I didn’t know much about California wine before I moved here, and still have much to learn, but I see now that California wine is not so monolithic as I’d once thought. There are many ways to make wine out west, and it’s not all ripe fruit aged in new wood as I’d come to expect. The subject has proved a moving target, since the last few decades have brought many changes to the industry, the emergence of many small producers, and a move away from the high-alcohol, panty-dropping style that was once California wine’s calling card.

I used to talk about most of the wines I like to drink and sell by saying they were farmed without chemicals and made with minimal intervention. Now folks use the term “natural wine” which means different things to different people, but opens the door to discussing how wine is made, how the fruit is grown and what is added or done to the juice on its way to the bottle and you. Also far from monolithic in style, a natural wine may taste as simple and bland as a dead, confected, commercially farmed wine, or it may explode with sour, yeasty life. Hopefully, it will be a surprisingly delightful balance of fruit, acid and alcohol, that expresses the specific qualities of the vineyard site, grape variety, and growing season.

Wines like these, organically farmed, and, as Joe Dressner used to say, “unspoofulated” are not easy to make. They require careful farming, meticulous fruit sorting, and constant attention in the cellar, the kind of babysitting that only a small-production winemaker with sensitivity and skill can pull off. Terah Bajjalieh is one of those special winemakers whose wines we’ve been enjoying since 2022 when we first tasted with her and brought them into the shop, and we’re proud to welcome Terah back to Oakland Yard to pour flights of her Terah Wine Co. current releases this Saturday from 2 to 6. She’s delightful to chat with, incredibly knowledgeable, and the wines are tasting great!

Also, don’t forget to drop by Oakland Yard’s 9th Anniversary celebration and artisan market on Saturday November 8th from 12 noon until 5pm for the best food, music, wine, art, clothes, houseplants, jewelry and more!!!

But first, TONIGHT...THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: Domestic whites and Italian reds
2024 Iruai Shasta-Cascade White Wine
2023 Hammerling Point Break Monterey County Chenin Blanc 2021 Vignerons Santa Barbara County Chardonnay
2023 Ficomontanino Noble Kara Rosato di Toscana
2023 Cantine Polvanera Fuso CALX Primitivo
2022 Terra d'Aligi Tatone Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close

SATURDAY 11/1: Winemaker TERAH BAJJALIEH pours TERAH WINE CO. tasting flights
2024 Paicines Ranch Verdejo
2024 Lost Slough Chillable Red
2023 Castro Valley Ranch Red Blend
2024 Mokelumne River Sangiovese
Flights $20 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm

See you soon,
Max

Nine years ago, Glenny, Julia, Max, and I were preparing for the grand opening of Oakland Yard. With all else mostly in order, our October opening was pushed back when the fire department rescheduled our safety inspection date to early November. Waiting for their final sign off, Glenny and I decided to take a short break after many months of planning and build out (and throwing a wedding on top of it all that summer).

So we rented a tiny cabin tucked away in the Eastern Sierras, a little autumn mini-honeymoon before the grand opening. It was quiet and calm with lovely fall foliage and very few souls around. About the only day my wife didn’t out-fish me was the last morning when only one fish was caught, as I was pulling in my line from a final cast.

Back at the cabin, we were packing up and I remembered to gut and clean the fish to add to our cooler. Here's where it turns from romance to a Halloween story of sorts. Friends, I have seen fish startle back to life after their assumed expiration before. But that day was the only time I've ever seen a fish, after showing no signs of life for hours - and well after the length of its belly was cut open and its guts and nearly all significant organs removed, become completely reanimated, flopping wildly from the sink and onto the floor, its cavernous corpse eyeing the back door. Like most things supernatural, I'm sure science could explain the spectacle, but it scared the absolute shit out of me, and my wife heard me hollering from the cabin while she was loading bags into the car.

Known shortly thereafter and forevermore as "demon fish", the thing simply would not die. I really just wanted to just toss it in the trash, but some superstitious part of me thought of the "Talking Tina" doll from The Twilight Zone, and that I'd incur its wrath somehow. So when demon fish settled (again), I wrapped it in foil, bound in many more layers than I’d usually employ, and put demon fish in our cooler. Its presence in the car made me uneasy, a feeling that never totally let up even as he was entombed in the freezer at our apartment. Four months and months, demon fish remained frozen and undisturbed. I could never bring myself to unwrap it, to look it it - let alone cook or with clear conscience serve it. It wasn’t until we moved from our Haddon Hill apartment nearly two years later, that demon fish was finally discarded - and, in a way, released again to the wild. It's whereabouts remain unknown.


Tonight, THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: Loire Valley Sauvignon Blancs and Bordeaux Rouge.
Nothing spooky and no curses here, just delicious wines, good music, and fun, friendly folks... 
White Flight (unrelated, but yes, these would pair quite well with fish)
2024 Thierry Delaunay Le Grand Ballon Sauvignon Blanc
2022 Lionel Gosseaume Climat No.1 Touraine Sauvignon Blanc
2023 Domaine Raffaitin-Planchon Sancerre
Red Flight (satisfying autumn reds for the cool evenings ahead)
2023 Château Beynat Abracadabra Merlot
2022 Château Tire Pé Diem Bordeaux Rouge
2020 Château Renaissance Bordeaux Supérieur Rouge
Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm

SATURDAY 10/25: CHEVERNY FLIGHTS - Hervé Villemade & Simon Tessier
Taste blancs et rouges from two of the Loire Valley’s master natural vignerons
2023 Hervé Villemade Cheverny Blanc
2024 Domaine Tessier Cheverny Blanc
2024 Hervé Villemade Cheverny Rouge
2024 Domaine Tessier Cheverny Rouge
Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until close!


Cheers,
Daniel

Things seem to change quickly these days, both in the wider world and right here on our corner of Oakland. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up. I went away for two days and came back to a fifty-foot Lyft bike station flanking our building and a succulent disaster sprawled across the 40th street median. A nighttime driver had apparently lost control, catastrophically sheared the strip of flourishing cacti, which is tended by a local volunteer as a Sisyphean task, and left behind a jumble of plastic bumper bits and a pile of spiked and waxy leaves. If he hasn’t seen it already, the median minder is gonna be pissed.

Last month, orange and white construction signs appeared down Webster Street as far as we could see, and then the concrete cutting crew came, early and often, drilling deep caverns and trenches into the street and sidewalk early and often to lay us a new gas line. The workers have been friendly, and Claire reported feeling a little special when they would recognize her car, radio ahead her clearance with an earpiece, and wave her through the construction zone. As that crew must too, I now hear the phantom backhoes beeping in reverse.

