Tank Garage Winery

What is it really like to visit Tank Garage Winery?

Hey there! Welcome to Tank Garage Winery, the coolest winery in Napa Valley. No... really. Visiting the tasting room is like taking a trip back in time to a 1920s gas station turned speakeasy, pouring rad as shit wines and playing bomb as hell music. Cool California vibes mixed with vintage decor bring to fruition the most quirky encounter you’ll get at a winery. We think tasting wine should be easy, chill, and accessible for everyone and that’s the experience we’ve created at Tank. No judgment. No pressure. No frills. Everything we do is with our heart and soul. 

When tasting in Napa Valley, we know you’re looking for the most fun winery experience. We got you. For approximately an hour, we will pour you through four limited release wines, delving into stories behind our one of a kind labels and the history behind our treasured spot. We pay attention to the little things: the tables are made of old wine barrels and the garage is decked out with Indian motorcycle memorabilia, a custom-made surfboard, and an Evil Knievel pinball machine.  Feel free to wander the garage, play a few rounds of pinball, check out our specially curated merch room, or just hang with our staff. 

At the best tasting room in Calistoga, you get top-notch wines paired with god-tier service. Our goal is to create a memorable experience you won’t forget so we found the finest in the business. When you walk through the front door, it is like walking into a friend’s house. We have the raddest crew around with Heath rockin' the stereo, Jacey singin’ a tune, Conary flexing his camo, and Aaron dropping some hot somm knowledge. From club member, Steph H: “Every experience I've had with a team member there has been fun, educational, and genuine. Almost like hanging out with friends!”

At the coolest winery in Napa Valley, our wines revolve around the art of the blend, a testament to the way wine used to be made during the days of Prohibition. As far south as Central Valley, north as Mendocino, and scattered across Napa Valley, we source our fruit from all over California. We tend to favor small, family-owned wineries and people we’ve met along the way. Teroldego, Cinsault, Picpoul, and Valdiguie are just a few of the obscure grape varietals we’ve used recently that you probably haven’t heard of. We push the boundaries of winemaking with unfined, unfiltered wines, sparkling pet nats, orange wines, carbonic wines, and so much more. Even the most experienced wine taster might learn a little something. 

Most wineries don’t emphasize how important sick merch is. We decided to create merch that we want ourselves. From harmonicas to flasks to clothes to beach blankets, if you need a gift off the beaten path, we’re your spot. Our tees are screen printed on the softest 100% cotton shirts of your dreams (we know we caught your eye with the “Who the fuck is Tank Garage Winery?” one). 
Every day, we celebrate this crazy dream turned into a movement where we get to do cool shit and you get to come along for the ride. We celebrate the adventurers, the dreamers, the weirdos, the free spirits, and the misfits. So next time you’re in town, you won’t want to miss out. Come by our little garage and celebrate with us.

Dec 30, 2020 at 11:00 AM Permalink

A Walk Through Enlightenment Vineyard

The Russian River flows steadily along the highway road into the small town of Ukiah, darting around mountains and moss-covered oak trees. Fall has sauntered on into December this year as the brittle leaves are still crisping into orange and yellow hues. The berries that remain on the vines are shriveled and withered. While marching through one of the rows, we discovered a little sparrow’s nest situated in-between two shoots, long-abandoned like the grape leaves beneath it. The vines are dormant and ready for pruning to invigorate next year’s growth. It seems that the transition from Fall to Winter is a quiet time of tranquility in the vineyards, lacking the hustle and bustle of the pruners and viticulturists arriving in the Spring and harvesting through the year. 

Winemaking has a lengthy history in Mendocino with 108 local wineries still producing. Specifically, Ukiah houses many small vineyards which are typically five or fewer acres, but the area is home to quite possibly the deepest grape-growing roots in the country. During Prohibition, nearly all wineries were eradicated and replaced with fruit and tree nut orchards, but some remains of those deserted wineries still exist. Today, Mendocino is well-known for dominating the green wine movement, with ¼ of grapes in the region grown and farmed organically. 

We took a trip to the Enlightenment vineyard in Mendocino County where we previously sourced fruit from 85-year-old vines for Bohdi, our newly released Chenin Blanc, farmed naturally and organically. We picked and whole-cluster-pressed our Chenin Blanc using native yeast fermentation in a barrel with a partial natural malolactic fermentation to create a wine that’s both fresh and creamy. The Enlightenment Vineyard sits just a few miles east of downtown Ukiah and about a mile away from the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, one of the largest Buddhist communities in the Western hemisphere. There’s something so peaceful about soundlessly trudging through the vineyards that source the grapes to make our wine while it’s unattended. If you were to capture the moment in a snow globe, it’s like being enclosed within a mini-ecosystem, ever-changing and evolving.

Dec 15, 2020 at 9:06 AM Permalink