Exciting things happening in the Suisun Valley wine community
By James Quinn
With its diverse range of soils, climates, and spacious regions, California is known around the world as an ideal place for viticulture. Here in the Golden State, we are fortunate to live in such a beautiful place that is surrounded by a wide, famous wine variety—many that are made to complement cuisine—in an industry that has flourished throughout the years, while still leaving plenty of room for winemaking opportunities.
California has over 100 AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) and here in the Bay Area, we live right by an incredible one that is earning quite the reputation—which I highly recommend visiting again and again—the Suisun Valley wine region.
Not too far from home, experience where the magic all happens at its roots. Officially earning its appellation on December 27, 1982, suisunvalley.com describes the Suisun Valley region as: “a unique and diverse wine country and farming community in Northern California’s Solano County between San Francisco and Sacramento. The perfect destination for visitors who are searching for world-class wines, homegrown farm products, and a beautiful, agricultural landscape.”
An experience to enjoy with family and friends, Suisun Valley is well worth a weekend or even day-trip, namely for tasting many different wines; with eight tasting rooms to choose from—(Back Road Vines, Mangels Vineyards, Seven Artisans Winery, Tolenas Vineyards and Winery, Wooden Valley Winery, Vezér Family Winery tasting rooms (Blue Victorian and Mankas Corner Gardens), Suisun Valley Wine Cooperative, etc.)—you have the luxury of variety, as each brings something unique to the table. Whether you’re planning a fun day trip or a wine-country weekend, come to experience their rustic, wine country charm. Taste their award-winning wines [e.g., see Wooden Valley below], discover what makes each winery unique, and learn more from their growers and winemakers. You can do just that by easily hopping on a tour bus to go from tasting room to tasting room, as they are all readily near each other, mostly on or off of Suisun Valley Road. Close proximity is not only convenient, but it is also more affordable in both money and time.
What is more, the Suisun Valley invites you to attend their special events that are fun social mixers, complemented of course with those award-winning wines. In fact, the Suisun Valley has a big event coming up on Boxing Day, December 26th, where they will celebrate their anniversary as an AVA at all wineries (in the holiday spirit, of course)—be sure to be there to experience the tradition!
Because Suisun Valley’s wineries are hospitable and have so much to do, they are definitely a destination to come back to again and again. As such, I recommend staying for at least two days (great hotels are available in Fairfield), especially during an event; however, if you only have time for a day trip, I recommend deciding on transportation, depending on how long and whom you are going with. You could, for instance, have a designated driver, usually for smaller groups, or join a wine tour bus as a more affordable way of carpooling for the small to bigger groups. For the more premium experience of traveling around the valley, many limousine businesses are in the area for rent.
Without further ado here are some great wineries that I found are “musts” when visiting; while the order does not matter at all, as there is no right or wrong way, I will start with the Suisun Valley Wine Cooperative (or, the CO-OP).
Located on 4495 Suisun Valley Road, the CO-OP features a rotation of winemakers and wines from all over the valley—so expect something fun and exciting with each visit. Moreover, most of the pourers are actual wine producers and grape growers, giving a great opportunity to get to know more about their wines and the story behind them. The CO-OP continues, “We all take turns pouring the wines. While visiting us, you will learn firsthand our vision and philosophies behind our wines. We enjoy spending time with visitors and like sharing Suisun Valley’s rustic and authentic charm.” Overall, the CO-OP is a great place to sample many local wines while at one place.
For cornhole and a laid-back, family vibe, visit Tenbrink Vineyards at 4185 Chadbourne Road in Suisun Valley. You will find a farmhouse where you can eat a gourmet dinner that is nicely paired with their wines (I recommend doing so while watching some cornhole and the sunset).
For a cozy, family type experience you must visit Vezér Family Vineyards’ Mankas Corner Gardens. Located at 2522 Mankas Corner Rd. Vezér Family Vineyard is a Suisun Valley Winery, which is owned by Frank and Liz Vezér. Their winery is best known for their Petite Sirah and their Zinfandel, which are rated among the best in the region, and are used in well-known wines, such as Sin Zin and Ravenswood.
