Berkeley is best known for its university. Yet there are so many more things to discover.
Calm residential streets with palm trees and beautiful flowers blooming on their porches.
A latin community that brings along delicious food and stores that speak Spanish only, phantastic coffee shops and book stores, small shopping streets with a neighborhood vibe. One of the most charming areas is just by the Berkeley train station, close to the Marina.
Little restaurants, shops and cafés make up a walkable area that feels rather European.
Just a 10-minute walk north, passing carpenters, a cactus school and various car services, something unexpected appears. Around one block, wooden barrels and large crates in outside areas, and open warehouse doors make a cozy and inviting impression around one whole block.
Berkeley wine block has developed over the past years in a rather industrial area in the East Bay, just across from San Francisco. All of its five #urbanwineries have an outdoor seating area and all of the mentioned produce organically farmed or even natural wines with minimal intervention and close to zero sulfur addition.
The first to start winemaking in this neighborhood was Broc, a cellar initiated based on the passion for Italian grape varieties like Trebbiano, Lagrein and Sangiovese, and many more. Broc, like all other wineries around the block source their grapes from vineyards around Northern California wine country, from Mendocino to Russian River Valley.
Broc wants to give a new twist to Californian classics – its white zinfandel is a perfect afternoon sip. It is light, dry but not not tannic nor dull, little fruit but smooth texture and slight acidity.
Chris, the winemaker at Broc, had always wanted to go more into traditional Italian varieties, so you can now find interesting blends and single-variety wines at the winery. One of their employees descibed his winemaking style as Jazz. Chris has the tunes in his head and when some instruments start their solos, like the weather, harvested fruit conditions and others, he improvises and produces beautiful sounds along those new tunes that perfectly go in harmony with the song.
The cellar is well organized and lets enough room to play with different materials from wood barrels to beautiful large concretes, stainless steel tanks, an egg and some amphoras. They use a little basket press for small batches too.
Broc tries to constantly reinvent itself and it‘s offerings: you can purchase a beautiful glass decanter that is made in Berkeley and specifically designed for them, some of their wines are available in cans and their wine club gives members the chance to preview some of the new releases. Their beautiful and unique labels are designed by a local artist they hired because of her interesting handwriting.
Located along the block within 2 minutes is Donkey&Goat. Tracey and her partner started the winery here in 2011 and now she is continuing on her own. Some voices say that all winemakers around the block orientate their picking decisions on Tracey‘s. She is a true entrepreneurial mind with a big love to wine and nature.
Donkey&Goat has a cozy atmosphere. Their large wooden casks allow for slow fermentation conditions, some barrels for aging and a couple of amphoras and a beautiful concrete cask leave plenty of options to play around with the fruit they are getting. Their wines are blends and single-variety wines. Besides Californian grapes, Gruner Veltliner adds to the portfolio and even makes up a portion of the Cannonball red, together with various red varietes made into a minimal sparkling style stretch between still wine and pet nat.
Also the Gruner and Chardonnay Pet Nat is super easy-drinking.
Outstanding is the pinot noir from Enz vineyard, south of San Francisco that has very old and healthy vines. This vineyard has a special connotation for me, as I have had a stunning Mourvedre from there a long time ago.
Next door to Donkey & Goat is Hammerling Wines, who are building up their specific profile in traditional champagne method sparkling wines. Their owner and cellar master Josh had worked at Broc and eventually started his own business with Blue Ox, then Hammerling wines. Their Blanc de Noir made from Gamay is a true surprise – acidity, effervescence and slight fruit open up a completely new experience in champagne-style wines. The vineyard is located in the Sierra Nevada Foothills and was planted in the 1980s. Although their hallmark is their champagne-style sparkling wine, Hammerling has a few still wines. They make a Cabernet Pfeffer (I did not know this variety exists) in semi-carbonic maceration style. There are hints of violett, light red fruit, tannins, round mouth feel. It‘s really well made – this winery is promising and definitely a watchout for the future.
Around the corner from these three, Vinca Minor is a winery that also produces all their wines in Berkeley‘s Gilmore district and only goes after natural, uninoculated fermentation. They actually offer wines under two different labels: Vinca Minor for their wines from grapes, and Moonland for wines that have been co-fermented with different fruit like pears and apples. Their Nouveau is a fresh and easy Pinot Noir that is just made available in November, after harvest and fermentation have concluded now. So it‘s their first wine that is available from vintage 2022. You can see this is a family business- their daughter has painted her latest artwork on one of the barrels.
It‘s fascinating to see how all of these wineries fit all of their winemaking into the spaces they have and how they help each other: Vinca Minor shares their press with the neighboring winery, all of them join forces for an event they call First Fridays-an open cellar door event with food stands and music around the whole block.
Berkeley wine block is definitely worth a visit, a sip of their different signature wines and an insight into the people behind: extremely lovely staff, and the winemakers who are hardworking, love wine, nature and the city, and who are courageous with one joint mission: making low intervention wine in the urban environment of the block south of Gilmore, Berkeley.