Eno Wines

Sasha Verhage

Winemaker &Proprietor

Sasha has been making small batches of wine since 1999.

In 2001, he became the assistant winemaker for Tom Leaf at Grapeleaf Cellars in Berkeley, CA. The same year, Tom offered him some extra fruit and Eno Wines was born.

When Tom left Grapeleaf to work as the first head winemaker at Crushpad, Sasha continued to expand his portfolio, making wines from varietals he likes—Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah, and Grenache.

Recognizing that the East Bay has a growing urban winery movement (14 wineries including Rosenblum, JC Cellars, Lost Canyon, and Dashe not to mention AP Vin and Crushpad in San Francisco) Sasha became a founding member of the East Bay Vintners Alliance in 2006.

Along with winemaking, design is his passion. During the day, Sasha works as a Design Lead at Google. Over the past couple of years, Sasha has art directed all Eno Wines' labels, collaborating closely with graphic designers, most notably and consistently with Patrick Castro of LP/w Studios. Eno's first commercial release in 2001 received a Best Packaging award in ID Magazine’s Design Annual. The 2004 labels were in Communication Arts' November 2006 Design Annual.

In his not-so-spare time, he travels and takes courses in winemaking and viticulture courses at UC Davis. He has traveled to, and researched winemaking techniques in, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and many California wineries.

His inspirations comes from various sources—the fine arts and fine wines.