A Star is Born.
Gearhead's Craig West, seen here with Judy Garland
Tonight! Friday the 13th!
6 - 7:30 PM, Elmwood.
TL; DR: It's Freaky Friday today... and there's no better way to toast it than with Craig West and his Gearhead Wines (one of whose most famous wines is called "Freak Show")! Add to that the debut of "GRC," an exclusive collaboration between Vintage Berkeley and Gearhead, and this is one lucky Friday the 13th!
Tonight? Meet Craig West: a regular Elmwood customer from way back... who's now the toast of Bay Area natural winemaking! We're proud to say we were Invoice #1... for the guy who's now being poured at wine bars all up and down the coast!
Working locally in the same natural winemaking collective as Noel Diaz (Purity Wines), Craig's making Californian delight-bombs that are as wildly affordable as they are, well, wild. These are fresh, lively, glou-glou styled wines — wines made for drinking, and not overthinking!
Taste the rainbow: the unmistakable color spectrum of Mr. West
While we've had a special relationship with Craig from the get-go, occasionally convincing him to bottle things just for us (including the electrifying "Freak Show," that later set then-Bon Appetit critic Marissa Ross aflame)... tonight we take it to a new level!
Come join us and Craig this evening as we debut our first-ever collaboration, and a wine that is a Vintage Berkeley and Solano Cellars exclusive: Craig's "GRC" cuvée!
That's right: "Mise en bouteille avec Vintage Berkeley"
Inspired by a French wine that shall here go unnamed, it's like it in almost every way: 1) it's designed to delight... and 2) it's a wine that very few people will ever set eyes on... let alone get to taste! But unlike DRC (whoops? did I say that out loud?), which produces a whopping 6000 to 8000 cases annually? Craig's GRC is a genuine rarity, with case numbers we can count on four hands... with a couple missing fingers!
And while DRC's Romaneé-Conti Grand Cru can't be had for less than $10,000? A bottle of Craig's infinitely smaller-production wine can be had for approximately 99.8% less! A wild, zero-sulfur-added red/white blend of Counoise, Chardonnay, and Carignan (a version of Craig's classic "CCC" bottling), the GRC is a chillable light red (only 12.9% ABV) that we plan on stocking up on to drink all summer long. (And as much as the Burgundians are begging us for an allocation? We've reserved it all for you!)
More exclusive wines than this will be poured tonight
Gearhead On In!
Tonight! Fri, 8/13, at Elmwood!
Taste 3 Wines for $5!
6 - 7:30 PM.
Be There for the Premiere of GRC!
(Only Available at Vintage Berkeley and Solano Cellars.)
Plus: Gearhead T-Shirts Available for Sale!