The Abridged version:
Wine writer Mike Dunne recommends these 13 local wines for all kinds of budgets and occasions.
Heading to a backyard barbecue, a poetry workshop or a Taylor Swift karaoke night? There’s a Sacramento-area wine for that.
Dunne’s recommended wines range from $13 (for a Gen Z housewarming party) to $42 (a milestone birthday or anniversary).
Wine asks consumers to master a slew of obstacles before getting to the point of the exercise: joy. So many styles on store shelves. So much exotic terminology. The need for a special tool to even open a bottle.
All this complicates the haunting bottom-line question: Which wine when? We’re here to help, having fun guiding readers to fitting wines for various occasions.
The wines were selected for their consistent character, quality and value regardless of vintage, though current vintages are highlighted. All the wines are from wineries in the greater Sacramento region. Several are from Amador County just to the east, but others are from Clarksburg, Lodi and El Dorado and Tehama counties. And with one exception, all the grapes for the wines were grown in what’s been called “Superior California,” from Tehama County in the far north to Lodi.
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Milestone birthday or anniversary
Gwinllan Estate Vineyard and Winery 2021 El Dorado Methode Champenoise blanc de noirs
Ideally, a milestone birthday or anniversary would be celebrated with the vintage of birthday or wedding, but the wine trade is so young in the greater Sacramento area that older vintages are difficult to come by. But what is more celebratory, anticipated and versatile than sparkling wine?
Gwinllan Estate’s sparklers consistently win high honors on the wine-competition circuit, including the robust and animated 2021 blanc de noirs. It was named the best sparkling wine at last fall’s Sierra Foothill Wine Competition, the fifth year in a row that a Gwinllan bubbly has taken top honors. ($42)
When going to a friend’s house for dinner, with cioppino as the centerpiece
New Clairvaux Vineyard’s 2025 Tehama County Vina Ranch viognier
With its zingy acidity and zesty suggestions of lemon and lime, the New Clairvaux is the perfect shellfish wine. Viognier’s customary suggestions of honeysuckle and peach hang on a willowy frame.
And the wine has a compelling backstory to stimulate conversation. It’s made at a far-flung monastery of Trappist-Cistercian monks and crafted by a fifth-generation winemaker, Aimée Sunseri. She uses grapes grown on land tended by pivotal players in the state’s early wine history — Peter Lassen, Harry Gerke and Gov. Leland Stanford, under whose stewardship the vineyard covered nearly 4,000 acres, the world’s largest. This viognier was named best white wine at last month’s San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, which drew 5,500 wines from North America. ($24)
Gen Z housewarming party
Shenandoah Vineyards 2022 Amador County Special Reserve zinfandel
Members of Generation Z don’t buy much wine, and when they do it’s customarily inexpensive, between $8 and $15. They’ve probably been saving to buy a house. That day has finally arrived, but there’s still the mortgage to keep in mind.
Aside from cost, the best wine for this situation should be cleanly flavorful, balanced, fruity and easily drinkable. Since 1979, Amador County’s Sobon family has been making the Shenandoah Vineyards Special Reserve zinfandel, as unpretentious, flexible and friendly a zinfandel as you are apt to find in today’s market. And get this: You don’t need a corkscrew to open this screw-capped bottle. ($13)
Blind tasting of orange wines
The End of Nowhere 2024 Yolo County Heringer Vineyard Little Faith
Nope, orange wines aren’t made from oranges. Orange wines are basically white wines, but in contrast to customary practice, their fermenting juice is left in contact with grape skins. An old and largely forgotten practice until recent years, that adds flavor, texture and color (generally an orange, amber or brassy hue) to the wine.
They usually also differ in weight and complexity from standard clear and straight-forward white wines. At a group blind tasting, Little Faith will stand out for its dry, lean, and nuanced blend of chenin blanc, chardonnay and pinot gris. It delivers suggestions of apricots, lemons and spring runoff on a stony streambed. The wine’s hazy brass tone and sediment are common to the genre. ($30)
Taylor Swift karaoke night
Helwig Winery 2024 Shenandoah Valley Musque Clone sauvignon blanc
Taylor Swift gets lots of attention for lots of things, including her favorite wine, Sancerre, a white made only in France’s Loire Valley. It is based on the green grape sauvignon blanc, yielding a wine floral, citric and refreshing, with mineral and herbal undertones.
Plenty of local sauvignon blancs are made in a similar vein, but the one that comes closest to the Sancerre model is Helwig’s Musque Clone. It’s exceptionally floral, substantial and complex for the varietal, yet fresh and spirited, spinning like a girl in a brand new dress. ($28)
Toasting the Winter Olympics’ closing ceremony
Vino Noceto Winery 2024 Shenandoah Valley trebbiano
Vino Noceto is the California equivalent of the Milan opera house La Scala. It’s where you go when you want an Italian aria in your glass — sangiovese, sagrantino, teroldego, aglianico.
