Lubrication Blog
'70s In SoCal
Spot landed in Hermosa Beach in the mid-1970s. When he wasn't serving as the album producer and sound engineer for punk bands like the Misfits and Black Flag, the photographer, who goes only by Spot, was out roller-skating around Hermosa with a camera and a keen eye for SoCal beach and punk culture during the late 70s.
He started taking photography seriously in 1969. Spot grew up with magazines like LIFE and was inspired by the black and white journalistic photos he saw, and when he got a Pentax, he was inseparable with his camera.
Apr 30, 2018 at 7:00 PM
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March 2018 Garage Sale
Best. Garage. Sale. Ever.
On March 11th, we started Garage Sale season off right with a straight-up banger. We released the magical 2017 vintage of Stars Like Ours Rosé, sold every last bottle of Facing Fire to benefit California wildfire victims, ate way too many tacos and two club members even got engaged (Congrats Deb and Ken!)
You all are the best members, friends and neighbors in the world, thanks for partying with us.
Trust us, you're not going to want to miss the rest of our 2018 Garage Sales.
Mar 12, 2018 at 5:30 PM
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5 Reasons to Come Party
1. Give Back
Come early to snag an ultra-rare masterpiece called Facing Fire. Only 24 cases exist of this 100% whole-cluster-fermented Grenache from our beloved Calistoga. $60 per bottle (plus discount) and a portion of the proceeds will go to victims of California wildfires. Line-up starts at 10:30am!
2. Love in the Form of Tacos
It's called Taco Addiction for a reason and it's easily Napa's hottest food truck. Owner and bad-ass chef Enya draws crowds with her jubilant spirit and seriously delicious handmade tortillas. You get 3 fresh, life-changing tacos included with your ticket. First come, first-served!
3. Rosé For Days
You read that right! This Garage Sale will mark the official release of the 2017 vintage of our legendary Stars Like Ours Rosé. If you can't make it, don't fret, it will be available online in a few weeks.
4. 25% Off Everything
It's no secret that our Garage Sales are hands down where our best deals are at. Whether you want to re-stock your cellar, ship some new releases to someone special or grab a bottle to take with you to dinner later that night, this is the time to buy anything and everything you've had your eye on.
5. Games
We're filling up the garage with the classics and need your help shattering their high scores, no quarters necessary. Watch this to get inspired.
So, you in?
Garage Sale - Arcade Challenge
Sunday, March 11
11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Wine Club Members - Free plus 3 guests
Non-Club Peeps - $30 per person. Includes tacos, wine and games!
SOLD OUT! Thank you!
Feb 28, 2018 at 10:00 AM
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The Making of a Storm
Inspired by the bold wines of Bordeaux, we blended some incredible Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc into the perfect storm of flavors and textures.
To make a powerful wine, we needed powerful fruit. This is where the Petit Verdot comes in. Petit Verdot is an underdog. It's underrated and typically not seen on its own or as the star of blends because of its intensity. Bertus and our team wanted to give this varietal a chance to shine, and you better believe they did just that.
Awhile back, we found ourselves on a serious Hemingway kick, obsessed with reading about the life and times of this deeply flawed yet adventurous and artistic man. When we learned that his first typewriter was a Corona #3, we tracked down and purchased the same vintage and model to see how it felt and if it would inspire us. And it did.
For this intellectual blend, we decided to sit down and type out one of our favorite quotes about standing up to adversity, looking it dead in the eye and saying, “bring it on”.
Intense aromas of plum, blackberry, violets and thyme hint towards the velvety mouthfeel and luscious dark flavors that make this blend a striking and downright cerebral wine.
I am the Storm.
Jan 19, 2018 at 4:00 PM
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Surf's Up
A lot of people ask us about the surfboard in our garage, so here's the story.
Quick history lesson first. About 100-something years ago, three Hawaiian princes brought their redwood boards on a vacation to Santa Cruz, California.
Ever since, surfing has been symbolic of California culture. You could say the two go together like wine and garages.
