There is no gated, tree-lined path through the vineyards leading up to the entrance of the MacRostie winery. Nor is there a sprawling estate with wine caves and private dining rooms. As those who know me will likely attest, I’m not really an “estate” kind of guy. But I am a wine guy. I have been making wine for 35 years, and beyond my relationships with family and close friends, there is nothing I love more than growing grapes and guiding their transformation into great wine.
Let me start by saying that I have nothing against lush, wine country estates. In many ways, the refined and idyllic country life that these estates represent has helped to build the reputation of California’s wine industry. These places have become a mecca, both for wine lovers and curious tourists (who are often transformed into wine lovers while visiting these estates). Along with selling wine, these lavish wineries also sell an ideal, which can be very appealing.
However, here at MacRostie we took a different path – a path that more and more small wineries seem to be following, either by necessity or by choice. In 1998, after years of sharing quarters with another winery, we moved our production to an unglamorous, yet very functional space in a warehouse complex on Eighth Street East, just south of downtown Sonoma. This was the year following the founding of our Wildcat Mountain Vineyard, on borderlands between Carneros and the Sonoma Coast, which left us with a simple set of options – use our resources to plant an amazing vineyard, or use them to build a grand, showy winery. For us, it was an easy decision.
In those early days, we had only two winery neighbors in the facility: Ravenswood and Viansa. While we certainly weren’t a stop on the winery bus circuit, we had a lot of space. Space to focus on making wine. To that end, we took the money we saved by renting our facility and used it to buy the best fruit and the best equipment. We approached our winery as an artisan’s workshop, not a work of art in and of itself.
It’s an idea that seems to have caught on. Since then, the developer who built our facility has built another one just across the road, designed specifically for housing wineries. Today, our winery neighbors number approximately 15, including names such as Patz & Hall, Talisman, Castle, Three Sticks, Kamen Estate Wines, Saintsbury, Ledson Winery & Vineyards and Tin Barn Vineyards. It’s an iconoclastic, down-to-earth community of winemakers who are making some amazing wines in a very unpretentious setting. And the trend seems to be growing, with winemaking enclaves like ours popping up from Sebastopol to the Central Coast.
And though we don’t talk every day in the parking lot, there is a loose sense of community and a natural sharing of ideas. From time to time, we’ll get together at someone’s open house, or drop in on each other to check out a new solar installation or a great new destemmer. Working alongside so many other wine-industry people, you also realize what a remarkably small world the winemaking community is.
Ultimately, the common denominator we seem to share is a passion for what’s in the bottle, not the building the bottle is in. And while we are still not on the winery bus routes or limousine circuit, more and more people seem to be seeking us out here on Eighth Street. Since they are definitely not coming for the view, it is safe to say they are coming for the wines.
Steve MacRostie is a renowned winemaker and the founder of MacRostie Winery and Vineyards. To learn more, visit www.macrostiewinery.com.
