Story By: Mark Gudgel | Photos By: Stephanie Wolden, Wineglass Marketing
Come In, Relax and Stay Awhile
Winery tasting rooms have been an integral part of the wine-tasting experience for quite some time. In the past, it was not uncommon for wineries to invite customers to belly up to a standing bar, hoping that customers would buy a bottle or two or join the winery’s subscription club.
More recently, the wine tasting experience has become a rather elaborate affair. Many require reservations and most charge fees. The tasting rooms have also become more luxuriant and are designed to reflect the winery’s brand, some with fancy food pairings, white table cloths, marble, fine art, stone pillars, or even fountains. Regardless of whether one likes the elaborate aesthetics, the reality is that these settings can often feel less like a winery and more like a fine restaurant or luxury hotel.
Tasting spaces are also popping up where there is more foot traffic – such as a downtown location. A walk down Main Street in Napa or around the square in Sonoma confirms this budding trend of bringing the tasting room to the public rather than the other way around.
One of downtown Napa’s newest tasting rooms is The New Frontier Wine Co. Situated on Main Street, the new space places great emphasis on comfort with an enticing vibe that encourages guests to “Come in and relax, be comfortable and stay awhile.” The inspiration for the design came from observing the popularity of social clubs and how they act as a home away from home, offering a familiar feeling of having a relaxed conversation with friends in their living room. Combining comfort, craftsmanship, and community, the space breaks with the current conventions of many tasting rooms, one in which wine lovers can lose—or find—themselves, inviting guests to come as they are, relax, and explore the impressive and diverse portfolio of brands New Frontier Wine Co. offers.
Few places in Napa embody the cosmopolitan nature of wine as effectively and as thoroughly as the New Frontier Wine Co., which offers a variety of quintessential Napa Valley wines from which to choose, produced from premier fruit grown in nearby local vineyards or from their vast array of incredible wines produced from New Frontier Wine Co.’s global vineyards, available in flights or by the glass. “What makes this place unique is the atmosphere and our broad portfolio of wines,” explains Managing Director of New Frontier Wine Co., James Silver. “People are looking for comfort and a relaxed atmosphere where they can explore and experience our wines at their leisure. Our tasting lounge is designed to make all feel comfortable, whether they are a wine aficionado or someone beginning their wine journey.”
These wines, and New Frontier Wine Co. as an entity, are the brainchild of Alejandro Bulgheroni, an internationally recognized humanitarian and entrepreneur. What makes Mr. Bulgheroni’s vision so unique is a twofold approach to making the global wine scene accessible in one location. The first part comes with devotion to the world as a whole and his commitment to the reality that phenomenal wines can be made anywhere. Bulgheroni and his team repeatedly prove this, producing wines from Napa and Sonoma, Amador County, Mendoza and Patagonia in Argentina, the Barossa Valley of Australia, and the storied soils of Bordeaux.
The second aspect of Bulgheroni’s unique vision is embodied by the company he keeps. His team consists of a ‘who’s who’ of modern winemaking, including industry superstars Michel Rolland, Philippe Melka, Maayan Koschitzky, Matt Sands, Alberto Antonini, Joe Shebl, and Juan Pablo Murgia. This stable of creative forces come together under Bulgheroni’s umbrella and work together to craft some of the most unique and impressive wines on the market today. Several wines in the collection have scored a perfect hundred points from Jeb Dunnuck, while almost all are widely heralded by critics from the United States and abroad.
Not only are the winemakers behind The New Frontier Wine Company a creative force of nature, but they also have access to some of the most prestigious and storied vineyards in the area, including Beckstoffer To Kalon, Beckstoffer Dr. Crane, Beckstoffer Las Piedras, Beckstoffer Georges III, Ritchie, Grieve, Starscape, Charles Heintz, Renwood Estate Ranch, and Lowrey. This combination of phenomenal artisan winemakers and some of the best terroir in the world is a recipe for winemaking success. Now, wines that have previously only been available internationally or by strict allocation are readily available at New Frontier Wine Co.’s Tasting Lounge.
The legendary vineyards of the Napa Valley, the best wines of Bordeaux, Argentina, Australia, and more, are all waiting to be experienced at New Frontier Wine Co.’s Tasting Lounge. The inviting space, excellent staff, and incredible wines are all ready and waiting to welcome wine lovers into what may be the most cosmopolitan and relaxed atmosphere found anywhere in the world. This is the newest phase in the evolution of the tasting room, where the world of wine converges on a single, relaxed location, right here in downtown Napa.
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