William Gunn Wines, LLC

Traditional wineries are brick and mortar with vineyards and tasting rooms. We are a virtual winery in some respects doing business in ecommerce throughout California where we are located. About 1/3 of our revenue is online and 2/3 is in person private tastings by appointment and live events such as wine fairs, fund raisers for non profits and wine and beer festivals. Our next festival is the Gardens of the Hills fundraiser on June 4th and 5th. This raises funds for disadvantaged children in the Sierra Foothills area where we are located. These festival types allow us to sell wine by the bottle (because a nonprofit is involved and because of a new Alcoholic Beverage Commission license available to California wineries. Also in June we will be holding 2-3 private tastings to give our guests the opportunity to taste and purchase.

We make our wine by sampling grapes and wine in barrel from all over Northern California. Selecting the best of the best and utilizing William Gunn’s winemaking skills with balancing, some blending where needed and natural correction only when necessary we can make some outstanding award wining wines. Our lineup currently consists of a 2019 Barbera (a varietal grown widely in Northern Italy and thriving in the Sierra Foothill region). This wine earned us 91 points in the Wine Enthusiast – one of the two premier wine magazines. Our red blend called “The Boss” is a blend of Mourvedre, Petite Sirah, Syrah and Zinfandel earning 90 points as well. This wine along with the Barbera and the Zinfandel have easily become our best sellers. The 2019 Zinfandel (almost sold out) won Gold Medal. It is a field blend of Zinfandel, Petite Syrah and Syrah. We also have a 2019 Chardonnay which was cellared in stainless steel and has a crisp summertime taste. Rounding out our selections is a nice Provence style dry Rose’. Coming up is a 2018 Winemaker Select Reserve Herbert Zinfandel from one of the oldest Zin vineyards in the area. We also have a 2018 Pinot Noir coming out – our first of this varietal.

William Gunn’s background, at least for the last 20 years or so, is in the winery business. First as the past owner and operator of the largest wine case goods and barrel storage service in the Sierra Foothills. When he sold that he began working for a local winery where he became winemaker, winery manager, vineyard manager and tasting room manager handling all aspects of winemaking, vineyard management and back office work. When that winery sold he decided with the help of a couple partners Jeff Watts and Tom DeNapoli to build William Gunn Wines, LLC.