Imagery Estate Winery
Jamie Benziger took the cellar her father built when he retired in 2017 and makes small lots of uncommon varietals under painted labels. The Wine Group put the property on the market in November 2025.21
Why go
Joe Benziger started Imagery in the mid-1980s.2 His daughter Jamie took a business degree at Loyola Marymount.2 A marketing internship at Gundlach Bundschu convinced her she did not want an office job, so she went back to Sonoma State for wine and started in the Imagery lab.2 She worked harvests in both hemispheres.2 She became winemaker at the end of 2017, when Joe retired.2 Lisa Amaroli is still director of winemaking across Imagery and Benziger, and Jamie makes the calls on the direct-to-consumer wines.2
The house identity is small-lot bottlings of varietals nobody else here bothers with.3 The labels are artist-designed and there is a gallery you can walk yourself.3
The awkward part comes next. The Wine Group bought the property in 2015.1 In mid-November 2025 it listed roughly 20 acres of it and started taking offers.1 By then the company had not made wine on the site for two years.1 The brands are not for sale.1 It says it may lease the tasting room back, or move direct sales to Benziger nearby.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: All That and a Bag of Chips, $45 or $36 for members, which pours five rare small-lot wines with chips and popcorn and includes the gallery.3
- Order: the Reserve Seated Tasting at $35 for five winery-exclusive releases if you want it sitting down.3
- Order: Bocce and Bottle Service at $50 for the court, up to eight people, one bottle per two adults minimum.3
- Avoid: reading the testimonials on the winery's own site. Every one is an unattributed visitor review, and one of them is a complaint about the service.
What locals & experts say
- Jamie Benziger, on how she found the work (Press Democrat, 13 December 2022):
I completely fell in love with working in the lab.
On following her father:I have this passion and drive to take on my father's legacy and all he created with the property and the wines. But I know I have big shoes to fill.
2 - Christian Koulichkov of Hilco Real Estate, on why The Wine Group is selling (Press Democrat, 16 January 2026):
This is a non-core asset for them.
1
Good to know
- Open daily, 10am to 5pm, walk-ins welcome, with a separate booking path for parties of nine or more.3
- Leashed dogs are welcome in the tasting room, and there is bocce and cornhole on the lawn.3
- The property is on the market. The listing covers a 55,000 square foot production building, just over 2.5 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and 1.25 acres of Malbec, 250,000 gallons of storage and a licence for up to 180,000 cases a year.1
- Check before you drive. The newest reporting is from January 2026 and the sale had not closed.
Verdict
could-visit — Jamie Benziger is third generation and started in this winery's own lab, and Lisa Amaroli still runs winemaking across Imagery and Benziger while Jamie calls the direct-to-consumer wines. Five rare small-lot pours come with chips and popcorn for $45, there is a gallery you walk yourself, and dogs, bocce and cornhole are on the lawn. Go before the sale settles: The Wine Group had not made wine on the site for two years when it listed the ground, and says it may lease the room back or move sales to Benziger. No writer has put a tasting note on an Imagery wine, and the testimonials on the site are visitor reviews, one of them a complaint.