Rising star pop-up tasting room calendar
Each month, both our Oakland and Napa wine shops highlight a different small, local California winemaker by acting as a pop-up tasting room, exclusively featuring their wines by the flight or glass. Drop in anytime all month to taste and discover!
Dan and Jacqueline Person of Carboniste, photographed by Emma K. Morris
March 1-31: Carboniste
"Champagne is from France. Carboniste is California," goes the tagline from Dan and Jaqueline Person, the wholly genuine, kind, intentional humans behind Carboniste. They back up their personal character with absolutely stellar quality sparkling wines that sing out with both the sunny warmth and freshness that make California such a gorgeous place. Having a label exclusively dedicated to sparkling wine inherently means they are also fun, playful, prone to both planned and impromptu celebrations, and they've done an incredible job infusing that joie de vivre into their brand. We are HERE for it and hope you'll come pop a bottle or three with us and them this month.
》 Carboniste Octopus Albariño Extra Brut California 2022
$18gl ~ $32/bottle to go ~ $42/bottle to stay
》 Carboniste Sea Urchin Rose Extra Brut San Benito County 2022
$17/gl ~ $32/bottle to go ~ $42/bottle to stay
》 Carboniste Brut V.20 California NV
$20/gl ~ $38/bottle to go ~ $48/bottle to stay
》 $30 - Flight of all three wines
YOU'RE ALL INVITED to our Napa Shop's THREE-Year Anniversary Party on Saturday, 3/16, from 1-4pm! Dan and Jacqueline and Stevie and Josiah will be there, pouring bubbles and frying karaage or tempura!
April 1-30: Ruth Lewandowski
It’s not the winemaker’s name. In fact, there’s nobody named Ruth in Evan Lewandowski’s family… unless—or until—you realize that because matter is neither created nor destroyed, and without death there cannot be new life, then IN FACT, there’s truly a little bit of Ruth in all of us. Spiritual, sensitive and folkloric, Evan culled his wine label’s name and inspiration from the Old Testament’s book of Ruth, and the story of a young woman who, as he explains, out of “the wreckage of death and tragedy[…] finds life, finds beauty and is able to truly live... not simply in spite of the death, but because the death occurred at all.” Suitably, Evan is wholly dedicated to wines that speak of regeneration in the soils of the vineyards and the natural fermentation that occurs as strains of yeast and bacteria build up, then die off, paving the way for the complex aromas, flavors and textures that make wines like his so enthralling.
Evan started his label a little over a decade ago after getting bitten by the wine bug working at a wine bar in Park City, Utah, (that was owned by the guy who’s now his distributor!), then interning and harvest-chasing through Washington, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Italy and Germany. Back in the US, at first, he was the crazy guy who was picking Mendocino fruit and then trucking his fermenting juice in a refrigerated U-Haul back to his home in Utah! Today however, the Ruth Lewandowski wines are fully planted (literally and figuratively) here in northern California. It’s been amazing to see the evolution of these soulful bottles, which are getting more complex, more focused and more exciting every year, and we’re thrilled to showcase them this month.
Evan and his director of ops, Sara Morgenstern, will be present and pouring in our Napa shop Tuesday night, April 2, 5-7pm, and in our Oakland shop Saturday, April 13, 4-7pm. Please come hang with us!