And we’re working on having a new tree planted out front. The old plum tree on our sidewalk used to bloom pink flowers outside Julia’s second floor office window, but after many blows from delivery trucks, a considerable risk for urban flora, our tree stopped living, so this year we had it chopped down and the stump and roots removed. You may have noticed the vibrant splash of California poppies I’d planted as a placeholder. We’re hoping to get the sidewalk space widened a tad this weekend in preparation for a proposed planting on the 26th by volunteers, after which we will hopefully be the custodians of a hearty young crepe myrtle tree.

So you see, we’re undergoing a little cosmetic work, but we’re still the same cozy Oakland Yard on the inside. Come by for a bottle, for a glass, for a beer, for a Welcome Wednesday food pop-up, for a tasting flight, for the music, for the provisions - the chocolate, olive oil, tinned fish, chips and more. Come for the vibes, the company, or just a moment to yourself.

Tonight...THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: Spanish Whites and French Gamay - Taste three whites from Catalunya, Valdejalon, and Mallorca, or three reds from Beaujolais
2024 Vins El Cep Ot De Vins El Cep Xarel-lo
2024 Mesquida Mora Sincronia Blanco
2023 Frontonio Microcósmico Macabeo
2023 Domaine Yohan Lardy Poppy Gamay
2023 Petit Perou Tu m’tiens au jus Beaujolais Villages
2022 Château Javernand Les Gatilles Chiroubles
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close

SATURDAY 10/18: ALSACE WINE FLIGHTS - Sample four wines from this historic French wine region located between the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine River.
NV Hubert Meyer Crémant d'Alsace
2023 Domaine Mann Le Mouton Bleu Sylvaner
2022 Albert Mann Gewurztraminer
2023 Charles Frey Bien dans sa Peau Rouge
Flights $20 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm

Cheers,
Max

Our house is small, but that doesn’t keep us from playing a lot of hide and seek here (me and the kids that is, not me and my wife). Maybe it’s because she’s five, but my youngest daughter is pretty lousy at it. Any given round, she'll be found on her bed with a blanket over her head and feel fine about her chances. Obviously, all well-meaning adults in these situations do the same thing and draw out the suspense when the target is obvious. An exaggerated voice follows: Hmmm... Where could she be? She could be ANYWHERE... maaaaaybe she’s under this lamp?... That sort of stuff, you get the idea.

But cut to last weekend and I’m curled up in the hamper, sweater over my head, certain this will be a long round...when the door to the bedroom opens and after only a short moment, a little five-year-old voice becomes loud and exaggerated: Now, where could he be...? He could be ANYWHERE. Maaaaybe he’s under this plant? Her needing to boost me up before discovery was both sweet and humiliating. She eventually pulled the sweater off my head and shook hers, half-smirking, but mostly disappointed in my effort.

Another ridiculous element of the charade is that when they do occasionally disappear into pretty good spots, under beds or perhaps in some closet corner, they can't help themselves from hollering out: Come and FIND meeee!, even if they know I'm near, or even in the same room. Last weekend I finally suggested the game might be more exciting if they didn’t voluntarily give themselves away so quickly.

Well, it’s not very fun just waiting under a blanket, the older one said. Hard to argue with that.

So today it's me hollering: Come and Find us! We've been hiding some details about our annual backlot bash and we can't keep it under covers any longer... SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8th...
We'll be celebrating 9 years of OAKLAND YARD from 12-5pm. We'll have culinary delights from Bolita Masa, Bar Tanuki, The Salty Pearl Oyster Co, and Good Luck Bakery... and brunch next door from Tacos Oscar. Other unique finds and treasures from artists and artisans including KOIDE Studio, The Plant Queen, Becca Compton, Pablo Cristi, LADHA Jewelry, Rise Above and others.... Music, Outdoor Beer & Wine Bar, Raffles & Prizes... FREE entrance and all welcome!
COME AND FIND. See you there!!!

But first some early weekend fun... TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights featuring California Pinot Noir and Eastern European whites 
2023 Folk Machine Central Coast Pinot Noir
2023 Folk Tree Village Series Pinot Noir
2024 Alfaro Family Santa Cruz Mountains “A” Pinot Noir
2024 Crnko Jarenincan White 1L
2024 Bodrog Borműhely Fresh Tokaji Dry Muscat
2023 Edgar Brutler Sefu White 1L
Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass all day until 9pm

SATURDAY 10/11: Loire Valley wine flights
2024 Prieuré de Saint-Céols Menetou-Salon Le Prieuré Blanc
NV Vins Gigou La Bulle Sarthoise Brut Rosé Sparkling Pineau d’Aunis
2023 Jeremy Quastana Dedale VdF Rouge
2022 Domaine des Champs Fleuris Saumur-Champigny Les Tufolies
Flights $18 from 5-9 and wines by the glass all day until close!


Cheers,
Daniel

I’ve found few unlimited resources in this world, but attention is something we’ve all got to give. You may also want it. May want more of it, or less, or just a different kind. The word comes from the Old French atentif, meaning observant, aware, hopeful, expectant. Attention may be inactive, as when you wait and watch, or an act of giving, in which you attend to one’s needs or desires. In English, we pay attention. The French make it: Faites attention. We can also pay a visit, pay our respects or a compliment, or we can pay no mind.

Some folks pay close attention to other people, in service or just snooping, and others to the esoteric minutiae of such things as bicycle parts, turntables, or wine. With as much control as I’m able to exert, always the epicurean in search of silver linings, I guide my attention to the beauties and wonders around me, to art and nature, food and drink that inspire my life with moments of seeming magic, harmonies and color shades; a blooming flower, a hummingbird, shards that shimmer throughout the day, if you know where to look for them. I try to give my attention - and some water - to the plants at Oakland Yard, as well as the spectacular seasonal Flower & Forage arrangement Alyson so lovingly crafts for our tasting bar. The plants don’t pay me any attention, but I see them do their plant thing, and part of their beauty is that they do it whether we’re watching or not.

At Oakland Yard, when we’re not inputting invoices or carrying wine around, we spend lots of time observing our wares; not surveying the vineyards, not watching the boxes, but with noses and mouths, our attention directed toward tasting. There, we find the pleasant tension between acid and fruit in a white wine, or the comfort of a balanced, ripe, soft-textured red. You’ll likely have to give attention to many things this week, but I hope one of them will be a well-considered glass or flight from Oakland Yard, which hopefully, at that moment, will be worthy of all the attention you’ve got.

