Perfect pairing: San Francisco & Wine Country

San Francisco is not only celebrated as a capital of queer culture; it’s also renowned for showcasing global gastronomy paired with locally grown wine.

Whether you’re already a wine aficionado or looking to follow your curiosity and discover new pleasures, you’ll find warm hospitality and an eagerness to educate your palate at the city’s wine bars and tasting rooms. And San Francisco’s restaurants have some of the country’s most wine-knowledgeable sommeliers and waitstaff.

Two queer-owned and community-focused wine bars can be found right  in the heart of the gay-favorite Castro neighborhood: 

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At Blush, a rotating array of over 30 wines is available by the glass, with a savvy staff ready to help you explore their nuances. Live music complements the experience several nights a week.

Swirl is a deeply stocked retail shop with a cozy tasting bar (and a terrific Italian sandwich shop) tucked away in the back. Sample a sip to find your favorite, then buy a bottle and picnic in nearby Dolores Park.

And while you needn’t leave the city limits to sample the finest California wines, a side trip to nearby wine country, across one of San Francisco’s iconic bridges, can make a delicious addition to your visit.

Wine country day-tripping

A scenic drive, as brief as one hour, takes visitors from San Francisco to some of the world’s finest wine regions. Each region is distinct by its soils, setting, and microclimates.

Head north over the Golden Gate Bridge to explore the nearest wineries and tasting rooms in the internationally recognized Sonoma County and Napa Valley. Further on are the Anderson Valley, Mendocino, and Lodi wine regions, where a peaceful overnight stay is in order.

Cross the Bay Bridge eastward to explore the Tri-Valley wine region, about 90 minutes from the city. To the south, you’ll find another abundance of vineyards and winemakers in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Carmel Valley.

(Be careful to pace yourself and arrange a designated driver. Private wine country tours are available from several companies, including gay-owned Out in the Vineyard.)

Close to 2,000 wineries are in these nearby areas, cultivating over 50 grape varietals. Chardonnay and Cabernet are the best-known and most popular, but Northern California’s adventurous growers cultivate everything from Alicante to Zinfandel.

Meet the queer winemakers

Many of California’s LGBTQ+ winemakers have tasting rooms in Sonoma County, the wine region that’s easiest to reach from San Francisco. Here are a few juicy picks from this conveniently located cluster of gay-owned operations.

Cindy Cosco named her winery Passaggio to acknowledge her adventurous, independent-minded passage through life. The Virginia-born vintner had an earlier career in law enforcement before heading west to embrace the wine country experience fully. After apprenticing at another winery and studying the craft, she started her winemaking business in 2007.

Specializing in lesser-known Rhone and European varietals, Cosco proudly pours tasting flights and offers her portfolio of reds, whites, and rosés by the glass or bottle at the Passagio Wine Bar in  Glen Ellen’s charming Jack London Village. Nestled in a grove of trees alongside Sonoma Creek, it’s a lovely spot to enjoy an afternoon hour.

Lloyd Davis, a Black, gay former financier, established Corner 103, intent on creating a welcoming space where visitors could enjoy wine education without intimidation. His achievement has been made clear: USA Today has named the winery’s tasting room one of the country’s ten best.

Located in Sonoma, the contemporary but cozy venue provides intimate appointment-only experiences, including food pairings tailored to each group of guests, whether novices or experts.

Jim Obergfell, best known as the plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage, is the co-founder of Equality Vines. With every bottle sold, his “cause-driven” winery donates to organizations supporting LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, migrant rights, and other social justice causes.

The label’s tasting room is in Sonoma’s famous gay getaway town, Guerneville, on the Russian River. And there’s an extra dash of queer appeal in Equality’s exclusive Gems portfolio: sales support Family Equality and was created in collaboration with Real Housewives of Orange County personality Heather Dubrow.

Theresa Heredia, consulting winemaker at Gary Farrell Vineyards & Winery, previously headed the company’s entire winemaking team for a dozen years. A Latina lesbian, she also pioneered the brand’s ongoing outreach to the LGBTQ+ community and has become a well-known spokesperson for queer rights and representation in the wine business. 

At Gary Farrell’s site in the lovely town of Healdsburg, guests enjoy a tour of the wine production facility before tasting Heredia’s handiwork.

Further vino recommendations

If your wine country exploration takes you further afield than Sonoma County, consider the singular experiences offered at these two queer-owned wineries.

In Napa, Joey Wolosz and Jeff Durham of Gentleman Farmer Wines offer some of Northern California’s most elaborate tastings. Reservations are required at the 1926 Craftsman-style bungalow they’ve transformed into a den of hospitality centered around a bright demonstration kitchen.

The winemaker couple cooks multi-course meals to pair with their wines, including a wine-with-breakfast option, preceded by a 5K running tour of the town with Durham.  

The tiny town of Philo in rustic Anderson Valley is home to Pennyroyal Farm, where lesbian vintner Sarah Cahn Bennett and her savvy,  science-enamored agricultural team have small herds of dairy goats and sheep to help prune the biodynamic vineyard. 

Pennyroyal’s estate wines and made-on-site cheeses pair remarkably well. A picnic-style tasting can follow a tour of the property.

Bringing it all back home to San Francisco

After working as head winemaker at a large Sonoma wine company for over three decades, Marc Lyon turned his efforts to his own small, organic Eco Terreno Vineyards in 2012.

While one can’t cultivate grapes in an urban environment, Lyon, one of Northern California’s most prominent gay vintners, recently decided to do the next best thing. He opened the Eco Terreno Urban Tasting Room in San Francisco.

“As a young gay man in the eighties and nineties, I had many good times in the city. I planted my vineyard in the Alexander Valley [in Sonoma County] to stay close,” says Lyon.

In opening a tasting room in San Francisco rather than on his rural property, Lyon reconnects with his personal history and celebrates the city’s history. 

The Eco Terreno, Urban Tasting Room, is scheduled to open this month in a building that has also housed one of the city’s first racially integrated nightclubs, a lesbian bar, and the Purple Onion, where Maya Angelou and Lenny Bruce once performed.

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