Nice article by Frances Dinkelspiel on the Berkeleyside website today about wine tasting in West Berkeley. There are a bunch of very good wineries within about a block of one another near Fifth and Gilman streets, with more on the way.
Want to go wine tasting? You can try more wine on a day trip to Berkeley than to Napa or Sonoma
I love this trend.
We are hitting the East bay urban wine trail later this summer.
Thanks for the article!
Thanks Ken, have already downloaded the article for when we are down that way. Will make for a nice afternoon.
Tom
Thanks for that link, Ken. Sounds like there’s a lot going on there. Like the history of Travis Fretter.
What was the NapaVlly vnyd that Travis used to make his Cabernet? Was that LeakyLakeVnyd??
I, of course, followed the Berkeley wineries from the very start. Did a visit to Wine & The People very
early on. They had a set of 4-5 wines, same wine aged in different oaks.
Wasn’t the original DavisBynum in Berkeley??
Tom
That was indeed Leaky Lake Vineyard that Travis used to get Cabernet fruit from, in the early 1980s, maybe late '70s too. Steve Edmunds wrote a bit about that vineyard in a post on WLDG - I’m sure you can find it.
The article didn’t mention that Harrington was in the 805 Camelia space as well - Broc moved in there when Harrington moved out in spring 2008, then Broc outgrew that small space within a few years and moved around the corner.
Davis Bynum started his winery in Albany, maybe a mile or less north of these West Berkeley wineries.
I happened to stop in at Blue Ox last Friday after helping to bottle some sparkling Chenin Blanc at Broc. First time I’ve tried them - good wines there…but there really is a lot of good wine in West Berkeley. I admit to not being totally impartial - I’m friends with several of the vintners there, I’ve helped bottle wines for a few of them, and spent a number of years working in various capacities with various vintners at the 805 Camelia Street building (Grapeleaf, Eno, Harrington, Edmunds St. John).
Here are a couple of photos from Blue Ox last week - that’s vintner Josh Hammerling in the first photo.
I just reposted on my FB page. Thanks Ken!
Here’s an article on the 805 Camelia Street building (where Travis Fretter, Steve Edmunds, and others started out over the years) from the early 1980s.
Another bit of Berkeley wine history - I know I’ve posted this before but it’s pretty cool. A bottle of 1978 Pinot Noir that Travis Fretter made in the 805 Camelia Street building (pictured on the label) from Pinot grapes grown right in the neighborhood.
Fiancée and I went to Donkey & Goat a few weeks ago on our way up to Napa. Loved it and signed up immediately for club list. That stretch in Berkeley is truly a surprising sweet spot.
A pinot vineyard in Berkley? Many great memories of tastings at the Camelia street winery. I believe that is where I first met you.
Yes, that’s most likely where I first met you, Sean. From what I’ve heard there were one or two backyard vineyards very close to the winery on Camelia Street back then - probably just enough fruit to make a small amount of that Pinot.
First dairies…now wineries??