Tonight...THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: Taste French reds from the Rhône Valley & Spanish whites from Galicia and the Penedès
2024 Mas Candí Desig Xarel-lo
2024 Celler Frisach L'Abrunet Garnacha Blanco
NV Brincadeiro Naturalmente Turbio
2019 Domaine de L'Agramante Ciäulà Côtes Du Rhône
2023 Famille Brunier Le Pigeoulet Vaucluse Rouge
2018 Domaine des Amouriers Les Genestes Vacqueyras
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close

SATURDAY 10/4: BURGUNDY FLIGHTS - Sample and compare two reds and two whites from four small producers in this storied wine region of France.
2023 Domaine de la Verpaille Mâcon-Villages Vieilles Vignes
2023 Domaine Oudin Chablis
2022 Domaine Bader-Mimeur Dessous les Mues Bourgogne Rouge 2023 Dominique Gruhier Cuvée Juliette Epineuil
Flights $20 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm

Attentively,
Max

When I was in eighth grade, my parents drove me to my first real interview, part of the admissions process for an all boys preparatory school. I remember being nervous walking the hall to what I presumed would be the headmaster’s office, like something from Dead Poet's Society. The Dean, Mr. Brang, opened with a question that caught me immediately off guard: What is one quality that defines you? Now, I feel I need to prepare you for the cringe, and establish my defense. Yes, he was probably expecting a response along the lines of being trustworthy or hardworking... but nothing like that came to mind in the moment. I interpreted the question as what I best known for, but knew he wouldn't care how quickly I could memorize song lyrics, that I was Hopscotch champion in sixth grade, or that I already had a few chest hairs. l recalled their pamphlets promoting concepts like academic excellence and molding the minds of young men. So I wanted to impress. And I think I just meant to suggest I was a pensive sort, analytical perhaps, maybe even an occasional deep thinker. But what came out of my 13 year old mouth was: I'd have to say my intellectual status.

I regretted it instantly(what the hell did that even mean??). A quizzical smirk on his end, a pensive pause. For the briefest second I wondered if I'd actually knocked it out of the park. But he coughed in a way (that I would recognize in movies over the next decade) that more suggested he was choking down a good laugh at my expense. He kept his cool though, writing something down in his notes (this kid is a fucking dork!). But the mood was lighter after that and he threw me some softballs, probably eager to wrap things up and go chuckle with his colleagues about this little wierdo.

To this day, I'm still quick with song lyrics. My chest hairs are mostly grey now. But to be honest, I never really got any better at self promotion. Max and I are different people, but he too is more likely to keep quiet about his many amazing talents, credentials, and accomplishments. For today though, with some courage and clarity, please refrain from laughter and kindly allow me just a few lines of promotion... I'm so proud of Oakland Yard and what the team has created here. There are a lot of places and ways to get your wine, but we truly believe we have one of most dynamic and well-curated collections here. We have an extremely knowledgeable staff who are dedicated to serving you and to helping select the perfect bottles for your enjoyment or special occasions. We care deeply about creating a warm and welcoming space for all, and about fostering community here. Please consider (and promote us too!) for special event orders, we can quickly and efficiently curate and assemble any quantities for holiday gifts, corporate events, banquets, office parties, small and large weddings... we will help make the event memorable! Call us, stop in, or use our ONLINE ORDER REQUEST FORM. Smaller personal orders? We've got you covered... some shops offer 10% off a full case, but we give an early break with 10% on 6 bottles or more! Deeper discount for larger order too:). And while our weekly tastings (Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons) are fun and social, they also come with the added value of wine education for anyone who wants to learn more about specific regions or varieties. We keep it informal and approachable, always - and our WINE CLUB offers all kinds of similar perks too, starting at $48: You'll get 2-4 wines each month, with detailed tasting notes, and regional background and winemaker profiles...members enjoy 10% discount on all bottles, glasses, flights, and provisions! 

Alright, that's enough. I'm blushing.
(And that's below someone of my "intellectual status" ;)

THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: SPANISH REDS & SICILIAN WHITES
2022 La Portera Tardano Garnacha
2022 Tantaka Txakoli Arabako Tinto
2023 Bodegas D. Mateo La Mateo Rioja
2022 Al Cantara Occhi di Ciumi Etna Bianco
2024 Gorghi Tondi Coste a Preola Grillo
2024 Fuso Cala Bianco Terre Siciliane Skin Fermented Catarratto
Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close!

SATURDAY 9/27: TASTING FLIGHTS from the REPUBLIC of GEORGIA
2023 Baia’s Wine: Tsiska Tsolikouri Krakhuna
2023 Pheasant’s Tears Tsitska
2022 Teliani Valley Amber Blend 
2023 Teliani Valley Saperavi 
Flights from 2-6 and wines by the glass until close!

AND SUNDAY... ED'S BREAD POP UP returns from 1-4pm with artisan breads including sourdough wheat-rye, sourdough flaxseed-wheat, sourdough black sesame togarashi - as well as sweet and savory pastries, scones, and cookies!

Cheers,
Daniel

Sometimes customers come into the shop with mere hints at clues about the wine they’re looking for - the color of the label or first letter of the grape variety - and we’re always up for the guessing game. Once, while bartending, I fielded a request for “a Mahita, you know, with gin and mint...” He had the gin part wrong, but we realized he wanted a Mohito and had a good laugh. Someone in the shop once asked for Fomentino, which made me want to open a Café Fomentino (where the revolution’s brewing alongside the coffee?) But we don’t make fun; you say tomato...

Dealing with wine from all over the world, I mispronounce words at work all the time. If you’re not a logophile, or at least a linguaphile, you’re bound to be phrustrated by the endless lexicon of grape names, growing regions, and production methods this job will throw at you, words that don’t follow the rules of a national language, but require knowledge of a local dialect, like the vocalized ‘s’ in Vacqueras. Or sometimes they’re just hard to say; I stop short when discussing the Austrian wines of the Neusiedlersee, or Champagne from Reims, a word that seems to require a subtlety of the tongue not privy to non-native French speakers.

Compounding the difficulty of the linguistics of wine are the many names assigned to a single grape variety. California’s Mataro is France’s Mourvèdre is Spain’s Monstrell. In the Piedmont subregion of northern Italy alone, there are five other names for Nebbiolo: Spanna, Picutener, Prunent, Chiavanesca and Picotendro. Vermentino also goes by Favorita in Piedmont, and they call it Rolle in the south of France. Corsicans drop the ‘o’ and add a ‘u’ as they are wont to do, making it Vementinu ! If all of this is confusing to U, then UR not alone, and if U don’t mind being cornfused and want to learn more, come on down to Oakland Yard, taste wine from around the world, and mispronounce some words with us.

