We were so excited when our invitation came in the mail to attend the wedding of our friend Steven who played baseball with Tyler at Stanford (he is now with the Oakland Athletic’s). Both living in the Bay Area, I was STOKED he & his beautiful bride to be chose Calistoga, CA as their wedding destination. For those of you who don’t know, I went to college at Sonoma State right in the heart of Wine Country. I took wine production business classes, all of my friends earned their money working catering events at local wineries, and every year we went barrel tasting. This is where my love for wine began, and I was stoked to go back for the weekend.
We made sure to go up a day early so that we could enjoy the alone time & wine taste. I had done my own research and asked my followers via social media for suggestions. After going to what feels like a hundred wineries over the last 10 years, I wanted a unique experience. Enter Tank Garage Winery.
If I could describe Tank Winery I would tell you to picture the garage set up where SAMCRO met for their meetings in the *best show of all time* Sons Of Anarchy. It just had this badass feel.
A little background.. Tank Garage Winery comes to life in a 1930s era gas station in the Napa Valley town of Calistoga, California. An area graced with world-class vineyards and cool California made wines.
Now most wineries in Napa are very similar, but Tank is so unique and not like any wine tasting room I have ever been to. It is literally a mechanic garage and yes, it is still very much open and operating in the back! They have this rock n’ roll style decor, including a dope oil painting custom by Sean Barber, a memoir tattoo artist in Los Angeles, CA. Guitars on the wall. Vintage pin ball machine. And yes, a sex on a stick Indian Chief original motorcycle from the owner, Eddie Bratton on display.
We tasted five different wines, each of which had their own unique labeling (versus most wineries who share the same labels throughout their wines). The coolest thing about Tank’s wines is that they are “one off” wines, meaning the owner makes them once in bulk and when they’re sold out, they are gone forever. So it has that sexy, mysterious vibe going on, not just throughout the tasting room but with the wines themselves.
Our favorite wines were the Dream Police- with flavors of ripe black cherries, notes of dark cocoa, juicy figs and even a touch of cola and tobacco. Something cool about this wine is that it has a hint of white wine in it to make it more smooth, a technique I had never heard of before. The labeling is what stuck out most to me. Talented illustrator, Tavis Coburn created a retro illustration for the label. Tavis’ unique style is inspired by 1940s comic book art, the Russian avant-garde movement and prints from the 1950s and 60s. Pretty damn cool. And different, my favorite part.
We had asked to look around to take some pictures and we stumbled across the “secret tasting room.” This was by far my favorite part of our tasting. It had this Prohibition rebellious feeling as we entered the saloon room, which was STUNNING. It was sexy in a glamorous kind of way, different from the masculine type of sexiness the front room offered.
All around we had an exceptional, memorable experience at Tank Garage Winery. The staff was kind, charismatic & knowledgable. We swapped personal stories and shared laughs. The ambiance was cool and tough, and we left happy campers. Well, happy, drunk campers. 10/10 would recommend if you’re in the Calistoga area!
To find out more about Tank Winery go to https://www.tankgaragewinery.com/
The Brunching Mama 