Clif Family Winery Velo Vino
709 Main St, St Helena, CA 94574
Website: https://www.cliffamily.com/
Clif Family winery is owned by Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford who are also the owners of the company Clif Bar. Both grew up with a passion for food. Gary picked up his love for wine while cycling through Europe. Kit became interested in wine while working in an artisan pasta, cheese, and wine shop in San Francisco. They expanded their interest in wine after purchasing a home and farm in Napa Valley. They are avid cyclists, environmentalists, and foodies. All of those attributes are reflected in the winery and tasting room. The tasting room in downtown St. Helena is called Velo Vino, which loosely translates to “bike and wine”.
Velo Vino Wine Tasting and Espresso Bar
I generally have a preconceived notion of downtown tasting rooms as a small space with people standing around a tasting bar, maybe a few seats here and there, and not a lot to see and do. That is definitely not the case here. Velo Vino tasting room is like a café or coffee shop with a bicycling theme. Throughout the tasting room there is bicycling memorabilia and above the tasting bar there was a TV playing a video describing Gary’s and Kit’s love for bicycling. There are several tables inside the tasting room as well as some stools around the L-shaped wine and espresso bar. Outside of the tasting room is a garden patio and a Clif Family food truck that serves Italian-style snacks. For sale in the tasting room are some Clif Family Kitchen foods like savory nut mixes, Dukkah spice blends, dark chocolates, seasonal preserves, extra virgin olive oil and wine vinegars. Gary and Kit are very focused on sustainability and source a lot of their food from their own farm.
My husband and I sat at the bar for our wine tasting. Our very friendly hostess, Candace, explained the tasting options and asked us if we wanted to “Yellow Jersey” it. Yellow Jersey is a cycling reference to the shirt that is awarded to the leader after each stage of the Tour de France. With regards to the tasting, this meant adding some small bites to pair with the wines. We went for it. The wines here are very reasonably priced. The Howell Mountain wines are more pricey but on par with other wines from the same area. I enjoyed the reds more than the whites, in particular The Climber Limited Release and Kit’s Killer Cab. The price for the wine and small bite pairing was very acceptable. Besides their traditional tasting, the winery offers an estate tasting experience atop Howell Mountain. For bicycling fans, they also offer bicycle rental packages and will help customize a bike route.
I had a very nice, relaxing time at this tasting room. The wines are good and the atmosphere pleasant. For what seems like a small place, they have a lot of options. I recommend this as a good hang out place for an afternoon snack.
Velo Vino Outdoor Patio