Tonight...THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: VERMENTINO and NEBBIOLO - Explore different expressions of a single grape variety by tasting three whites from the Vaucluse, Corsica, and California, or three reds from the Langhe in Piedmont.
2024 Anne Pichon Sauvage Vermentino
2024 Clos Fornelli Clos Blanc
2024 Terah Wine Co Vermentino
2023 Elvio Tintero Langhe Nebbiolo
2022 Monchiero Langhe Nebbiolo
2021 Luigi Scavino Azelia Langhe Nebbiolo
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close

SATURDAY 9/20: PET NAT FLIGHTS - Sample four pétillant-naturels: dry, sparkling wines made using the méthode ancestrale, from France, Croatia and Sicily
2023 Tour des Gendres Conti Pétillant Naturel
2024 Pomalo Debit Pétillant Naturel
2022 Ayunta Metodo Ancestrale Rosato
2024 Lise & Bertrand Jousset Éxilé Rosé
Flights $20 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm

Cheers,
Max (AKA Jonathan)

Sorry for the late note today. I sat down earlier and, after finding an ant floating in my coffee, I got sidetracked. The ants have been in full force at the house here this month. Just when I'm certain there's not a crumb of food on the floors and that the little traps are set in the right spots, I'll wake up to my older daughter hollering from the breakfast nook: They're baa-aack!  My wife will grab some cleaning spray and a rag, and I'll investigate their entry point. While I mostly just find them to be a small nuisance, the sudden surge of these minuscule invaders takes an emotional toll on my youngest, whose concern has been elevated to something close to panic. WHAT DO THEY WANT FROM US???, Simone yells, running out of the room in despair. 

At wineries and breweries, and at wine shops and taprooms, this time of year, it's fruit flies that are the seasonal pests we'll try our best to fend off. We'll make sure the bar surfaces and sinks at our space are squeaky clean (as always!), but some will still find their way in and home in on an unnoticed drop of red wine or a recently discarded cork. We've gotten better with our homemade soap and vinegar traps and will funnel them to their doom, eventually.

So if you see our door occasionally closed more often this month, know that we've no intention to keep any of our neighbors and guests away. Far from it, we continue to welcome you here everyday ... and hope to entice you with delicious wines, rotating glasses, flights on Thursdays and Saturdays, and weekly guest chef pop ups every Wednesday! And if any tiny fruit fly follows you in, that's ok (we'll deal with them in good time :).

TONIGHT...THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: Italian reds and whites!
2022 Reverdito Barbera d’Alba
2022 Villa Sant Anna Chianti Colli Senesi
2021 Elena Fucci Sceg Aglianico del Vulture
2023 Ercole Bianco Monferrato 1L
2024 Bruno Verdi Pinot Grigio
2019 Taschlerhof Kerner
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close

SATURDAY 9/13: 2024 FRENCH ROSÉ FLIGHTS
2024 Domaine de Fontsainte Corbières Gris de Gris
2024 Château Soucherie Rosé de Loire Cuvée L'Astrée Rosé
2024 Domaine Bagnol Cassis Rosé
2024 Domaine Collotte Marsannay Rosé
Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm

Cheers,
Daniel

I generally don’t talk to strangers when I’m traveling, but if they start up with me, I’m often willing to roll with it. Doing the security dance at JFK last week - the hour-long creeping weave, wall-to-wall in a windowless room with an all-ages, international crowd - I met a talkative Bulgarian named Svet. He first took a selfie with the herd, a natural response to the sardine can he’d entered, then he caught my eye. “Will it take longer than two hours?” I hoped not, because I had much less time to spare. He was going from his home in Maine, via New York, to Bucharest to rent a car to drive south to see his mother in Bulgaria, something he does about twice a year. He works from home in healthcare payments, and he supposed maybe I worked for myself because I looked ‘relaxed.’ He was right: I do work for myself and I try to stay relaxed, and the duration of Svet’s pilgrimage made mine seem easier. I gave him an Oakland Yard card in case he ever came to California, and we both made our flights.

We sometimes talk about the bubble we live in. The insularity of any community can limit one’s thoughts, but it can also be a source of comfort, safety, and belonging. After weeks travelling in the northeastern US, I’m happy to be back in the land of unpoliced pronouns, coed bathrooms, and widespread composting; farmers’ markets, fresh-baked bread, ranch-raised meat, and line-caught fish; redwoods, rainbow flags, and flowers; hummingbirds, morning fog, cool nights, pedestrians, and propositions; sunshine, tacos, and Jura wine tasting flights; and so many very different people, living together with mutual respect and appreciation and a healthy scepticism for authority figures. And visible from almost anywhere, our rock, the coastal range; those slowly moving hills, pushing upward to the east. It’s good to be back in this bubble - see you around!!!

TONIGHT...THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: Austrian whites & California reds
2024 Hiedler Loss Gruner Veltliner
2023 Heidi Schröck & Söhne Gelber Muskateller
2023 Schloss Gobelsburg Schlosskellerei Kamptal Riesling
2024 Jolie-Laide ‘Vinny’ Pride Love Red
2019 Blackswift GSM Red Blend
2023 Ultraviolet Mattern Vineyard Zinfandel
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close

SATURDAY 9/6: French Jura and Arbois flights
NV Domaine Ligier Crémant du Jura
2020 Domaine Courbet Côtes du Jura Savagnin Sous Voile
2023 Paul Benoit et Fils Côtes du Jura Trousseau
2020 Domaine Overnoy-Crinquand Arbois-Pupillin Trousseau
Flights $20 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm

Cheers,
Max

I bought a used wine fridge though Craigslist a couple days ago. I texted the guy that I was outside and when he opened the door his face lit up immediately with an animated grin. He pointed at me and then flashed two thumbs back at his chest. Shirt buddies! he exclaimed. We were indeed both wearing T shirts in the exact same shade of muted orange. Oh, yeah... I acknowledged clumsily, looking down at my own shirt. 

Driving home, I thought it funny that he said buddies, not twins. And funny that our shirts would connect us. Not that we lived in the same neighborhood nor that we both obviously love wine and buy and consume enough of it to merit owning a wine fridge (and that we would now both own the same fridge). No, it was our pumpkin orange shirts that would make him say you're OK by me. I write about it a lot, but I'm continually delighted to find that simple and often absurd affinities can bring folks together. Folks connected in their appreciation for a specific sports team or for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sometimes a shirt or bumper sticker from the independent bookstore or record shop is all it takes to sense that another might be a good egg.

And we're encouraged not to judge a book by its cover, but every so often an exterior label really does express what may be inside. Five years ago, in the midst of the pandemic, Booker Riley quietly crafted his first batch of wines against extreme odds and circumstances. His first wine had a simple illustration of a cartoon dinosaur wearing a small party hat, blowing a horn, as a meteor in the distance was approaching. The back label simply read EVERYTHING IS OK. The wines reflect the messaging and their labels. They are playful, honest, defiant, hopeful. These limited bottles are made locally at an East Bay collective with other winemakers who are committed to working with farmers of organic vineyards and making low-intervention, most often zero-zero wines. Come check out these wines and the current releases of Everything is Okay with winemakers Booker Riley and Wiley Rogers joining us this Saturday 8/30 from 2-6!

