Amphora Winery
Rick Hutchinson makes the wine and owns the place, and his line is that wines and people who are too extreme are begging to be misunderstood. Twenty-five dollars, walk-ins welcome.1
Why go
Amphora is hands-on and small: Hutchinson makes several varietals in small lots off Dry Creek Valley fruit and beyond.2 You taste outdoors under a tent, or at the bar standing up, or in the cellar if the weather turns.1 It is a mile and a half north of the Dry Creek Road and Lambert Bridge Road stop sign, six miles up from the 101.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the seated tasting, $25, and take it outdoors.1
- Avoid: arriving as seven people. Six is the maximum.1
What locals & experts say
- Rick Hutchinson, owner and winemaker, on what he is after:
Vines and wines are like people. Those with good balance live longer and age more gracefully. The total wine experience-the bouquet, the mouth feel, and the taste-should all be pleasing. Wines and people that are too extreme are begging to be misunderstood.
2
Good to know
- Open daily, slots from 11am every half hour, last one at 3:30pm. Book through CellarPass or call 707-431-7767, or just turn up.1
- The winery publishes exactly which days it is shut through New Year 2027: Easter, 4 July, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Day, New Year's Eve and Day.1
- I cannot tell you which wine to ask for. The winery names none on the pages I read.
Verdict
could-visit — Rick Hutchinson owns it and makes the wine, and he says what he is aiming at: balance, because in his words wines and people that are too extreme are begging to be misunderstood. That is a position, and it is worth $25 to find out whether the wine holds it. The practical case is stronger than the critical one: open daily, walk-ins genuinely welcome, half-hourly slots from 11 to 3:30, six people maximum, seated outside under a shade structure. Held here because the winery names not a single wine on the pages I read and I could not find a critic who has.