I have written and reviewed some wines from Tank Garage Winery and through social media we have an association.  On social media, I think it works best when there is give and take.  I guess they noticed that I write about a lot of different wines, including their wines.  I only follow someone, if they follow me, as I feel that it is more respectful.  One day they asked me, if I would like to review some more wines of theirs.  I thanked them and I am sure that they saw my post on “Samples.” I don’t want anyone to think that I am a rubber-stamp-approval-service, just looking for free wines.   It is not worth my integrity.  They asked me if I had any requests, and I told them to surprise me, thought I did mention what I had wrote about in the past.

Tank Garage Winery is a partnership between Napa wine veterans James Harder and Jim Regusci.  They had actually worked together earlier both at James Cole Winery and T-Vine Cellars.  They opened up what many people think is the coolest winery in Calistoga, in a former gas station, and truth be told, it may have been a gas station, the last time I was in Calistoga.  James Harder was from the Edmonton, Alberta area in Canada, worked for Vincor International, which is now part of Constellation Brands, including time at Inniskillin Winery, famed for their Ice Wines.  Jim Regusci is a fourth generation Napa Valley resident and associated with Regusci Winery on a ranch that his grandfather purchased in 1931.  In 1985, he oversaw eight acres and thirty years later he oversees twenty-three-hundred acres and Regusci Winery was formed in 1996.

They released their first vintage in 2011.  They specialize in blends, rather than pure varietal wines.  Originally aiming at productions of one-hundred-fifty cases of a particular wine.  While the tasting room is located in the gas station in Calistoga, the majority of their wines are sourced from fruit in vineyards outside of Napa Valley.  They have quite a following, almost like a cult, in a very good sense, because of the unique and fun labels, not to mention the names of the wines that they create.  They are true fans of marketing, with ancillary products and they even go out of their way to get vibrant and lively employees especially for customer service in the tasting room.  As they claim, the winery was based on a dream and not a boardroom decision.  They are also partial to the F-word, so Joe Pesci and Quintin Tarantino would have no problem working or tasting there.  With four bottles to sample, we decided to have another wine dinner and share our good fortune among our wine loving friends.   The next two articles will be about the wines and of course the dinner as well.