But first, TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! Spanish reds and whites...
2021 Bellaserra Superbloom Red
2023 Honoro Vera Monastrell
2020 Ramirez de la Piscina Crianza Rioja
2023 Zudugarai Getariako Txakolina Blanco
2024 Vins El Cep Ot De Vins El Cep Xarel-lo Penedes
2024 Gulp Hablo Verdejo
Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm

SATURDAY 8/30: EVERYTHING IS OKAY tasting flights with winemakers Booker Riley and Wiley Rogers 
2024 Amber Wine
2024 Mushroom Lite Red
2023 It’s Wine / Ghost Lite Red 500ml
2024 Dino Red Fizz
Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until close


Cheers,
Daniel

What we’re talking about is late night and early morning low clouds, with a chance of lingering fog around the corner of 40th & Webster, and a creeping feeling around mid-day that summer is on its last legs. A sudden drop in barometric pressure in conjunction with the newness of the moon has led local officials to issue a Wine Flight Advisory, currently in effect this Thursday and Saturday for areas north of MacArthur and west of Broadway.

Gusty winds continue on Fire Island this morning, with wet deer foraging at the choppy water’s edge, and fifty years of memories gathering in puddles between the walkways and the sand. By early afternoon, expect the usual knuckleheads to appear, drifting and reddening throughout the day, followed by an evening of scattered billiard balls, with a smattering of flip flops and tinted Oakleys. Twice daily, the island slowly rises, then sinks back into the ocean.

In parts of Chile, nearly freezing nights will warm into cool and sun-filled days. The Nuble River will continue to make its way through the Itata Valley, slowly depositing clay and alluvial soil, while to the south, the Villarrica volcano will release steam and gas, and an active lava lake within its crater will light the sky above its ice-covered slopes.

Temperatures remain unseasonably high throughout France, where a swarm of jellyfish recently shut down the nation’s largest nuclear power plant, presumably by accident. There are reports of tiny umbrellas appearing in glasses of Chenin Blanc along the Val de Loire, and the crocodile and palm tree representing the city of Nimes have never felt so at home. There is also a high likelihood that my dear Uncle T is spending at least a portion of his eighty-second birthday in the restorative waters of his tiny backyard pool. Happy Birthday my good man! I look forward to seeing you, and my friends back in Oakland, once the wind dies down and the fog has lifted.

Tonight...THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: New California Whites & Chilean Reds
2023 Hammerling Point Break Chenin Blanc
2023 Martha Stoumen Post Flirtation White
2024 Jolie-Laide Fanucchi Wood Road Trousseau Gris
2023 Viña Maitia Aupa Pipeño Tinto
2024 Louis-Antoine Luyt Pilen Alto Pais
2022 Pedro Parra País Vinista Itata
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close!

SATURDAY 8/23: LOIRE VALLEY FLIGHTS
NV Jo Landron Domaine de la Louvetrie Atmosphères Brut
2023 Batard Langelier Muscadet
2024 Pascal et Nicolas Reverdy Sancerre Rosé Terre de Maimbray 2023 Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme Le Telquel Rouge
Tasting Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm!

Cheers,
Max

MESSAGE: Hi! I was there on Friday night and I accidentally left my empty Tacos Oscar to go boxes on the bench. I just wanted to say I’’m sorry and I didn’t mean to leave them there! Please apologize to the staff for me. Sorry! Sami

A sweet soul sent this message to us recently. We could compile a coffee table book with all the random, kind, quirky, funny, and thoughtful messages that come through to the shop, by email, phone, or through IG etc... Beyond annual holiday wishes, we'll frequently have folks letting us know about visiting in-laws, celebrating new jobs, reaching out to inquire about missing pets, or to tell us about new found bottles, new favorite restaurants, new bands, or binge-worthy shows. We've been alerted to secret wedding proposals, received newborn baby announcements, and even long form letters with updates and photos from folks who have moved across the bay, the state, or well across the country who still wanted to stay connected. There have been sad notes too. 

Our lines are open, always. Thanks for continuing to connect here and with each other. If you'd like to do so in person, you can come join a community mixer here Tuesday 8/19 or join us for another Welcome Wednesdays pop up with Ilna SF here Wednesday 8/20. And we've got more flights and good folks here starting tonight, of course! Tacos Oscar is open tonight and all weekend too... and yes, tacos are welcome, even if things get occasionally a little messy. 


Tonight: THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS! Domestic whites and reds... 
2024 Big Salt White
2024 Terah Wine Co Vermentino
2021 Vignerons Chardonnay
NV Everything is OK MUSHROOM lite Red
2021 Paul Duroussay 'Voleaur' Petite. Sirah
2022 Ultraviolet Cabernet Sauvignon
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close!

SATURDAY 8/16 SPARKLING FLIGHTS 
2024 Bannister Sparkling Ribolla Gialla
2023 Raza Vinho Branco Pet Nat
2023 Lise & Bertrand Jousset 'Exile" Petillant Naturel Rosé
NV Filipa Pato 3B Sparkling Rosé
Tasting Flights $20 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm!

See you soon,

Daniel

My teetotaling cousin calls wine ‘a waste of perfectly good grape juice,' and to the uninitiated, a bottle of vino can be inscrutable, or just what it appears to be: ethyl bound by glass and cork. But if you dig deeper, there is always something more. Perhaps the grapes in your glass were farmed with little care, heavily irrigated, overcropped, showered with fungicides and pesticides, darkened by Mega Purple, and flavored with oak chips; or possibly the vines that made your wine were brought by folks from far-off lands, planted by great-grandmothers in pure sand unfit for phylloxera, and these plants continue to yield distinctive fruit with centuries of age.

I’m wary of telling tales to sell wine, for as much as you or I may like the story, you might not, in fact, enjoy the wine. But when the stories are true, and one does indeed savor the wine, it is not a sales trick; it is the full picture, which is never simply the liquid in the glass, but how it got there, and when and why, a vivid history that illuminates our collective connection.

Vineyard workers in the Mosel Valley, often older women, carry precious chunks of eroded slate from the bottom of steep vineyards back to the top to maintain their wines’ distinctive character. During World War II, carpet-cleaners in Paris gave dust from old rugs to winemongers to cover bottles, convincing German soldiers that their cheap, young plonk was desirably aged. In 1954, the town council of Châteauneuf-du-Pape passed an ordinance prohibiting UFOs or "flying cigars" from landing in their vineyards. For centuries, pilgrims from all over Europe brought and planted their local grapevines along the Camino de Santiago, introducing many new varieties to the Iberian Peninsula. Hungarian nobleman Agoston Haraszthy was the first sheriff of San Diego and established Buena Vista winery in Sonoma in 1857. He died in 1869 in a crocodile-infested river in the Nicaraguan jungle. His body was never found.

