A new tasting room that will solely feature Marine Layer Wines, a small production wine label that focuses on making Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with grapes from the Sonoma Coast, is coming to Center Street this August.
The Marine Layer Wines tasting room is taking over the space at 308 B Center Street — formerly the home of the Flight Deck tasting room — next door to Downtown Bakery.
“Marine Layer launched just a couple of years ago. We had our 2018 vintage and it is our inaugural vintage and it’s really just a very tiny project, under 2,000 cases currently. We’re slowly, each vintage, getting a couple hundred more, but it is a very small project and we intend to keep it that way,” said Milly Glazier, DTC manager and creative director for Marine Layer Wines.
Marine Layer founder Baron Ziegler, who’s also the founder of Banshee Wines, and winemaker Rob Fischer wanted to create wines that they enjoy drinking, but they also wanted to highlight the flavors that come with grapes that are grown on the rugged and foggy Sonoma Coast.
“The common denominator is a very coastal, maritime influence with unique soils and topography. That’s kind of the ethos of what we’re trying to do here … and letting the soul of the vineyards shine through in the wine,” Fischer said.
While some grapes are estate-grown, most of the grapes used are from sites along the coast and from areas in the county that are often bathed in morning fog, the Petaluma Gap, Gap’s Crown, Fort Ross, Sonoma Mountain, Green Valley, Sebastopol Hills and Occidental.
“A lot of the vineyards we’re working with are really small plots down to half an acre in a wooded, coastal forest, but that’s what we’re looking for and working with growers that share the philosophical farming similarities with us,” Fischer said.
He said with the relationships they’ve built over the years via Banshee Wines with west county grape growers, they’ve been able to find vineyards where they select their grapes from.
These coastal sites are typically more rugged and elevated with diverse soil. For instance, their single Rose varietal is made with grapes that grow in the Fort Ross – Seaview appellation where the soils are the decomposition of an ancient sandstone seabed.
“Some of the key vineyards are our estate and for Chardonnay, we are working with Charles Heintz’s vineyard out in Occidental and Green Valley and we have Gap’s Crown. We do a Sonoma Coast blend,” Fischer said.
The Heintz family has farmed the same property in Occidental for over 100 years.
Heintz’s grandparents purchased the property in 1912 and grew Zinfandel until prohibition when the vineyards were replaced with apple orchards. In 1982, most of the acreage was replanted with Chardonnay.
“At coastal sites, what you’re achieving is a balance and a physiological flavor development early on, so what we’re able to do out in these special places, is to be able to pick things at more moderate sugar and alcohol levels, so we’re getting bigger acid and brightness,” Fischer explained.
Fischer said by and large, he and Ziegler focus on making wines that they enjoy, but they also draw inspiration from the French winemaking regions of Burgundy and Champagne.
“Really, it’s a confluence of all of the experience we’ve had with Banshee,” Fischer said of Marine Layer wines. “That was more of an exploration of Sonoma County distilled down to really beautiful expressions of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. As we evolved through that experience, we realized that the best expressions and the ones that we love were coming from the west of Sonoma County and from maritime influenced places.”
Marine Layer currently has one 2019 vintage, the Rose of Pinot Noir, and several Chardonnay and Pinot blends from 2018.
About the tasting room
Glazier said keeping the wine production on a small scale provides them the ability to sell all of their wines at the future tasting room.
“Keeping it on a small scale means we’re going to have a tasting room to sell it in, something small and intimate and local and so therefore began our project of the tasting room buildout,” Glazier said. “We have our friends the Homme Boys — Austin and Alex, and they are this incredible design duo based out of Sonoma — heading up not only the design, aesthetic and vision, but they are also heading up the construction.”
The design and construction crew had been working on the new tasting room but then COVID hit and there were some permitting delays with the city of Healdsburg.
Now, they’re about a month out from their opening date in August, according to Glazier.
“The space is totally remodeled and is fresh and bright and has these gorgeous high ceilings with skylights so there’s a lot of natural light, and really we want the space to be somewhere where guests can just relax and unwind. It’s not going to be that old school model of a tasting room where you have to saddle up to a bar and stare at a host,” Glazier said,
Instead, the tasting area will have oversized couches, lounges and built-in bench seating near a large modern fireplace.
Glazier described the space as having a lot of lush and rich layered textures and natural elements that exude the feeling of being on the Sonoma Coast.
“There are lots of blues and natural fibers and when you come in it will just be an immersion of color,” she said.
The tasting room will primarily have indoor seating. Indoor capacity will be 47. Operating hours will be from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The tasting experience will include a flight of five wines from Chardonnays to Pinot Noirs. In the evening hours, they’ll offer wines by the glass.
“We will also be working with a local, to be announced, to be our food partner. We have a space on-site where food can be assembled and stored and plated and we really want to pump it up a notch and have some great chefs behind what we’re creating,” Glazier said.
Food offered at the tasting room will include light bites and snacks. Wine flights will also include a selection of light bites.
“And if people want to order a la carte, they certainly can. People may have just had lunch or are about to go to dinner, so we don’t want to force someone into a food experience,” Glazier said. “We’re wanting it to be a space where we can have a lot of guests and tourists, but we also want our locals to have another option where they can hang out.”
She said it’s important that the tasting room has an elevated, yet welcoming feel.
“We’re definitely stepping things up from our former Banshee days, which was a little bit more young and wild,” she said.
