It happened a few months ago, but one day, Michael gets an email in his personal box inviting him and a guest to a tasting at a local contractor’s store near us. Huh? It was from David Vergari – a winemaker who lives in Sierra Madre in Southern California, but makes a collection of red wines out of a custom crush facility in Sebastopol, California. They’re mostly cabs and pinots – varieties we don’t usually focus on here at OddBallGrape.
But what makes Vergari’s operation a little more up our alley is how he’s selling his wines – through a series of open houses that he uses to build his wine club list. Such as the one we attended. The contractor specialized in high-end kitchens, so among the counter top samples and tile books, there was a small jazz combo. The caterer was using the contractor’s demo kitchen to heat hors d’oeuvres and chill the couple whites Vergari had purchased for those who like whites.
Vergari told us that he likes to make his cabernet sauvignons with a “pinot sensibility.” Either way, his wines feature excellent acids and good balance.
“I’m not in an arms race,” he said when we asked him about the lower alcohol levels in his wines. “I like acids.”
And we liked his wines. You can get them via his website, VergariWines.com
What we still can’t explain is how Vergari got Michael’s email address. We think it happened through Facebook.