  None of the wines were fruit bombs so they all go nicely with foods and I would certainly have no problem serving any of these with fish.
 

Deborah was enthusiastic but low key.  There were a couple other groups tasting and she was keeping a conversation up with all of them.  You can tell she is learning about wine like all of us and enjoys the Oakland vibe at Two Mile.  They also serve wine by the glass (or plastic cup) that you can walk around with as you are checking out the art and crafts in the building. The tasting room is open Saturdays from 2:00 to 6:00 as well as the First Friday of each month. We’ll definitely be back soon.

What we liked- Another great East Bay winery destination for us.

What we bought- We split a case of the Founders Rock with our friends that tasted with us.  We opened a bottle the next day and were still impressed.
 

Vitals-
Two Mile
477 25th Street
Oakland, CA  94612
(510) 868-8713
www.twomilewines.com

 

 

 


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