There’s long been an inside joke among winery folks that their favorite beverage is beer.
Every year during harvest, when I stop by local hot spots like El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma or the Restaurant at North Block in Yountville, I can count on finding groups of winemakers hanging out at the bars, holding craft brew mugs in their grape-stained hands.
They love wine but they’ve had enough, they’ll admit. And so, perhaps, have younger drinkers, according to recent statistics.
It’s no secret that the wine industry is facing challenging times, as Gen Z and millennial consumers are exploring alternatives to wine, like cocktails, hard seltzers and beer — or nonalcoholic drinks. Many traditional wine tasting destinations are feeling the pain, with visits declining.
To meet new demands, the industry is pivoting. Winery behemoth Constellation Brands Inc., for example, just reported that beer now represents nearly 82% of its sales, according to the company’s annual earnings report. Last week, Constellation even entered negotiations to sell its entire wine portfolio to two other top producers.
So it won’t surprise me to see more wine tasting rooms entering into partnerships, offering beer and other drinks in their expensive-to-operate spaces. Here are some of my current local favorites pouring wine and beer.
Mad Fritz Brewing Co. and Jessup Wine Cellars
The Mad Fritz taproom opened last spring in Yountville, sharing a charming stone and clapboard cottage with Jessup Wine Cellars on Washington Street. The tiny-batch, high-end beers have been a cult favorite around Napa Valley for more than a decade, poured at The French Laundry and Solage Calistoga among other upscale joints and so coveted that there is a waiting list for the members club.
Husband-and-wife owners Nile Zacherle and Whitney Fisher (both longtime winemakers, by the way) use craft-malted single-variety barley and French oak barrels to age the double or triple fermented beers for up to 12 months.
Flavors change seasonally and the beers usually have delightful names referencing Grimms’ Fairy Tales, such as The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, a funky, dry saison with a hint of pineapple. My favorite is the mildly bitter and spicy Peach Project, made with organic peaches from Cervantes Family Vineyard in St. Helena and Triumph hops from the Alexander Valley Hops farm in Sonoma County.
The beer bar is tiny — it used to be the Yountville town jail long ago — but hip with its record player and vinyl collection. A sign encourages you to “Yo! Be your own DJ!” and select records (but please heed a newly taped-up sign that says, “Now! Don’t steal them!”).
Step into the adjacent lounge and you’ll find the Jessup Wine Cellars wine bar, a comfy spot to sip standouts like the 2019 Juel blend of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petite Sirah, Malbec and Petite Verdot.
“We definitely get couples where one wants wine and the other wants beer,” Zacherle said. “I think, as a collective property, we offer a lot of variety.”
Technically, that couple would not sit together, given licensing differences between a beer and a wine business. But with the shared footprint and open wall between the two rooms, the happy pair can toast each other mere feet apart.
6720 Washington St., Yountville, 707-968-5058, madfritz.com
6740 Washington St., Yountville, 707-944-5620, jessupcellars.com
Coyote Sonoma and Wilson Artisan Wines
Ken and Diane Wilson own 11 wine businesses across Sonoma and Mendocino counties, including Coyote Sonoma in Healdsburg. The Coyote space used to be the Sonoma Cider taproom, so it made sense for the Wilsons to fill it with local craft beers, alongside their own wine selections.
Beer lovers will find 18 craft brews on tap, from local producers like Parliament Brewing, HenHouse Brewing, Cooperage Brewing and Russian River Brewing.
Wine lovers have two options. There’s a full tasting room with wine and optional food pairings, open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. There’s also a wine list in the taproom, which is open 4 p.m. until the bar closes Wednesday through Saturday.
Coyote Sonoma hosts live music almost every Friday and Saturday night and has launched a Coyote Sonoma Locals Club that offers complimentary or discounted tickets to most live music events. For $25 per month, club members get one bottle of wine that can be enjoyed on site during a show with free corkage.
“It’s really affordable and particularly attractive at a time where people seem to be more conscious of expenses,” said Wilson marketing specialist Katie Ambrosi. “Even if someone isn’t much of a wine lover, they enjoy the club because it brings such great access to music at a venue with a healthy beer selection.”
44-F Mill St., Healdsburg, 707-395-8846, wilsonartisanwines.com
St. Clair Brown Winery & Brewery
St. Clair Brown opened on the edge of downtown Napa in 2013 as a Wine Country wonderland featuring an industrial-chic facility making handcrafted small-lot wines and microbrew beers surrounded by lavish culinary gardens with a café in an English-style greenhouse.
Owners Elaine St. Clair (winemaker and brewmaster) and Laina Brown (winery executive) pulled out all the stops and paid attention to details, like the retro typewritten labels that are tied to the bottles with twine.
I remember the first time I visited back then and how delighted I was when the Napa Valley Wine Train chugged by on the tracks mere feet from that greenhouse. The conductor honked the locomotive’s horn in a long, soulful hello and all of us café guests shared friendly waves with the train riders.
The experience is just as magical now as we can taste flights of wine, beer or even housemade nonalcoholic garden cocktails, with optional food pairings.
You’ll definitely want to try the food, which is presented in jewel box nibbles that highlight produce from the garden, which was planted by organic culinary gardener Peter Jacobsen (he is the owner of Jacobsen Orchards in Yountville and grows specialty fruits, herbs, vegetables and edible flowers for several Michelin-starred restaurants, including The French Laundry).
I still dream of my last visit, when I savored pork rillettes tucked into a glass jar with fig-apricot-lemon compote, and a pretty salad of farro and Rancho Gordo quinoa dotted with pickled radishes, Pinot Grigio-soaked golden raisins, sweet pea sprouts and blossoms.
Check the website calendar, too, for pop-ups in the cellar that turns into a sophisticated speakeasy. To get in, look for the neon peace sign, knock twice and share the password (that changes weekly). Then slip inside for DJ-spun music, wine and beer by candlelight and dancing amid the fuchsia-strobe-lit stainless steel tanks.
816 Vallejo St., Napa, 707-255-5591, stclairbrown.com