5 Tasting Rooms Where You’ll Come for the Wine, But Stay for the Vibes
These tasting rooms are works of art just as notable as the wines you’ll enjoy inside them.
Outdoor tasting at Flowers Vineyard. Photo courtesy of Sonoma County Tourism.
At the risk of stating the obvious, we go wine tasting to taste wine, right?
Well, yes and no. Yes, you’ll come for the vino, and for the chance to have a winemaker tell you a little bit about a vintage that you’d never guess at if you just popped the cork at home.
But you’ll stay for the ambiance, and if you’re like us, you’ll keep coming back if the experience proves magical enough. Every so often we discover a winery where the views, the architecture, or maybe the tastefully curated works of art on the walls provide a transformative experience that goes far beyond sipping tiny glasses of wine. These are a few of those tasting rooms.
Our Favorite Tasteful Tasting Rooms
Booker Wines, Paso Robles, California
Booker boasts a modern, California-style open floor plan that opens up to the Paso vineyard and surrounding landscapes. If you’re after something more private, book into the Terrace, a living room-style oasis with an abalone-adorned wall and floor-to-ceiling windows that let the natural light in. For a truly exclusive experience, the Cave Lounge’s underground calcareous limestone cavern allows access to the owners’ expansive library of wines.
Epoch Wines, Paso Robles, California
This historic York Mountain Vineyard was established in the 1880s, making it the first bonded winery on the Central Coast. The original structure was sadly destroyed in the 2003 San Simeon earthquake, but it’s been recently restored. The team from Lake|Flato Architects and B.K. Architects lent an old-meets-new look that integrates the original redwood beams, cellar stones, and bricks, giving it a rustic yet modern feel. Winemaker Jordan Fiorentini, herself a talented visual artist, also implements a hybrid model of time-tested techniques fused with modern innovations, with her paintings serving as a signature on many of the estate’s bottles.
Aperture Cellars, Healdsburg, California
The series of buildings designed by Juancarlos Fernandez of Signum Architecture nods to the aperture of a camera’s lens, acknowledging owner Andy Katz’s background in photography. Katz’s photographs grace the winery’s walls, giving it the feeling of a modern gallery where you can enjoy his son Jesse’s sophisticated, artful wines.
L’Angolo, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Lever Architecture beautifully framed views of Mount Hood with its angular designs at this 2,200-square-foot tasting room, which took inspiration from the native Oregon oak trees to create a structure that brought together two interlocking cantilevered roofs. There are two massive sliding doors that welcome the vineyard views into the space, conveniently creating an eco-friendly passive cooling system during hot days.
Flowers Vineyard, Healdsburg, California
Flowers has produced elegant wines from its remote Sonoma Coast vineyards since the 1980s, and visitors can taste these vintages at a 13 1⁄2- acre property in the heart of Healdsburg. The tasting room was designed by San Francisco-based Walker Warner Architects and reflects the rustic beauty of the region. The entrance weaves through a grove of redwoods and the feeling of nature follows you inside, with interiors of bald cypress siding, a massive redwood tree centerpiece, and an upstairs seating area with organic touches throughout. There’s also a stunning outdoor patio complete with a pizza oven and seating that overlooks the gardens and vineyards below.
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