First wine tasting room opens in downtown Petaluma

Berber Cellars, started with crowd funding, opened in the Hotel Petaluma.|

It’s official. Wine tasting has finally come to downtown Petaluma with the grand opening of Barber Cellars in the Hotel Petaluma.

Lorraine and Mike Barber began crushing grapes and making wine in their San Francisco apartment in 2005. Now Petaluma residents, the couple is producing three Zinfandels using grapes from Topolos on Sonoma Mountain and a Pinot gris using grapes from Keller Vineyards. Eager to take their budding business a step further, the Barbers launched a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year to fund a tasting room - the first of its kind for downtown Petaluma.

“Kickstarter was a success,” Mike Barber said. “I think that it just scratched the surface in terms of the total investment we made in the place, but it was a huge help and successful.”

The Barbers were able to lease an 800-square-foot space in the Hotel Petaluma and have been working hard these last few months renovating it. They dug up and refinished the floor, sanded and stained barrels to make a bar and refinished antique furniture.

“It’s a beautiful space we’ve created,” Barber said. “We’re hoping people will come in, enjoy our wine and just have fun and chill out for a while.”

Barber Cellars opened on Oct. 17 and has all of their wines available for tasting. They also have games for customers to relax with and paintings on display by local artists Justin Ringlein and Jonny Hirshmugl.

“We’re still locking down final details for our cheese station,” Barber said. “We plan to feature tastings from local cheese producers. We need the health department to sign off on it and we’ll be starting that.”

Officials say the tasting room is a welcome addition to downtown.

“We are very excited to see the first wine tasting room in downtown Petaluma,” said Ingrid Alverde, director of economic development for the city of Petaluma.

(Contact Yovanna Bieberich at yovanna.bieberich@arguscourier.com. On Twitter at Yovanna_Agus.)

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