Capital Region , despite ( or because of ) its proximity to some of the largest wine producers in the country .
After first taking root among local vintners , a natural wine scene is finally beginning to flower in the Capital Region . Two natural wine bars have opened in Sacramento this year , and a third is set to come . Every high-end liquor store and gourmet supermarket worth its rent has curated a selection of natural wines , and Sacramento pizzerias like Majka Pizzeria & Bakery , Pizza Supreme Being and OneSpeed pair them with pies .
Businesses and oenophiles are now reaping the harvest that Capital Region natural winemakers sowed for years . These small , iconoclastic wineries and vineyards may be set to impact the California wine scene in the same way the microbrewery boom challenged “ Big Beer .”
A foment in the foothills
In the Sierra Nevada foothills , a natural wine scene has been brewing for at least two decades . The region is peppered with organic vineyards that either make natural wine or supply natural winemakers around the state , including Frenchtown Farms in Yuba County , Mountain Misery Wine in Nevada County , The End of Nowhere in Amador County and La Clarine Farm in El Dorado County ( the oldest of the bunch , with vineyards dating back to 2001 ). Winemakers say that the elevation and arid conditions of the region create idiosyncratic flavors — and foothill grapes cost a fraction of anything grown in Napa or Sonoma .
“ Certainly , we couldn ’ t afford a place in those regions ( Napa and Sonoma ), but , quite honestly , we wouldn ’ t have even been looking ,” says Aaron Bryan , who started Conduit Wine , Divergent Vine , and Tag + Jug Cider Co . in San Francisco in 2013 and moved to a 21- acre plot in Somerset with his wife and their 2-year-old son last year . Before buying the property , he sourced grapes from foothill vineyards and fermented them in a cooperative space on Treasure Island . “ The more time I spent up here and met some of the people that
Craig Haarmeyer of Haarmeyer Wine Cellars has been producing natural wines in West Sacramento since 2008 . He now runs the business with his son , Alex Haarmeyer .
“ This is very much a rising-tide-floatsall-boats kind of situation . The more people have access to positive wine experiences , the more it ’ s going to help all of these businesses .”
Bennett Cross , owner , Good News Wine
lived up here , the more I really loved the area ,” he says . “ And we knew that the area makes really killer wine .”
Grapes from the foothills and other Capital Region appellations , such as Clarksburg , also supply urban natural winemakers like Haarmeyer Wine Cellars in West Sacramento . The Haarmeyer building — yellow stucco with blue wooden doors in the style of a French country manor — is sandwiched between an auto repair shop and a truck depot along one of the city ’ s most industrial corridors . Winemaker Craig Haarmeyer started the label as a custom crush operation in 2008 , moved into the building in 2016 ( it has been a winery since 1972 , originally under winemaker Charles Myers of Harbor Winery ) and now runs the business with his son Alex Haarmeyer .
Haarmeyer spent the first decade of his winemaking career traveling across the country from San Francisco to New York to find buyers because there was little interest in natural wine in his home city . He ’ s excited to see the younger generations catching on . “ A lot of younger folks typically have seen wine as something their parents drink or their grandparents drink : ‘ Wine is for old people ,’” he says . “ So I think bars like Ro Sham Beaux are going to not only get
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