Sara and I, Matt, are new to the downtown Healdsburg Tasting Room scene. We spent the first 13 years building the LIOCO brand on the best restaurant wine lists throughout the country, and later the world. Because both Sara and I came from the wholesale wine world prior to Lioco, we felt comfortable selling our wines to fellow industry people in restaurants, hotels, and boutique bottle shops. But we always longed to have a place we could call our own, a place to host visitors to our region looking to taste the best in California wine.
In the fall of 2018 we finally opened our doors. We now had a place that felt like, looked like, sounded like LIOCO. And we could now compete with the best wineries in Healdsburg who were giving visitors an intimate look at California wine and California Vineyards. The idea of a stodgy tasting room with a wooden bar, club chairs, and a TV just did not feel like LIOCO. We wanted to offer a bustling wine bar atmosphere with spinning vinyl records and a casual hang-out vibe. We painted a giant California map on the wall and update it periodically whenever we bottle a wine from a new vineyard. Other Healdsburg tasting room’s have followed suit, which is actually great. It was high time to move forward the Tasting Room Experience. And the rising tide raises all boats.
Today, visitors to downtown Healdsburg have a number of modern tasting rooms to choose from. Where we feel LIOCO is unique is with the wide range of wines we offer from many different parts of California and also with regard to our style of California wine. Our wines tend to be 1-1.5% lower in alcohol than many others. We also very little new oak on our Pinot Noirs (none on our whites). The resulting wines conjure up a “vintage style” of California wine, like the wines that went to the famous 1976 Paris Judgment Tasting. Those wines were also low in alcohol, not manipulated, and showed vineyard-driven character. These are the wine philosophies that excite us and we are always excited to share stories and pour wines for you in our downtown Healdsburg tasting room.