For Craig Haarmeyer and his family, West Sacramento was always the perfect site to learn winemaking and start their own label for Haarmeyer Wine Cellars, a family-owned winery that produces a unique selection of organic wines with little to no intervention process.

Haarmeyer has been immersed in the food and wine scene almost his entire life. Growing up, his parents owned several restaurants in Old Sacramento. In the late 1970s, they also opened their own wine shop above one of the restaurants.

“I grew up in my parent’s restaurants, and so my introduction to food and wine and spritz and beer started early, and I was always fascinated with that,” Haarmeyer said.

Haarmeyer got his first taste of commercial winemaking in the late ’90s. After returning from art school, he had the opportunity to help his friend Charles Myers at Harbor Winery during harvest season. Harbor Winery has since closed down and is now the home of Haarmeyer Wine Cellars.

“So I didn’t really take it seriously, actually, until I started helping out here at the old Harbor Winery, which is where I got my first taste of commercial winemaking,” Haarmeyer said. “And after seeing that, I realized, ‘Oh boy, I could definitely make wine, even on a larger scale,’”

Haarmeyer shares that he loves the West Sacramento space that he is located in, as it brings a lot of history.

“I love the space because there’s a lot of great winemaking history in this building, and the microbiome that lives here definitely puts its stamp on all the aromas and flavors of our wines in this building,” Haarmeyer says.

Haarmeyer Wine Cellars officially began custom crushing in 2008 with fruit from a vineyard in Lodi. They began producing wines using mostly Spanish and Portuguese varieties.

Haarmeyer explains that they have a very minimal intervention process for their wines as they do as little as possible to correct and alter the wines by adding anything else to them. They like to treat all the wines equally.

“In other words, we don’t correct and we don’t correct any of the chemistry when the fruit comes in. So it’s critical that the fruit is raised properly and that we get it off the vine at what we think is the right time,” Haarmeyer says. “We process the fruit here, which means destemming or not destemming, crushing or not crushing, putting it through the press, or with reds those don’t go in the press up front.”

Haarmeyer Wine Cellars is a Chenin Blanc-focused winery. Haarmeyer shares that just last year, they had five to six vineyards specific to their production of Chenin Blanc: three in the Sacramento River Delta, one in eastern Lodi and two in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

In addition to Chenin Blanc, they also work with Wirz Vineyard in San Benito County to make a unique Riesling, produce two Zinfandels from plantings in Lodi and work with three sites for Nebbiolo. They also began working with Mokelumne Glen Vineyards to make Blaufrenkisch and a Gemischter Satz. Haarmeyer noted that they are committed to using a “low intervention” process and only working with farmers who grow their fruit organically.

However, even with all these great varieties, Haarmeyer said his favorite variety to drink is Chenin Blanc, noting how it handles oxygen and its texture.

According to Haarmeyer Wine Cellar’s website, Chenin Blanc’s naturally high acidity and its ability to handle oxidative aging make the wines “refreshing and sour in their youth and nutty and complex in their old age.”

“We have some of the highest quality Chenin Blanc being made in this country,” Haarmeyer said. “We are all over the East Coast, West Coast, middle of the country, Canada and the UK. We produce some really light, expressive, handmade wines. We are just making the highest quality wines that we can with as little intervention as possible. They’re delicious wines and some of the best Chenins you’ll find around here.”

Haarmeyer Wine Cellars products are available throughout the United States and internationally at several restaurants, bars, wine shops, and specialty stores. Locally, they can be found at Corti Brothers and Taylor’s Market in Sacramento, Nugget Markets, the Davis Food Co-op, and various wine bars in the area. Haarmeyer Wine Cellars also offers a unique tasting experience, where patrons can taste directly from the barrel.

While there have been many benefits, for Haarmeyer, one of the best aspects of being in the wine industry is the people he gets to surround himself with. As he looks to the future, Haarmeyer said he hopes one day he can watch his kids take over from him and find it just as fulfilling as he does.

Haarmeyer Wine Cellars is open on Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. for any walk-ins and tastings or by appointment. For more information or to see the complete list of where you can find their products, visit their website at https://haarmeyerwinecellars.com/.