Eno in the News- Urban Winery article in East Bay Express weekly

Eno Wines along with the 14 other East Bay wineries were featured today in weekly The East Bay Express. A little over a week ago, staff writer, Jonathan Kauffman, came to the winery to interview us. The issue has hit the stands and will be available for the next week.

His article Barrel Fever: A burgeoning East Bay winemaking scene separates the vin from the vineyard profiles the urban wineries from the East Bay and provides historical context to the emerging local wine scene.

Like many wine regions, there was first generation of pioneers, including Rick Dove (Montclair Winery), Davis Bynum, Channing Rudd, and our landlord, Travis Fretter and his father, in the late 70's. Then in 1978, veterinarian and home winemaker, Kent Rosenblum started a commercial winery, Rosenblum Cellars, at the Dead End Bar in West Oakland. Growing quickly from 6,000 cases to 170,000 cases last year, Rosenblum has been the trailblazer. Moving from Oakland to Emeryville in 1982 and to its current home in Alameda in 1987.

They have also been the springboard for many small wineries. From the 1990s up until 2004, they shared warehouse space and equipment with a number of startups, including Dashe Cellars, JC Cellars, and St. George Spirits.

The article profiles mostly Jeff Cohn, a veteran East Bay winemaker, and Brendan Eliason, who just opened his doors last year. Brendan is the owner and winemaker of Periscope Cellars, the main organizer of the East Bay Vintners association, and arguably the impetus for the article. Several of the other wineries are quoted on what it is like to make wine in the East Bay.

A map of the wineries including Eno Wines and Harrington Wine at #1, though a bit hard to read online, is provided:

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

• Leave the $100,000-an-acre vineyards for the millionaires, they say; we'll make wine from whatever growing regions we like, with whatever grapes we want, and still get to live in the city.
  
• ...For a man obsessed with the provenance of his grapes, Cohn doesn't think it matters where you make the wine. Building a winery next to the vineyard doesn't guarantee a better product, he says. He can truck in grapes from Mendocino, Santa Barbara, and Napa, then tend to their fermentation in Oakland.
  
• "We had some dairy tanks shipped out from Minnesota, and we'd go at night and make wine...Everyone in the neighborhood thought we were bootleggers."- Kent Rosenblum on his first days starting his winery in West Oakland
  
• "In every town in Europe, you have your local cheesemaker, your local butcher, your local baker, and your local winemaker.."- Brendan Eliason of Periscope Cellars on why local wineries in urban areas are important
  
• "I'm not bound to a region. It allows me the freedom to go to different appellations to buy the grapes that grow best there. I make Cabernet Sauvignon from Alexander Valley, Chenin Blanc from Monterey."- Matt Smith of Blacksmith Cellars
  
• "Napa and Sonoma are very pretty, but I think everyone who lives there wants to move here..."- Jeff Cohn of JC Cellars