On the Beaten Path Urban Oakland Wine Trail
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I toured the Urban Oakland Wine Trail with See.Eat.Love earlier this year. The tour was provided complimentary by the owner, Raquel. Even though I'm semi-familiar with urban wine trails, what I love about Raquel's service is she ties in local food in addition to the wine. And as anyone who has gone wine tasting can tell you, eating is important.
So where did we go and what did we eat? All the tasting rooms were in what is known as the Warehouse District, which is pretty close to Jack London Square and BART. First stop was Dashe Cellars which not only has an East Bay tasting room, but also an East Bay Production facility. They typically have five different wines on the tasting menu, but may have a few extra at times. Everything I tried was great, but my favorite was the Zinfandel from the Louvau Vineyard, but I'm a sucker for great Zins. Accompanying all these wonderful wines were an assortment of cheese with fruit and crackers.
Next stop was Urban Legend Cellars. I could go on and on about how well the Empanadas served paired with the red wine, but I recommend you just book a tour with Raquel and See.Eat.Love to find out for yourself. Once again the wines were of high quality and reasonable prices. One thing I love that Urban Legend does is wine in Growlers! I was so enamored I bought one and took it home. Still waiting for the right occasion to drink it. They also offer limited self-bottling on site which is always fun.
The final stop of the day was at Jeff Cohn Cellars where we all discovered just how well Churro macaroons pair with anything. For the first time today, my favorite wine from a tasting room was a white. 2 Guys, 2 Barrels is a Viognier that has the classic stone fruit nose and flavor. In addition to their Oakland tasting room they recently opened up a tasting room in Sonoma as well.
