Our Sol Rei Wine tasting room is now open in Sonoma, California...
Happy to share that we have accomplished a lot since my initial “Birth of a Brand” post. Our first wine vintage from 2023 has earned numerous national awards and put little Sol Rei on the map – literally and figuratively. We now have a beautiful, intimate tasting room in downtown Sonoma where you can try all our wines and become a member of Sol Rei Founder’s Club for exclusive access to early and limited releases of our small lot wines.
Similar to the other elements of Sol Rei, the tasting room is not the outcome of focus groups, marketing consultants, or pricey designers; it is an authentic reflection of the passion and joy of wine and nature. As you walk into the tasting room, you will notice that the back wall features a giant mural of a vineyard with two beautiful outsized clusters of purple (Pinot Noir) grapes in the forefront. 
This mural is actually a photo of the famous local Sangiacomo Vineyard where we source wine grapes for our Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. If you look at the horizon line in the photo, you will see a lovely haze that is just burning off in the sunshine. That photo says it all – that is nature making the elements of a fine wine before our eyes.
The haze keeps the grapes cool at night and in the morning, enabling complex flavors to develop, followed by the afternoon sunshine ripening the grapes to perfection. Because all of our wines are low intervention with a focus on purity, our goal is to capture that moment of perfection on the vine within the bottle. This is where the skills of our winemakers shine. We are very proud of the accolades that we are receiving nationally and locally that validate their excellence in premium artisan winemaking. And, as an added commitment to purity in our winemaking, all of our wines are third-party lab tested to be low in sulfites, low in histamines and free of trace pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides.
Another nature-inspired feature in our tasting room is a vineyard grapevine embedded in the bar and backlit for visibility.
I picked up this vine when I was out in the Amaral Vineyard checking on the Sauvignon Blanc grapes. It caught my eye due to its beautiful symmetry. It is so sculptural, yet functional in its living form – offering a perfect leaf canopy for shading the grapes from sunburn, along with providing the optimal structure for uniform ripening and good airflow. For those of you who do not have an opportunity to frequent vineyards, this is another one of nature’s connections to what is in your glass.
What I have shared here are just two of the magical connections between that special beverage we enjoy so much and our natural world. I hope that all of you can experience wine country in the future, either in person or when sipping Sol Rei Wine and feeling the sunshine in every bottle.
Wishing you happiness and well being,
Katherine