Looking closely at your wine, you may find reflections of our history - our empires, wars, alliances, migrations, regulations, religious orders, geology, biology, chemistry, physics, meteorology, technology, changes in taste or fancy, customs, social mores - in short, nothing less than our very humanity. And if you find your naked eye insufficient for the task, you need only to stroll down to Oakland Yard, your local repository of vinous minutiae, to avail yourself of our extensive reference library or engage one of our kind, knowledgeable stewards who are at your service daily.

Tonight…THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: Portuguese reds and whites - Sample three reds or whites from the oldest country in Europe.
2023 Casa de Mouraz Dão Branco
2024 Nortico Alvarinho
2024 Filipa Pato DNMC Dinâmica Vinho Branco
2023 Planet Mouraz Nina Palhete
2024 Filipa Pato DNMC Dinâmica Baga Tinto
2022 Companhia de Vinhos Invencível Douro Tinto
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close!

SATURDAY 8/9: 2024 ROSÉ FLIGHTS - Taste four newly released wines from four different countries made from red grapes macerated on their skins for a relatively short time.
2024 Foncalieu Picpoul Noir Rosé
2024 Birgit Wiederstein Rozae
2024 Ameztoi Rubentis Getariako Txakoli Rosé
2024 Arnot-Roberts Rosé
Tasting Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm!

Cheers,

Max

I grew up in a 1200 sq ft house, sharing one bathroom with my six siblings. There were nine of us Schmidts in total under one roof on Berkeley Dr, a narrow winding street on a crowded hillside in south Glendale. I wrote about some of those memories here before. But for now, the size of my family and the location of that home is the only detail you need. 

This is another story that occurs many years later. Someone else’s beginning perhaps. The scene is a restaurant on an island in Hawaii. Our close family friends, the Gleasons, are trying to get a table for two and the only seats available require them to share a table with an older couple dining there. Everyone agrees and they end up chatting over dinner. The older couple share that their son is stationed in Hawaii, but is moving very soon to Southern California where he and his wife have bought their first home. The Gleasons ask the whereabouts and they find out the house they just bought is in Glendale. That’s crazy, small world!... we’re from Glendale too!  But the small world will get even smaller. The older couple continues: Our son and his wife just bought the place in this hilly little neighborhood – a little starter home - though apparently there was a family of NINE living there before, can you believe it?? Actually, the Gleason's can - and can't - believe it - and they take a shot in the dark – do you know the name of the street by chance? (followed by Hmmm, let me see, I remember all the streets are named after colleges...) Then the Gleasons ask, directly: Is it Berkeley Dr?  And (of course) it's confirmed.Yes! Yes that's definitely it!...

And it was crazy but true. Of all the tables in all the restaurants on all the islands in the world, the universe connects these two couples, and part of a family that will (also) call my first home home. 

This morning I'm thinking of all the past and present (and future) stewards of the happy home we call OAKLAND YARD. Thank you for all the stories, all the joy, for all the vibrant energy you bring through the door. Here's to the magical story that you are a part of here. Here's to neighbors and friends and family that gather under this roof. Here's to connection, to sharing tables with strangers, to finding ways to make it work, together. Even with one bathroom.

THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: Italian reds and whites...
2023 Alois Caiati Pallagrello Bianco
2023 Schiopetto Ribolla Gialla
2023 La Biancara Angiolino Maule Masieri Bianco
2023 La Sibilla Campi Flegrei Piedirosso
2023 La Stoppa Trebbiolo Rosso
2021 Terra d'Aligi Tatone Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm

SATURDAY 8/2: OREGON wine flights
2024 Liska Wine Company Holmes Hill Vineyard Gewurztraminer
2023 Johan Vineyards Maceration White
2024 Breanne Day Lemonade Rosé  
2022 Twill Cellars Willamette Valley Syrah
Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass from around the globe until 9


Cheers,

Daniel

People often ask about my travels overseas to purchase wine. In fact, I buy wine like everyone else when I’m abroad - over the counter and by the bottle. Here in the US, we have a ‘three-tier system’ of alcohol distribution, whereby retailers cannot purchase directly from producers outside their state and must instead buy from licensed distributors. This system was introduced after Prohibition to avoid monopolies, to make products easier to track for tax and health reasons, and to raise the price of alcohol to make it less appealing and accessible to the hoi polloi. Over the past ninety years, we’ve all grown fairly accustomed to this arrangement.

As a small business owner with limited time, resources, and language skills, I’m delighted to stay in Oakland and have access to wines imported by savvy, discerning distributors, many of whom have decades-long relationships with ‘their’ winemakers. In many cases, they’ve watched each other’s children grow up, and put them through school, functioning as extended international families full of respect, mirth, and genuine care. These associations keep them afloat, but they are not primarily business relationships. They are my friends, and we are a community. When done right, friendships are more lasting than trade deals.

Right now, there is an elephant in the wine room, but I don’t think it will destroy the cellar. The tariff standoff with Europe has sent our industry into a tailspin, and we’ve already seen some prices rise, but we will find a way through this, as we did the pandemic and our maniac-in-chief’s first term. The industry will flex to stay alive and try to mitigate price jumps in the market, but there will be casualties, and we’ll continue as best we can to support the folks who’ve supported us for all these years. There’s no certainty regarding the degree and length of these measures, so we’re not sure exactly what we’re preparing for, but we’ve got a lot of friends in this boat and I’m glad we’re on this ride together.

Oakland Yard is still hosting Welcome Wednesday FOOD POP-UPS every Wednesday - next week featuring BAR TANUKI on Wed 7/30 from 5 to 8pm. Also at Oakland Yard this coming Saturday 7/26 for Meena’s YAAR: Indian-Iranian food Pop-Up from 2 to 6pm.

But first...THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: FRENCH whites from the Languedoc-Roussillon, the Loire Valley, Burgundy, and reds from Beaujolais, the Loire Valley and the Rhône Valley.
2023 Hugues Beaulieu Picpoul de Pinet
2023 Domaine Tardieux-Gal Les Sageres Touraine Sauvignon Blanc
2023 Domaine Grivot-Goisot Côtes d'Auxerre Bourgogne Blanc 2022 Chateau Javernand Gatilles Chiroubles
2021 Delrieu-Ducleux Le Jeau Rouge
2022 La Grange de Piaugier Côtes du Rhône
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close!

SATURDAY 7/26: FRENCH FLIGHTS with wines from the Rhône Valley, Provence, Burgundy, and Bordeaux.
2024 Le Pigeoulet des Brunier Blanc IGT Vaucluse
2024 Domaine de la La Bastide Blanche Bandol Rosé
2023 Coteaux des Margots Bourgogne Rouge
2021 Château Haut-Segottes Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux Rouge
Tasting Flights $20 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm!

