They soon became pioneers of natural winemaking in Sonoma County. Pax and Pamela Mahle established Pax Wines in 2000 with the goal of making wines with as little intervention as possible. Sunday.Ģ08 Davis St., Santa Rosa, 70, Pax Wines Visitors can taste wine at Miracle Plum during the shop’s regular hours, 10 a.m. You’ll often find local winemakers pouring their wines here on Thursdays. In addition to a rotating lineup of wines by the glass, the wine bar also has a flight of three wines ($28) and patrons can pick any bottle off the shelf and enjoy it at the bar for a $10 corkage fee. The new wine bar at Miracle Plum is one of a few places in Sonoma County where you can sample natural wines from different winemakers. “The winemakers we feature practice native yeast fermentation and strive to add nothing and take nothing away, in attempts to let the wines, grapes and land have the loudest voice.” It just took us three years to get there,” co-owner Gwen Gunheim said. “We wanted to pour wine from the very beginning. Now, customers also can sample natural wines by the glass in a new wine bar. Since opening in 2018, Miracle Plum has carried low-intervention wines on its shelves. This neighborhood shop in downtown Santa Rosa may not be a winery but it is one of the best places in Sonoma County to taste natural wines. (Chris Hardy/for Sonoma Magazine) Miracle Plum Wednesday through Sunday.ġ32 Plaza St., Healdsburg, 70, Taste and buy natural wines at Miracle Plum in Santa Rosa. The tasting room has flights for $40 (per person) of Idlewild’s current-release single varietal wines, paired with prosciutto, salumi and Italian cheeses, 11 a.m. (Sulfur is a naturally occurring compound winemakers use to prevent flaws and spoilage in their wine.)īilbro shares a tasting room on the Healdsburg Plaza with Evan Lewandowski, another natural winemaker. Like other natural winemakers, he adds just a small amount of sulfur dioxide to his wines. He only uses native yeast and naturally occurring products in a “judicious and minimal fashion” when crafting his wines. The Healdsburg winemaker sources grapes from three regenerative vineyards in Mendocino County (regenerative vineyards use a holistic approach to land management that includes composting, carbon sequestration and other measures). “It begins with a relationship with the vineyard in which organic and holistic farming practices are in place, to ensure a healthy ecosystem for years to come.” “Natural winemaking is a process of respecting nature’s processes,” Bilbro said. Idlewild winemaker Sam Bilbro uses natural winemaking practices and Italian grape varieties grown in Northern California to craft wines inspired by those made in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. (Erik Castro/for Sonoma Magazine) Idlewild Wines (Erik Castro/for Sonoma Magazine) Fermenting cortese grapes are pulled from a barrel at Idlewild Wines. Winemaker and owner Sam Bilbro of Idlewild Wines foot treading Nebbiolo grapes grown at Fox Hill Vineyard in Mendocino County at his winery in Healdsburg. She then worked a harvest in France before stints in the cellars at DeLoach, David Bruce and Goldeneye wineries and eventually launched her own small pinot noir label, Lutea. Hagins became interested in wine while working in the restaurant industry in Charleston, South Carolina. Husband-and-wife team Chris Condos and Suzanne Hagins employ a hands-off approach to cider- and winemaking they add no synthetic ingredients or additives to the drinks they produce.Ĭondos started his winemaking career at Pine Ridge Vineyards in Napa and launched Vinum Cellars in Oakville in 1997. This small, family-owned winery produces natural wines and ciders from organic grapes and apples grown in and around Sonoma County. “As these wineries gain followings though, I’d expect the number of natural wine tasting rooms to increase,” he said.Ĭhallenges aside, a group of local winemakers have figured out how to make excellent natural wines while also operating tasting rooms. “This means it’s harder for them to afford the startup, compliance and employee costs of a brick-and-mortar tasting room.”īut Sporer believes this will not always be the case. “Natural wineries often operate on much smaller budgets when compared to older, more entrenched conventional wineries,” said Jack Sporer of Fresh Wine Co.
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