Longboard Vineyards

I first heard about Longboard Vineyards in 2015. My mom is a lover of sparkling wines and I’d heard that the winemaker at J had left and setup his own shop just south of the plaza in Healdsburg. Longboard only had the one sparkler, so it didn’t make our list of “must try Maisons.”

I next heard of Longboard from my uncle. As a visually-impaired wine connoisseur he’s taken to visiting every tasting room within walking distance of his home. He described all the wines as “credible” and when we heard it was also dog-friendly, we hit the sidewalk.

If a Tiki Bar and a Winery had a baby it would be the Longboard tasting room. In addition to the usual stacked barrels, there are surf boards and videos of Mavericks projected onto one wall.

The standard wine flight is $20pp with a $5 add on for the sparkling, which I did …for Mom, obviously. I found the Brut Rosé to be well-balanced between fruit and yeast and bought a bottle to take home for Christmas. Our second favorite was probably the Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, which was restrained and again well-balance between fruit and oak. They happened to have harvested the 2023 crop of pinot earlier in the week so I was excited to watch the punch down and whisper words of encouragement to the lucky grapes.