Palumbo Family Vineyards & Winery

Ah the joy…driving up to Palumbo you pass by the barrel room to enter into the tasting room which used to be a 3 stall garage!

Now beautifully appointed and with windows behind the bar out onto the tasting room it allows the outdoors in, in just the perfect way. When we arrived there were two other couples tasting. We planned ahead and scheduled a tasting and tour. This family run business closes it’s tasting room on Wednesday and Thursday so we were making the most of the end of a Tuesday. Nick Palumbo the winemaker and owner took over the tasting room while Matt the assistant winemaker took us on a tour. The three garage stalls have been made into separate rooms the last of which has just been turned into their library storage. The 20 acres of estate vineyards surround the tasting room and Matt explained why each of the varietals was planted where it was in the rolling hills. They grow 6 varietals, with Viognier being the only white varietal and create wines in the traditional Bordeaux style. With the different microclimates they actually had a freeze a few years back on the Viognier in front of the winery by the creek. After waiting and waiting for a thaw they finally threw in the towel and make a very small amount of ice wine! Surprisingly they are only 25 miles from the ocean here as the crow flies.

 

We visited the barrel room and did a barrel tasting. This is a small vineyard producing really spectacular wines. As we got back to do our last tasting in the tasting room, Nick tagged out from behind the bar and Matt took over. Nick had to take one of the boys off to a little league baseball game. The warmth of this family business combined with the exceptional quality of wines and the extraordinary knowledge of wines and growing make this vineyard stand above and beyond many.

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Direction’s via Google Maps

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