Faithfully,
Max

They say kids are sponges, and it's true, for better or worse. They'll adopt your quirks and catchphrases. They'll quote stretches of film dialogue, will know the words to nearly every current pop song - and have surprised me with more than a few 80's flashbacks. One time a while ago my five year old remarked: This cake is Fucking delicious!, completely unaware of meaning or vulgarity - only repeated with the exact joyful emphasis her "Auntie" Julia proclaimed the evening before. Having spent a lot of time at her grandma's the past few months, and gleaning bits from my mom's preferred home improvement programming, my daughter casually mentioned that one corner of our living room was "too busy". She cocked her head: Too many plants, just too much green for that zone she said, with a dismissive waive. 

She's been super into lanyards and DIY bracelets these days, bringing home her new creations from summer day camp. Yesterday she decided on a whim to try and sell them out in the neighborhood. With little planning and no marketing budget, she just held up a sign on our corner that read BRACELETS. With few cars or pedestrians passing for over an hour, it looked like more of a performance piece - or some strange exercise, in both senses of the word. 

She came in at dusk, demoralized. But later that night she had some hope again. The talk was all about plans and what-ifs and maybes. And it really ended up just being about people. Maybe if we made lemonade - or or or maybe cookies! - maybe more people would come... She was animated again: Maybe there are old people - like you, Dad, no offense - with kids around. Maybe there are other kids I don't even know, all around here!...
 

TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights...
White and red Flights from the Rhone River Valley
Stop in and enjoy some new arrivals and staff favorites, with all kinds of wonderful folks from the neighborhood you may not (yet) know. And speaking of wonderful neighbors, TACOS OSCAR is OPEN tonight and all weekend too (tacos always welcome with wine flights or glasses)!
2024 Château la Canorgue Viognier
2023 Yves Cuilleron Marsanne
2021 Domaine des Louis Crozes Hermitage Blanc R&M
2022 Domaine des Entrefaux Les Champs Fourné Crozes-Hermitage
2023 Matthieu Barret Petit Ours Côtes-du-Rhône
2023 Yves Cuilleron Syrah Collines Rhodaniennes
Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9

SATURDAY 7/19: Eastern European Flights
Come try four fantastic new finds! Each unique, dynamic, and ultimately delicious... 
2024 Črnko Jareninčan White - Slovenia
2021 Apátsági Pince Hárslevelű Somlói - Hungary
2023 Edgar Brutler Sefu Red - Romania
2021 Zlatan Bilo Idro Plavac - Croatia
Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until close!

Cheers, 
Daniel

When I was nine or ten, armed with my parents’ robust collection of Beatles LPs, I designed and drew up a Toklas-like five-course menu based on the Fab Four’s musical references to food. As you might imagine, I included strawberries from the fields, but also the more esoteric Savoy truffles, glass onions, and honey pies. I didn’t dine out much as a kid, so I have a bit of a fascination with written menus, and while I still enjoy planning meals at home, there are days I’d rather eat something I don’t know how to cook. Simply sampling someone else’s salad dressing can be a scrumptious surprise.

Last November, when evenings were cold and the mood especially dark, Julia started making soup from seasonal market produce, and serving it with locally baked Ed’s Bread, inaugurating Oakland Yard’s Welcome Wednesdays food pop-up series. Our friends from the neighborhood came to eat a warm homemade meal and to drink and be together. After many months of successful soups, Julia doffed the proverbial toque, and Claire began curating our weekly culinary events with local chefs, and we’ve been gaining steam ever since.

Last night was bumpin’ with Pal Burgers and wine by the glass specials and the fun will continue with Ilna SF 7/16, All Pau 7/23, and Bar Tanuki 7/30, every Wednesday from 5 to 8pm. Our apologies to minor gourmands and menu-planners - we’re still only allowed to serve customers of age. Hope to see you soon!

But first...TONIGHT - THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS:
Taste three newly arrived whites from Spain or sample three different Aglianicos
2024 Vins El Cep Ot De Vins El Cep Xarel-lo Penedes
2024 Txomin Etxaniz Getariako Txakolina
2023 Mesquida Mora Sincronia Blanc
2023 Hobo Wine Company Branham Rockpile Vineyard Aglianico
2021 Grifalco Gricos Aglianico del Vulture
2021 Elena Fucci SCEG Aglianico del Vulture
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close!

SATURDAY 7/12: CALIFORNIA WINE FLIGHTS -
Taste four delicious, organically farmed, small-production wines from winemakers Megan Bell, Scott & Jenny Schultz, Kenny Likitprakong, and Tara Gomez & Mireia Taribó.
2024 Margins Clarksburg Chenin Blanc
2024 Jolie-Laide Suisun Valley Pinot Gris
2023 Folk Machine Redwood Valley Valdiguié
2022 Camins 2 Dreams Santa Barbara Yilá Red
Tasting Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm!

Cheers,
Max

This probably happens in other businesses too, but I feel there is something unique about the relationship that develops between customers and staff at small wine shops like ours. There’s a unique connection established by telling a stranger (initially) what you’re having for dinner - or maybe what you are planning for a special occasion or celebration. And as these exchanges happen again over months and years, the shared experience remains far beyond transactional.  

I could tell hundreds of stories about exchanges I've had in wine shops from California to New York. But for whatever reason, today I'm thinking of an older woman named Teri who used to come into Smith & Vine, the Brooklyn shop I worked at with Max. Moving there from LA, I was delighted to hear so many French and Italian accents from the residents of Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, but the really heavy, old school New York accents always delighted me the most - and Teri’s was amazing. She was a short and thin, but had a big face and large teeth... lots of mouth to tell great stories and share the many wacky details of her life. She was a bit of a calamity magnet, often getting locked out of her apartment or worse things. But she'd share it all through a giant smile, and an Ain’t that life? attitude that I found so endearing. And no matter how many times we interacted, she would always end her updates the same way: ...And whattabout YOU, how you doin'? and then, with some gravity: And how’s Bartley? How’s my sweet BAWtley. Give him my love...

Bartley trained me, but left the shop weeks before I first met Teri. Weeks became months then years, but it was always the same, Teri asking about him again and again. And wouldn't you know it, well over a year after I moved back to California, I was catching up with the Brooklyn shop gang, and reminiscing about customers there, when someone shared that Teri was in that week. Her usual self, they said, locked herself out of her apartment again. Of course she asked about Bartley - and then: And how is Danny - how’s my sweet Danny doin'? You heard from him?...