In its athleticism, sweep and flash, the trebbiano sings with the drama and color of ice skating competitors. Its unfolding aroma and flavor run to suggestions of honeysuckle, nectarine, almonds, melon and peach, all underscored with a sharp blade of acid. Grab a glass, pair with oysters and bid farewell to the 2026 Winter Olympiad. ($29)
Backyard barbecue
Jeff Runquist Wines 2023 Paso Robles Three Way Vineyard graciano
Jeff Runquist has an Amador County winery, but he draws grapes from throughout the state. His Paso Robles graciano has the backbone and sinew to hold its own with a slab of baby backs — an abundance of plum, cherry and berry fruit, tannins so polite they won’t interfere with the conversation, replenishing acidity and enough black pepper that you don’t need to include any in the rub. It’s up to summer’s biggest culinary challenge: the succulent meats, inflammatory rubs, sweet sauces and smoky char of the backyard barbecue. ($33)
Horror night at book club
Bogle Family Vineyards 2023 Clarksburg Phantom chardonnay
More than the name makes this Bogle chardonnay ideal for sipping while discussing the merits of the current bestseller in horror fiction. It’s compelling, complicated, rich with diverting character, and well plotted, with a sweet-not-cloying finish thanks to its stimulating acidity.
“Sur Lie” might as well be the author’s name. That’s winemaking lingo for hand-stirring the lees (yeasty sediment) that gathers in the bottom of barrels during fermentation, adding texture and savoriness to the wine. ($18)
World Cup watch party
Bokisch Vineyards 2024 Lodi Terra Alta albariño
Portugal and Spain are expected to field especially strong contenders in the FIFA World Cup this summer. For years, grape growers and winemakers in the greater Sacramento area have been exploiting traditional Portuguese and Spanish varieties, especially Markus and Liz Bokisch in the Clements Hills on Lodi’s eastern edge.
While their emphasis is on Spanish-inspired releases, albariño kicks its way across the Iberian Peninsula, going by alvarinho in Portugal. Here and in Iberia, it’s a crowd-pleaser, especially given the wine’s snappy and refreshing fruit, lean build and spiky acidity. ($26)
Spring picnic
Lewis Grace Winery 2025 El Dorado Estate rosé
Pink wines are made from all sorts of grape varieties and present themselves in all sorts of colors, flavors and weights, but they all share one obligation: to be refreshing. They are the spring wildflowers of the wine world, popping with sunshine in a dreary world.
In three of the past five years, brothers Tyler and Trevor Grace have made rosés crowned best-of-class at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. This year, it was this fetching blend of grenache, mourvedre and syrah. It’s pretty, fruity, frisky and versatile, up to pairing compatibly with all the varied provisions of a well-stocked picnic basket. Don’t forget the cork puller. ($26)
Poetry workshop
Easton Wines 2023 Shenandoah Valley The Mountaineer zinfandel/barbera blend
If you’re looking for a provocative prompt as you settle in for class, pour yourself a taste of The Mountaineer, Bill Easton’s rhythmic ode to a 50/50 blend of zinfandel and barbera. The sunny berry fruit, muscle and spice of the zinfandel is complemented perfectly by the svelte build, silken texture and edgy acidity of the barbera.
The wine is made with younger consumers in mind, accounting for its accessibility, vigor and artful label. If the wine doesn’t trigger a sonnet, the label featuring artist Eric Rewitzer’s hand-carved relief print of an ancient sierra juniper tree certainly will. ($30)
Opening Day tailgate
Baker Family Wines 2021 Sierra Foothills Hammerin’ Hank cabernet sauvignon
Baker Family Wines’ 2021 Sierra Foothills Hammerin’ Hank cabernet sauvignon. (Cameron Clark)
So many home openers coming up — Giants (March 25), River Cats (March 27), A’s (April 3). What could be more fitting than former MLB player and manager Dusty Baker’s tribute to Hank Aaron?
Cabernet sauvignon doesn’t often hit a home run in the Sierra foothills, but this is an exception. Its jersey is a deep and flashing crimson, its aroma all ripe cherries with a whisper of anise, its flavor savory and complex, including tightly stitched fruit, smoke, cocoa, peppermint and bacon-wrapped dates, which would be a great tailgate snack to go with the wine. ($62, though on sale recently at the Folsom Costco for $20, a steal)
Gathering that features a dessert bar
Cappelli Wine California Angelica mission
Marco Cappelli’s sweet version of California’s most historic wine sticks close to the original, starting with mission grapes off 140-year-old Fiddletown vines. Their juice is fortified with brandy, an early preservation step at California missions.
The result is a wine high in alcohol and sugar, lusciously rich in color, fruit, body and flavor, which runs to berries, toasted walnuts, molasses, coffee, toffee and figs. If you’re late to the party, no worries; Angelica is a dessert bar all on its own. ($40 per 500-milliliter bottle; $25 when you get a refill)
Mike Dunne is a longtime Sacramento-area food and wine writer. He is the author of “The Signature Wines of Superior California,” published in 2023.