This Berkeley Street Has Become a Natural Wine Oasis

If you drive about ten minutes west of Chez Panisse, Alice Waters’s famed Berkeley restaurant, the scenery fades from collegiate to industrial as you near the intersection of 5th and Gilman Street. Amidst warehouses, cement plants, repair shops, and the North Face Outlet (perhaps the most recognizable landmark in this area) lies the unexpected: a small collection of wineries making some truly exciting natural wines.

The usual markers of a winery, like picturesque vineyards and a glossy tasting room with expansive production facilities, aren’t here. If you’re looking for it, you might be able to detect the faint, unmistakable smell of grapes being turned into wine wafting through the air, but that’s the only real indicator that a winery might be nearby. Instead, these small, urban operations are run out of graffitied warehouses—a stark contrast to some of the glamorous, high design estates of Napa or Sonoma. Inside tends to be equally unfussy, with a mix of people (ages 20 to 40-something) in jeans and T-shirts hanging out and drinking wine.

“We get a lot of younger people in here who are curious about these types of wines and interested in learning more,” says Chris Brockway of Broc Cellars, one of the first tasting rooms in the area along with Donkey & Goat winery. “It’s not the ‘I like to drink big wines’ Cab-drinking crowd in here anymore.”

Brockway still works with some of the more familiar grapes that are associated with northern California wine country, like Chardonnay or Zinfandel, but what’s most intriguing about his low alcohol, low intervention wines are the ones made with grapes you don’t come across often in this region (but have been growing in California for over 100 years), like Carignan.

“People are looking for something a little different right now with wine,” Brockway explains. “We’re in an unusual location, doing a lot of different wines from grape varieties that they maybe aren’t familiar with in a lighter style than they might be used to. I think all of that combined makes them interested in coming to check out what we are doing.”

Broc Cellars isn’t alone. Next door is Donkey & Goat, by husband-and-wife team Jared and Tracey Brandt, makers of some of the best natural wines in California right now. Not far from them are local favorites like Windchaser Wine Co., a family project run by Dave Gifford, and Lusu Cellars just around the corner. Here’s what else you should know before visiting this intriguing natural wine oasis on Berkeley’s 5th Street:

Broc Cellars
Winemaker Chris Brockway learned to make wine at Rosenblum Cellars in Alameda (an East Bay winery that has been around since 1970s) before opening the original Broc Cellars tasting room in 2008. He uses biodynamically grown grapes or grapes grown without pesticides from areas ranging from Paso Robles to Santa Barbara, many of them obscure, and uses a minimal intervention winemaking method. The result makes for low alcohol, snappy wines, generally all of them in the $20 to $40 price range. The tasting room and winemaking facilities are just as minimal as Brockway’s methods, but make no mistake, the tasting room can get just as lively as the wines on a weekend afternoon. Make sure to try the old vine carignan ($32 a bottle) or the sparkling cabernet franc ($35 a bottle) if they have it.

Tasting room is open Saturdays and Sundays, 1-5 pm. Tastings are $15 per person and waived with wine purchase. Five wines per tasting, wines vary by day. Parties of six people or more should make a reservation in advance. 1300 5th St., Berkeley, CA, 94710

Donkey & Goat
Husband-and-wife team Jared and Tracey Brandt honed their winemaking skills while working for natural wine master Eric Texier in France’s Rhone Valley before opening their own operation in 2004. Donkey and Goat, situated in a former ink factory in Berkeley, remains committed to natural farming philosophies and minimalist, low intervention winemaking. Their wines range from the popular Rhone-style blends (like the Prospector mourvedre) to funkier, esoteric options like the 2013 Meandering, a blend of Roussanne and Marsanne. The tasting room gets bonus points for its host of entertainment options, including bocce ball, corn hole, and board games, plus live music every Sunday afternoon.

Tasting room is open Friday through Sunday, 1-6 pm. Tastings are $15 per person, five current releases per tasting. Reserve tastings and cheese for pairings are also available for groups large or small. Parties of six people or more should make a reservation at dgorders@donkeyandgoat.com in advance. 1340 5th St., Berkeley, CA, 95710

Windchaser Wine Co.
Dave Gifford, an avid surfer and windsurfer (hence the name Windchaser), came up in the restaurant business in San Francisco and New York before shifting his focus to the wine world, working harvest for Donkey & Goat, heading up sales for another urban winery and eventually moving on to launch Windchaser in 2015. He sources grapes like Pinot Noir and Syrah from the Anderson Valley in Mendocino, and Grenache from El Dorado. Like his neighbors’ wines, Gifford’s wines are low intervention, meaning he isn’t adding chemicals to make the wine look clearer or filtering the wines like most winemakers do to eliminate the cloudiness. Walk in on a weekend afternoon and you will likely find Gifford pouring wines and blasting rock ‘n’ roll beats.

Tasting room is open Saturday and Sunday, 1-6 pm. Tastings include the current offerings. Private tastings available by appointment. 1375 4th St., Berkeley, CA, 94710

Lusu Cellars
David Teixeira has winemaking in his blood. His family made wine for generations on mainland Portugal and the island of Madeira before he started making it in the Bay Area. Teixera’s ethos: “Find what the land is saying and build traditions around that, listening the entire time to make sure what is said in the land is upheld in the cellar.” He gets his heritage California and Rhone grape varieties from dry-farmed and sustainable family-owned vineyards and there is no fining, filtration or other additions to the wine (all around the $20 price range). Check the tasting room hours in advance as they are limited, but if the timing works out, head in to chat with Teixeira and taste his spicy zinfandel and Bordeaux blends.

Tasting room is open in the winter on Saturday (1-6 pm) and Sunday (2-5 pm). Tastings are $10 per person and waived with wine purchase. Five wines per tasting, wines vary by day. Parties of six or more should make a reservation in advance at lusucellars@gmail.com. 805 Camelia St., Berkeley, CA, 94710