I hope I’m not betraying the trust of any staff here when I share how often we think about and talk about our regulars – what a kick we get out of the characters in this neighborhood and how much we love this community. Thank you for sharing your personalities with us, your unique tales, your joys, your struggles. And what you’re cooking. This weekend and always. Until we see you again, we’re sure to be thinking of you (and likely asking around about you:). 

We’re open July 4 and here all weekend for your holiday feasts and festivities. And for those looking for some July 4 plans... roll in and experience the culinary fireworks that The Comfort Collective (@eat.drink.comfort) is sure to bring! Menu will be roasted pork // coconut rice // barbecue braised chicken // creole potato salad // shaved summer salad. The Comfort Collective will be here THIS FRIDAY, from 3pm until sold out! Glass proceeds going to @centro_legaldelaraza!

But first TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights...
Loire Valley Muscadet and Australian Reds
2023 Domaine de la Pépière La Pépie Muscadet
2015 Les Bêtes Curieuses Huchet & Mourat Monnières-Saint Fiacre Muscadet
2022 Jo Landron La Louvetrie Muscadet
2024 Jumpin' Juice Half Full Grenache
2023 Unico Zelo Fresh AF Nero d’Avola
2021 SC Pannell Field Street Shiraz
Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close!

SATURDAY 7/5: New Mediterranean Wine Flights 
2024 Kontozisis Vineyards Drop by Drop The Jar Fills Up Roditis - Greece
2024 Occhipinti SP68 Bianco - Sicily
2024 Château Pradeaux Bandol Rosé - France
2024 Tsiakkas Mouklos Mavro - Cyprus
Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm

Thinking of you,
Daniel

Late sunsets and balmy afternoons are signaling summer in Temescal, with kids out of school, tomatoes at the market, and indica in the air. In the vineyards, flowering leads to fruit set, as fertilized blooms develop seeds and form berries to protect them, and here at Oakland Yard, we continue to receive fresh bottlings from the 2024 vintage - rosé, light reds, dry whites - perfect for porch-sitting and backyard barbecues, outdoor dance parties and picnics at the beach.

And we’ll be here for you every day this summer. Happy Mondays at Oakland Yard mean bottles and glasses are 10% off from 4 to 9pm. Monday evenings are also a great opportunity to take advantage of a less busy time for our neighbors Tacos Oscar, whose fabulous food you can always enjoy here along with wine from our tasting bar. We’ll continue to host Welcome Wednesdays throughout July, with weekly food pop-ups by local chefs, including Fins & Feathers (7/2), Comfort Collective, Pal Burgers, Ilna SF, All Pau, and Bar Tanuki. On Thursdays we feature three-wine flights of red or white wines in addition to wines by the glass, and every Saturday afternoon we pour themed flights of four wines - this week some favorites from France’s Loire Valley.

If you’re headed to the mountains or the coast, be sure to stop by Oakland Yard beforehand so you don’t have to drink Barefoot Pinot Grigio or White Claw. Whatever your summer plans, come by Oakland Yard this week, share a laugh, grab a glass and a snack, and stock up for summer, for wine maketh glad the hearts of woman and man.

TONIGHT...THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: Dry German Riesling and new Spanish reds
2022 FUSO Jonas Seckinger GLÄS Riesling Trocken
2024 Donnhoff Riesling Trocken
2024 Von Winning Winnings Riesling
2022 Tantaka Txakoli Arabako Tinto
2022 Juan Gil Silver Label Monastrell
2020 Ramírez de la Piscina Crianza Rioja
Tasting Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until close!

SATURDAY 6/28: Loire Valley wine flights
2023 Domaine Timothée Delalle La Burette Blanc
2023 Domaine Gérard Millet Sancerre
2024 Pascal Janvier Cuvée du Rosier Pineau d'Aunis
2022 Domaine des Champs Fleuris Saumur-Champigny Les Tufolies
Tasting Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm!

Cheers,
Max

My parents bought a new refrigerator last month. I’ve never thought long enough about fridges to have strong feelings, but this one is pretty cool as far as fridges go, I guess. Stainless steel, double French doors. A cool little secret pocket water station and beverage center tucked into the left door. But some other details in the freezer below turned out to be somewhat polarizing (no pun intended). Instead of the usual freezer operations, the ice maker and its bins below are divided into two smaller containers, with the freezer kicking out regular cubes into one small bin and very small cubes into the bin beside it, a mound of mini-cubes much smaller than dice.

Mom’s not so happy about the unnecessary second option and let us know about it. Others weighed in too, in the weeks since its arrival, and consensus seemed to be it was an impractical use of space. But then my older sister came by one day and opened the freezer to scoop a cup of ice. Her enthusiasm was immediate: "Oooooohhh! Tiny ice! My FAVORITE!..."

I was thinking about tiny ice cubes this morning. And giant whiskey cubes. Fancy frozen spheres. All the options and preferences for something so singular. I also think of Max in this regard too. Tastings through thousands of bottles all year, an endless cycle of curation... always considering all patrons and their preferences. His patient, persistent efforts to find new wines that are vibrant, fresh and dynamic - while maintaining a selection that honors our integrity and represents the highest quality and value. 

And beyond our bottle selections, Claire and the event team continue their noble quest to curate some additional excitement for all. Our Welcome Wednesdays guest chef series continues all month - and there will be more special events, guest winemakers, curated flights, and other pop ups coming your way in the weeks and months ahead! Including THIS SATURDAY, with guest winemaker Cary Quintana pouring her new lineup of Picpoul Blanc, Cinsault, Mourvedre and and her Cosmic Dance (Grenache/Syrah blend)! Also coming up next week: TOURNAMENT TUESDAYS starting 6/24, a informal game night here at Oakland Yard... Bring your friends and some cards or a small board game and join us and others for a night of games and wine until 9! Then it's the PABLUMI POP UP happening here on Wednesday 6/25- menu details on IG to follow! 

But first TONIGHT: Thursday Niight Flights... Italian Whites and Rhone Reds!
2023 Pra Otto Soave Classico
2023 Giato Centopassi Sicilane Bianco (Grillo/Catarratto)
2023 Bruno Verdi Oltrepo Pavese Pinot Grigio
2023 Famille Brunier Pigeolet Vaucluse
2022 Domaine Piaugier 'La Grange Piaugier' Cotes du Rhone
2012 Domaine de L'Agramante Ciaula Cotes du Rhone
Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm

SATURDAY 6/21: Meet the Winemker... local winemaker, Cary Quintana of CARY Q WINES at OAKLaND YARD, pouring wines from her current lineup:
2023 El Dorado Picpoul Blanc
2023 Fenaughty Vineyard Cinsault
2021 Amador County Cosmic Dance (Grenache/Syrah)
2022 Shake Ridge Vineyard Mourvedre
Flights from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 9pm!

Stay cool,
Daniel