Thumbprint Cellars held its last wine tasting over the weekend at its Healdsburg Plaza tasting room, as first reported by The Healdsburg Tribune.
It is the latest in a string of recent tasting room closures in Wine Country — last week, two Napa Valley wineries shuttered their tasting rooms. Newton Vineyard in St. Helena and two of Silver Oak Cellars’ Twomey tasting rooms, in Calistoga and Philo, announced their closures.
However, this is not the end for Thumbprint Cellars, whose Plaza-facing tasting room enjoyed over 15 years of foot traffic on downtown Healdsburg’s Matheson Street. The north county winery will move all operations to its rural headquarters in Geyserville. In addition to the move, Thumbprint will also shift its business model to focus more on experiences for wine club members.
In an email Wednesday, Thumbprint founder Scott Lindstrom-Dake stated the team has “begun the move from our downtown Healdsburg tasting room we have lovingly referred to as ‘The Lounge’ over the past 20 years. The location is now closed for tasting and sales.”
Lindstrom-Dake stated they are in the process of consolidating the business and “creating a new venue for tasting and sales at our Geyserville location,” the details of which will be announced soon.
The winery’s first event at its Geyserville location, a club member pickup party, is tentatively slated for April, according to the Healdsburg Tribune article. Thumbprint also plans to hold more public events and wine tastings by early summer.
Since Thumbprint’s first release in 1995, founders Scott and Erica Lindstrom-Dake have been busy building the reputation of their boutique winery. They opened their first tasting room in 2004 in downtown Healdsburg, which they later relocated in 2009 to its popular Matheson Street home. In 2020, the founders’ son, Carter Lindstrom-Dake, helped remodel the tasting room.
Thumbprint wines have achieved plenty of success in recent years. In the 2021 North Coast Wine Challenge in April, three of the winery’s reds earned gold medals — the 2017 Ramazzotti Vineyard Cabernet Franc (94 points), 2020 Teldeschi Vineyard Dan’s Block Valdiguie (90 points) and 2016 Climax Red Blend (90 points). Seven months later, in the 2021 San Francisco International Wine Competition in November, Thumbprint’s 2017 Alexander Valley Premium Bordeaux Blend scored a near-perfect 99 points, earning it a Double Gold medal.
Other notable wineries in the area, such as Scribe Winery in Sonoma, have opted to offer member-exclusive tasting experiences and pickup parties. Thumbprint Cellars appears optimistic for the change of focus.
“We are excited for the next Thumbprint Cellars adventure!” Scott Lindstrom-Dake stated.