skinny girls & mayonnaise

As many of you know and some have tasted, my family has a wine business. Specifically, we make a zinfandel called Wine Guerrilla.

Downtown Forestville from the Wine Guerrilla tasting room

It began as a project of my mom’s longtime boyfriend, Bruce, but soon many of us were involved. Our main contribution from Southern California, besides being avid proponents and consumers, has been the marketing. The labels feature my artwork and my wife’s graphic design — a brand that we have extended with some success to merchandise, marketing materials and promotions.

The exciting news most recently is the opening of a new tasting room in the charming Sonoma County town of Forestville.

Imogen in the tasting room

The project was a long time coming. Previously, you could only get the wine in select restaurants and wine shops or directly from our website. Now, you can go hang out and taste six or seven of the different zinfandels at a sitting. And what a beautiful sitting it is — a beautiful contemporary space with large windows, a tasting bar and two large tables for a more casual tasting experience. The walls feature huge reproductions of several of the most dramatic of the labels as well as original artworks. Out back is a sunny (when it’s sunny in Sonoma) patio lush with flowers and herbs.

On our first visit recently over the Thanksgiving holiday, the kids scurried around excitedly and we sampled product while we got the tour. The next day, I returned to decorate 30 glasses for a wine club event early next year. While I was working on the glasses, customers who happened in were encouraged to get their bottles signed by the label artist while he was in the shop, which I obliged by decorating their entire bottles with doodles, flowers and women.

Bruce Patch, aka “The Wine Guerrilla”

The next phase for the tasting room will be to offer charcuterie and cheese plates, which they hope to do in the coming year. While you’re waiting, box lunches and snacks are available from nearby restaurants, and the Nightingale Breads bakery across the street has what some folks consider the best bread in Sonoma.

As for the label artist, I will likely travel up to Sonoma a couple times in the coming year to do art and/or food events. More details to come.

The artist and his labels

In the meantime, you can try any of the more than 10 zinfandels Wine Guerrilla offers by visiting the website (the wine club is a great deal, by the way, if you’d like to have a couple bottles automatically delivered a few times a year). Or pop into the tasting room next time you’re in the Russian River Valley — tell Bruce that Skinny Girls sent you and  your tasting will be free! (Or at least discounted… 😉

Wine Guerrilla
6671 Front Street
Forestville, CA 95436
(707) 887-1996