Naturally, Tank needed its own board. But it couldn't just be off the rack, it had to be something unique and original.
So we hit up Dan Taylor, a legendary board builder out of Costa Mesa, California. Dan is a staple of the surfboard industry, known for building quality, high-performance boards.
His business started over 30 years ago as a high school hobby, handcrafting custom boards out of a garage.
Obviously, he was our guy, further reinforcing our mantra to Never Dream Alone.
We sent Dan one of our favorite vintage photos of a California motorbike racer and trusted he'd make us a great board.
Dan's first step is molding a polyurethane foam "blank" to form the core of the board.
After the core is set, he cuts the board in half and inserts a wooden stringer down the center to add rigidity, then the halves get glued right back together.
The next step is shaping the board, where Dan works his magic cutting, carving and sanding the board into a gnarly shape.
Finally, Dan lays down our motorbike racer overlay and starts "glassing" the board, a process covering the board in fiberglass and resin.
After a quick buff, polish and a new fin, our first Tank surfboard is officially ready to ride.
You can find our board chilling out in the corner of our garage. Here are the final specs:
Shaper: Dan Taylor
Model: Vintage Tanker
Dimensions: 8'0 x 3 x 22 x 2 7/8
Fin Setup: Single Fin Box
Glass: 6+6 oz. top/single 6 oz. bottom
Price: $1,250 (excluding tax and shipping)
Dec 14, 2017 at 5:00 PM
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The ’47 Indian
Originally owned by Indian Motorcycle racer and tuner Eddie Bratton, our vintage service station has one of the coolest pedigrees in Napa Valley. Bar none.
Eddie bought his first bike in 1926 at the age of 15 and eventually rode out from Fargo, North Dakota to California, surviving solely on onion sandwiches and potatoes he'd dig up from rural farms. Keep in mind, this was during the depression.
"That piston was damn near to the bottom before the exhaust valve opened."
Eddie on his proprietary engine modification
The infamous Catalina Grand Prix, Eddie's #4
Once he made it to the Golden State, Eddie took up shop at Hap Jones' Indian Motorcycle dealership in San Francisco, tuning bikes and manufacturing custom "Bratton Cams" for the nation's top riders looking for extra power. Eddie was loyal. He only wrenched and raced Indian bikes. Nothing else was good enough.
When he wasn't in the garage, Eddie was on his bike. He competed annually in the Catalina Grand Prix and was famous for a road stunt where he'd balance himself up on a back peg, slide his old lady forward to take the handlebars, then sit back down behind her...without stopping.
A collection of Bratton's racing trophies
Eddie's '47 Indian Chief Motorcycle
After his days of racing and hell-raising ended, you could find him in his Calistoga garage, wrenching away on his prized '47 Indian Chief bike until he retired in the early '80s. If you asked anybody around town about an old motorcycle mechanic, they knew you meant Eddie.
Right around the time we took over the garage, we heard a local Calistogan had Eddie's old Chief in storage. After months of pleading, they relented and sold it to us, returning Eddie's amazing bike back to its rightful home.
Nov 22, 2017 at 1:00 PM
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Chrome Dreams
Chrome Dreams is our love letter to the classic American automobile.
We went back to a time when cars weren’t just cars, but artful vessels of freedom, carrying the American dream westward across Route 66. A time when we were disconnected, living pump-to-pump, windows down, roaring up the Pacific Coast Highway.
Between the 1930s and 1950s, the American automobile was symbolic, a direct reflection of our greatest hopes and dreams. From the austere contours of streamline moderne to the brazen fins of post-war Motorama, these mechanical sculptures spoke to who we aspired to be.
With Chrome Dreams, we were inspired to bring that spirit of aspiration back. The entire experience, from wine to packaging, is deliberately designed to create a sense of marvel.
Chrome Dreams is a classic and timeless Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend. Sourcing premium fruit from our most trusted growing partners, we crafted an ambitious and daring red wine with opulent, soaring flavors of blackberry, raspberry and leather.
