Over the last decade, wineries have begun to rethink the whole tasting experience and investing in upscale settings, with prices to match.
If your image of a winery tasting room in Napa or Sonoma is a long bar dotted with open bottles and black plastic spit buckets no one uses anyway, you’re out of date. New tasting rooms are opening at twice the rate of new wineries, a trend that isn’t always welcomed by local residents, who complain about traffic.
Millennial hot spot Scribe, a picturesque hacienda winery in Sonoma that opened in 2007, helped shift the paradigm. Soon, other small, remote wineries began opting for swanky, salon-style wine bars in more urban settings away from the vineyard: Outland, in downtown Napa, is a collaboration among three tiny producers—Farella, Poe, and Forlorn Hope. A few blocks away is the tasting room for Blackbird, which it dubs RiverHouse by Bespoke Collection, and charming spots from the likes of Acumen, Brown Estate, and Mark Herold are also nearby.
Why? Selling direct to consumers is essential for small and medium-sized wineries because it cuts out the wholesaler and retailer middlemen that take substantial cuts from profits. And it’s become a way to cement customer relationships, persuade you to join their wine clubs, and keep buying their brands.
Here’s my pick of six wineries with new, very different tasting rooms. For most, reservations are necessary.
Silver Oak Alexander Valley
Silver Oak Alexander Valley, a popular Napa producer of plush, collectible cabernets (LeBron James and Oprah are fans), has opened the ultimate sustainable winery and tasting room at its Alexander Valley vineyard in Sonoma.
In July, it was awarded LEED platinum certification, with all the right green stuff that this implies—zero toxic materials, solar panels, pure, filtered air, salvaged redwood siding from old 1930s wine tanks—wrapped in a sleekly modern, barn-style building. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame panoramic views of 75 acres of cabernet vines.
A tour includes a look at the $1 million membrane bioreactor that filters 100 percent of the water (4,700 gallons a day) from the cellar, as well as a screen showing how much water has been used that day. Tastings feature the latest vintage of Silver Oak’s Napa and Sonoma cabernets.
Cost: $30 to $300Best tasting option: 90-minute food and wine pairing with tour, includes four wines; $90
Promontory
Napa wineries that make the most expensive cabernets, such as Screaming Eagle and Harlan Estate, don’t have tasting rooms. So it’s a big deal that Bill Harlan’s newest venture, Promontory, is now opening its doors to tasters. The stunning 840-acre estate in the foothills of Mount Veeder is run by his son Will, who wants you to savor the atmosphere in which this intense, smoky, mineral cabernet is made. He’s hoping you’ll bond to Promontory for life.