VJB Cellars
60 Shaw Ave, Kenwood, CA 95452
Website: http://vjbcellars.com/
I always enjoy visiting the lesser known wineries because I often find pleasant surprises. It is tempting to be drawn in by the more popular wineries, but I encourage anyone planning a trip to wine country to try to fit in some stops to places you haven’t heard of before and I bet you’ll encounter something you enjoy. VJB Cellars is one of those places I hadn’t heard a lot about before visiting but I am very happy to have discovered it. It is located in the Kenwood area along Sonoma Highway. The parking area is located in the back of the winery. To the left of the parking lot is a white stone building where the VJB Cellars Barrel Room is located. The winery itself looks like an Italian villa. There is a wooden fence off the parking lot that leads into a courtyard with an outdoor pizza oven and dining tables. Across the courtyard is the entrance to La Cucina (the Italian marketplace) and tasting room.
VJB’s piazza
This winery has a lot more to offer than I was expecting. I anticipated that it would be a small tasting room like some of the others down the street, but it was a lot more than that. I would liken this winery to V. Sattui in Napa Valley because of its Italian heritage and marketplace, but on a much smaller scale. I felt that there was more of a family atmosphere here. Also, the staff was incredibly friendly. We were greeted by the wine club director as soon as we walked through the gate and he gave us a brief description of the set-up of the winery. He offered to take a group picture of me, my husband, and my sister and guided us to the tasting room.
The idea for the winery was started in the 1990s by two brothers, Henry and Victor Belmonte. At the time their father Vittorio owned a successful restaurant in Santa Rose called Caffe Portofino. They grew up in an Italian family and experienced winemaking with their father and uncles at a young age. They wanted to make their own wines for the restaurant and had their first harvest in 1999. Sadly Victor passed away unexpectedly before the wine was bottled, but Henry and his parents wanted to carry on with the winery in his memory and named the winery after him. The winery opened its tasting room in 2003 and Maria Belmonte, their mother, is the winery’s Executive Chef who creates the homemade food in La Cucina.
VJB’s cucina
This winery is more like a deli or bistro than a tasting room. Guests can choose to stop at the indoor marketplace for a panini, pizza, or other Italian snack. They can take it with them or eat at the outdoor patio. There is also an option to skip the food altogether and head straight to the tasting bar, but I wouldn’t recommend that because the food is delicious! There are also homemade sauces and olive oil for sale. It is a good idea to plan a visit here around lunch time or for an afternoon snack.
VJB’s tasting bar
The tasting room is located on the other side of the marketplace and has a cozy feel to it. There is a long wooden tasting bar with marble counter top on the right side of the room and large leather armchairs set in front of a fireplace on the opposite side. There are many Italian style wines to choose from on the tasting menu, including a Prosecco that is made in Italy specifically for the winery. We ate our paninis while sampling the wine and were pleasantly surprised by the wine. My personal favorites were the Prosecco, Rosso Family Blend, and Sonoma Valley Primitivo. My husband and I so thoroughly enjoyed this winery that we plan to become frequent visitors when we make our return trips to Sonoma.