The bottle itself is a revolutionary achievement. Through painstaking efforts, we created the first chromed-glass wine bottle in history. With a luxurious mirrored surface and a clear-embossed winged-wheel emblem, we perfectly capture the iconic curves and textures of classic Americana metalwork.
Chrome Dreams is a limited-edition wine with fewer than 500 cases produced, sold exclusively through Tank Garage Winery’s 1930s service station in Calistoga, California.
Nov 7, 2017 at 10:30 AM
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The Terrible T-Kid
"I'm not a brand. I'm a time traveler whose art tells a story of what was and what is. A story of chaos, turmoil, disillusion, survival, redemption, absolution, success. That is my innate talent. To tell that story in the graffiti I paint!"
Julius Cavero, better known as the Terrible T-KID 170, is a legend in the graffiti world. Hailing from the Bronx, New York, T-KID is shaped by the streets. He was a gang member with the Bronx Enchanters and then the Renegades of Harlem in the '70s and '80s.
Where's the terrible part come from? Well...He's stolen. He's been addicted to drugs. He's beat the shit out of people. And in 1977, he was shot three times.
But that's where his redemption began. Confined to a hospital bed for weeks, Cavero spent his time endlessly drawing, sketching and tagging. As soon as he healed, he got a mentor and started a graffiti crew. The rest is history.
No longer illegally tag-bombing train cars and overpasses, today our man is exhibiting his artwork in galleries across the planet. You can check out T-KID's Instagram here.
Sep 20, 2017 at 6:00 PM
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Liquid Light Show
Inspired by the colors, textures and sounds of 1960s psychedelia, we knew this wine needed an authentic label. So we went to Bill Ham, the father of the liquid light show.
First, a history lesson. Nobody is certain of exactly when or why, but sometime in 1965, Ham began experimenting with colored mineral oils, light and overhead projectors to create colorful, kinetic backdrops to accompany progressive concerts and theatric performances. Light art was born.
Ham's team, called Light Sound Dimension (LSD), would combine different color mineral oils and dyes with alcohol in clock cover glasses. The heat from the overhead projector lamp would cause them to swirl, pulse and bubble. The results would be projected on a screen behind acts like the Grateful Dead and Bo Diddley.
After a stint in the military and fine arts college, Mississippi-born Ham moved to San Francisco in 1959, just in time for the counterculture movement of the 1960s. After touring the world for nearly 5 decades, Ham transitioned his light shows into gallery art and collaborative pieces, which you can read more about here.
Now through August 20th, you can experience Ham's liquid light shows firsthand at The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.
Aug 29, 2017 at 11:00 AM
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Tank Garage Winery x Shawn Barber
Shawn f***ing Barber, ladies and gentlemen. If you don't know the name, it's time to recognize.
Shawn is one of the country's hottest tattoo artists. He owns and operates Memoir Tattoo in Los Angeles. His ink is spectacular and his oil painting...it's taking the world by storm.
Raised in upstate New York, Shawn has an interesting history with tattoos. When he was 14, he made a deal with his local parlor. He'd illustrate some artwork for them, and in exchange, they'd give him his first tattoo. It's of Spider-Man. It looks OK.
After graduating high school, Shawn bounced around. First to Alaska, where he worked the graveyard shift in a factory and become irreversibly nocturnal. Then, eventually, to Florida to attend fine arts college.
It wasn't until his mid-30s that Shawn considered becoming a tattoo artist himself. He needed a way to fund his passion for oil painting and obviously had the chops, so he asked a close friend for an apprenticeship. Not long after, both of his careers exploded.
Shawn's figurative style blends photorealism with abstraction. His paintings depicting nude, tattooed figures are hauntingly expressive. Many of which can be found in the world's most respected private collections.
Three years ago, we approached Shawn and asked if would create a label for a new limited edition wine called Ink. He agreed.
Our collaboration process is simple. We describe to Shawn the wine and story we want to tell. Then, a few weeks later, he sends us something fearless and breathtaking.
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