Urban Wine Experience

Just what is an urban winery? The best way to describe an urban winery is as a winery with everything but vineyards. So how can you have a winery without vineyards you ask, the grapes are sourced. This means the winery does not grow their own grapes but instead buys the grapes from others. It's a innovative concept and it seems to be taking off in the wine world especially when it results in higher end wines at lower prices.


Urban wineries are usually started by winemakers who want the freedom to create wine without the worry of maintaining vineyards or overseeing the growing and harvesting process or by individuals who want to make wine but do not own vineyards. Urban winemakers are mavericks who buy grapes grown by someone else, and then create their own wines. The cool part is they can put their wineries anywhere they want, in warehouses, old aircraft hangers, storefronts, pretty much anywhere they can find space to ferment grapes, make wine and then bottle it and sell it to consumers.


The Urban Wine Experience is an annual event put on by the East Bay Vintners Alliance at Jack London Square in Oakland. All 19 members of the Alliance poured wines which were accompanied by food from East Bay restaurants and food purveyors.


None of the wineries in the East bay Vitner's Alliance have their own vineyards except Prospect 772 Wine Company who grows their own grapes and brings in a winemaker to make their wines and Rosenblum Cellars who also owns their own vineyards. The other members of the alliance do not own their own vineyards but instead buy grapes from others to make their wines.

The wines at the Urban Wine Experience tasting had grapes sourced from Mendocino, Lake County, Sonoma, Russian River, Napa, Amador & even France. There was a mix of sparkling, white and red wines avilable to taste and all were paired with delicious food.

The top 3 overall wineries in my opinion were Dashe Cellars, Cerruti Cellars and Stage Left Cellars.

The best white wine on offer in my opinion was from Dashe Cellars. Michael Dashe's 2008 Dry Riesling from McFadden Farms in Potter Valley at $24 a bottle is made with organic grapes sourced from Mendocino and had a nice nose, great balance with minerality and good finish.


Although I am not typically a big fan of rose, Prospect 772's 2009 Baby Doll Rose at $18 a bottle made with Syrah and Grenache was dry with a nice balance and acidity.


R&B Cellars 2007 Sauvingon Blanc a blend of Lake County and Mendocino grapes was fruity and at $11 was a nice good value light summer wine.

As far as the red wines, Cerruti Cellars poured a 2006 Cuvee Red Blend 60% San Giovese, 20% Merlot and 20% Zinfandel with a nice bold blend of flavors that at $15 a bottle is a really great value. The Cerruti 50/50 Cabernet Suagivnon half from Sonoma and half from Napa was also quite tasty and at $25 a bottle a good value.

Dashe's 2008 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel at $24 was fruity and full bodied with an overall nice mouth feel. The 2009 Dry Creek Valley Grenache at $20 was a nice medium body fruity red wine.

Stage Left Cellars 2007 Scenic Route at $38 a bottle and 2006 Grenaches at $48 are both great well rounded full bodied big bold delicious red wines, a bit pricey for urban winery wines but very very tasty.

If you have the chance, I recommend going to visit some urban wineries. With urban wineries the focus is typically on the creation of the wine and coming up with the best taste from the grapes the winemakers sources. As a result, there tends to be more creativity with urban winery wines which typically results in some great wines that can often had at much lower prices than the wines made by the wineries where the grapes were sourced from.