Local Wines and Cocktail Takeout and Delivery During COVID-19 Shelter in Place
Faced with days and weeks of social distancing and closed restaurants, bars and winery tasting rooms, more of us are doing our imbibing at home. And with local wineries, breweries, retailers and bars stepping up to offer online sips for delivery or curbside pickup, there are more ways to help keep local businesses healthy by turning our homes into tasting rooms. It seems everyone is hosting virtual happy hours with friends and family at a safe distance, sharing needed conversation and connection.
#SipFromHome
Wineries across Silicon Valley are being inventive when it comes to offering shipping discounts and deals, care packages and virtual wine tasting kits. They’re posting video tours of vineyards, winery operations—yes, wine production is ongoing—and virtual guided tasting sessions with the winemakers. When was the last time you had the winemaker conducting your tasting?
Thanks to temporarily relaxed liquor laws, restaurants including Flea Street Café (Menlo Park), Eureka (Cupertino) and more can offer wine, beer and bottled cocktails to go, making eateries one-stop takeout meal shopping destinations. On Flea Street Café’s cocktails-to-go menu, your Lavender Lemon Drop cocktail is mixed in a lidded glass Ball jar and ready for pickup with your meal. Just add ice, shake and serve.
With these relaxed off-premises license regulations you can even temporarily buy alcohol at drive-through windows. The caveats: You must also buy food, the alcoholic beverages must be in a sealed container (no straws or easy-sipping access allowed) and libations must be transported in a car trunk or an inaccessible spot in the passenger compartment.
Cataloging the Virtual Wine Trails
Buying online? Now is a great time to purchase a bottle, or two or three, to stock up as you hunker down, with shipping fees ranging from free for limited local deliveries or shipping as low as $1–$5 with minimum bottle purchase requirements, to free shipping on half or full cases. Local winery associations and chambers of commerce are also sharing ways to support our local businesses while tasting rooms are closed.
The Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association has collected winery offers into an online resource which you can find here.
Gilroy’s Chamber of Commerce lists a number of Santa Clara Valley wineries offering parking lot pickup and delivery for “S.I.P & Sip” (Sip In Place & Sip) on their Facebook page here.
The Wineries of Santa Clara Valley website has a convenient list of its 33 member wineries in South County, detailing wine purchase and delivery and shipping deals, with free local delivery in many cases, as well as which wineries currently offer curbside pickup.
Upping Your Wine Game at Home
Wineries are finding ways to create unique experiences with experts at home, as well as sharing ideas to expand your wine knowledge with friends.
For example, Big Basin Vineyards (Saratoga) launched the Winemaker in Your Home Series, where Bradley Brown hosts two Friday afternoon sessions over six weeks, coordinated with a home tasting bundle.
You can join Mike Guerra, in-house wine expert at Enoteca La Storia (San Jose and Los Gatos), on the wine bar and eatery’s Facebook page for his wine videos. Since you’ve probably got some time on your hands, why not learn something about wine?
The San Francisco Wine School, based in South San Francisco, moved its classes, workshops and certification courses online through at least May 31. Classes are led by Master Sommeliers and top wine educators, and you can dig as deep and get as geeky as you like. Or, just enjoy learning about one of your favorite wine regions or varietals. Web-only workshops are 50% off through May 31.
Wineries are also crafting CARE packages that you can send to yourself or a loved one, curating selections to follow different wine-tasting themes, party packs and offering gift cards good for future winery experiences and more. Some are even publishing their favorite recipes, with photos or videos, and pairing wines with them.
