Imagery Estate

Jaime Benzinger (yes, that Benzinger) has been named 2019 Woman Winemaker of the Year and Millenial Winemaker to Watch. That and the fact that Imagery Estate makes a host of unexpected varietals, moved them to the top of our tasting list.

To taste at their bar requires no reservation. You get to sample 5 of their wines for a small tasting fee of $15. Of note: their tasting room is open until 5:30 on weekends, almost an hour and a half later than most other wineries. This allowed us to taste at three different wineries in a single day without rushing and plenty of time for our palettes’ to refresh.

Most tasting rooms in Napa and Sonoma are on the tasteful side of ostentatious so we were surprised to find Imagery’s tucked away down a not-short sidewalk. The building itself is unassuming with nondescript grey metal siding. (At least we knew we wouldn’t be paying for their architecture habit!) Once inside, we found ourselves in the middle of a large wine-centric gift shop but were pleased to find space to accommodate our small party at the bar and a readily-available tasting room attendant.

The winery provides a suggested flight with tasting notes, but we were allowed to try anything they had open. I stuck to the whites and was pleased by the complexity of the Albariño. My husband tried out the reds including the Legrein, Malbec, and Petite Sirah but was sadly unimpressed by any of them.

The piece de resistance though was still to come. To complete our experience, we were given tastings of their port in the most adorable little glasses! One in our party descried them as “sippy cups for adults.” Although, I don’t think we will be adding them to our collection any time soon, the consensus was that they added a fair amount of oxygen to each sip.