Vezér’s second tasting room is the Blue Victorian located at 5071 Suisun Valley Road. This tasting room offers a comfortable site amongst the vineyards. Both Vezér tasting rooms offer event venues for the perfect celebration—large or small they can accommodate all!
Of course, a Suisun Valley experience would be incomplete without including Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards, as they are not only the oldest but also—with about 400 acres of soil—they are the largest winery in the valley. At the heart of the Suisun Valley rustic wine country at 4756 Suisun Valley Road (just past Solano Community College), Wooden Valley is a family-run business, passed down from three generations within the Lanza family.
The four Lanza brothers: Ron, Rick, Larry, and Ken, take pride in working as a family at something they all love—growing their own grape varietal vines in Lanza Vineyards. “We pride ourselves in being very approachable as well. One of our mottos is ‘to be everybody’s winery,’” said Owner Ron Lanza. “We have a wine to meet everybody’s taste. We have both affordable wines and ones that are made more expensively. We have a little bit of everything in styles, meaning from dry whites and reds to sweet reds and whites. We normally carry from 12 to 15 varieties.”
Wooden Valley’s hard work to create high-quality wines has earned them accolades such as making award-winning wines of several varieties that have kept their family legacy strong. Lanza said, “We received a double gold on our Sangiovese and a gold on the Malbec, Barbera, and Cabernet last year at the San Francisco Chronicle wine competition, which is the largest domestic wine competition.” Visit Fairfield also recognizes Wooden Valley’s wines, “Best known for Petite Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and White Gamay.” Notably, Wooden Valley’s 2016 Sauvignon Blanc received recognition from Chuck Wagner, owner of Caymus Vineyards, when Wagner shared a bottle with Author Karen MacNeil, who wrote The Wine Bible; for those unfamiliar, Caymus has been around for over 30 years and is a world-renowned Napa Valley winery.
Even more exciting, Caymus Vineyards has recently come to open a new winery in Suisun Valley—to be called Caymus Suisun Vineyards—and with construction going on for already a few years now, they are expected to open very soon on Cordelia Road. To give you an idea of the kind of following Caymus has and their public influence, their 2016 Caymus-Suisun Grand Durif Suisun Valley has already sold out. The Suisun Valley wine club, headed by Ron Lanza, has also warmly welcomed Wagner. “We’re actually not going to be the biggest winery anymore,” Lanza commented. “Caymus Winery is very known in the wine business; coming from Napa . . . they built a processing center by Anheuser-Busch, and they are building a casing room [their visiting center] by us. That’s really exciting for me because they have a huge draw—they’re really well known, with wines across the world. The public casing room will be [opening in] about a year and a half out.” Instead of the Lanza and the Suisun Valley wine community seeing Caymus as competition, they positively see it as helping it as a whole, promoting their growth as a bigger tourist destination—making that wine tour even more epic!
While you are in town be sure to go visit the other famous Suisun Valley favorite, Jelly Belly Candy Company. Their visitor center is nothing short of amazing! They have tours and even have their own “Chocolate & Wine” experience where you can taste some of the wonderful wines we were just discussing. Conveniently located right off Interstate 80 and Highway 12 you can find them at 1 Jelly Belly Lane.
For additional information on Suisun Valley wine country and their wineries––such as a list of their wineries with their hours of operations, special event dates, information, and directions––use suisunvalley.com. Another great resource for your Suisun Valley/Fairfield visit would be visitfairfieldca.com.
To quickly learn additional information about any of these wineries please visit their websites:
Caymus – Caymus.com and WagnerFamilyofWine.com – (707) 967-3010
Suisun Wine Valley Cooperative – SVWineCOOP.com – (707) 450-8603
Tenbrink Vineyards – TenbrinkVineyards.com
Vezer Family Winery – VezerFamilyVineyard.com or simply Vezer.com – (707) 429-3958 or (707) 422-8025
Wooden Valley – WoodenValley.com – (707) 864-0730
Be sure to “like” your favorite wineries on Facebook and follow them as well.
James Quinn lives in Benicia and teaches at Elmer Cave Language Academy in Vallejo. A UC Davis alumnus in English, he now studies education as part of Touro University’s Master’s in Education program. Along with teaching, he tutors and writes often. He is working on a novel that takes place in Benicia. See his website at mrquinnj.weebly.com.
