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OAKLAND MADE

Urban Legend Cellars

     Grapes don’t mind where they’re turned into wine. This realization hit Steve Shaffer about the same time he and his wife, Marilee, saw that the dream they were holding — and that was holding them up — didn’t gel with their reality. They’d been making wine in the garage of their Alameda home for years, always thinking that what they really wanted was to plant vines in the Sierra foothills or somewhere and build a winery. But when they sat down to realistically contemplate their future, “We realized that we’d both lived in the country, and while it can be wonderful, quiet and bucolic, it can also be boring. We like the city.”
     If they weren’t going to move to the country, there was no need to wait any longer on their dream. And, says Steve, that is how the pair ended up building a commercial winery, Urban Legend Cellars, near Jack London Square, in a warehouse with a classic arched roof and brick walls that had been empty more then 12 years. They processed 34 tons of grapes there in fall 2009. At this point, from earlier harvests, wines they have include a Lake County Sauvignon Blanc, a Clarksburg Rosato de Barbera (rosé), a Clarksburg Teroldego
(deep and dark) and a Barbera. “We think it’s time that this Cinderella of a grape gets its due, particularly when it comes to selecting a wine that makes good food better,” says Steve of the Barbera. They call their winery Urban Legend, which incorporates Oakland’s iconic cranes into the logo, because it’s urban and because they want to dispel old legends and create new ones around wine and winemaking. They opened their tasting room on April 1.
     “If you’re going to start an urban legend, you may as well start it on April Fool’s Day,” laughs Steve.
They get their grapes from Lake County, Clarksburg, Mendocino and elsewhere. The wine is available locally at Encuentro, Chop Bar and the Alameda Wine Co. Marilee’s background is in molecular biology, so she takes the lead in the winemaking. Steve, a former telecommunications consultant, heads up the marketing effort. “It’s a real collaboration,” he says, adding that, “We’re aiming to make food-friendly wine, and this is a great place to come and find wine that pairs well with food.”                 

The tasting room at Urban Legend Cellars (621 Fourth St., 510-545-4356, www.urbanlegendwine.com) is open 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday.