Your guide to the hip Bay Area hangout

Down the hill from UC Berkeley, the city’s famous university, and a few blocks from the shopping and dining development known as Fourth Street, a stretch of Fifth Street in West Berkeley is emerging as a destination for great wine and food. Meet Berkeley’s Wine Block. 

An unofficial group of mostly natural and low intervention wineries, the Wine Block, sometimes called the Gilman Wine Block thanks to its proximity to Gilman Street, is a micro-neighborhood that punches above its weight. A thriving community of wine and beer makers who need a little more space to create has emerged among the numerous and capacious industrial spaces scattered around West Berkeley.

Keep reading for a tour of this hip, tucked away corner of Berkeley that’s very much worth a visit.

Let’s start with Broc Cellars, which, in its own words, utilizes “native fermentations” and organically grown grapes from across California to turn out lively zinfandel, sparkling chenin and a blend it calls “Amore Rosso,” made of barbera, dolcetto, negro amaro and nebbiolo. All the wines are as experimental as they are layered in flavor. In the neighborhood since 2008, the winery exemplifies the “open to all” feel of the community. A long bar is flanked by airy booths where families with dogs on leashes and littles in strollers sit next to professionally dressed laptop users and couples out for a date.

Order a flight to start a tasting adventure; you can add on an accompanying snack plate from Berkeley’s Cult Crackers or Standard Fare to turn a tasting into a lunch. Step outside to find open-air seating and, on Saturdays, Sanae Shikayama’s Daruma Kiosk, which serves up California-Japanese fare. Its octopus takoyaki, konbini onigiri and pork kimchi nikumaki rightfully commands lines of hungry visitors. 

Broc’s next door neighbor, Donkey & Goat, is the elder statesman of the neighborhood, having opened in 2006. Co-founding winemakers Jared Brandt and Tracey Rogers were pioneers in the natural wine movement, helping elevate sustainability efforts in the industry. The team makes a pét nat, a slightly fizzy sparkling wine that, unlike champagne, does not go through a secondary fermentation, and also offers a full range of still wines.

Donkey & Goat shares a backyard with Hammerling Wines, which opened its tasting room earlier this year. Perhaps best-known for low intervention wines, owner/winemaker Josh Hammerling’s passion is sparkling wine. He works with different styles, making sparkling rosé from dry-farmed, organic zinfandel grapes and a brut nature (no added sugar) flagship sparkling wine made from chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes, among others. Riddling and disgorging is done by hand.

Things really get going on the Wine Block the third Sunday of the month, when wineries come together to host Hamm & Eggs, a wine-fueled swap meet of sorts: there’s live music, vendors selling jewelry and vintage clothing, plus plentiful culinary pop-ups including Chino-Latino tacos from Tacos Sincero (don’t miss the plum and xhaoxing wine-braised brisket taco), Fish & Bonez and other independent businesses.

Perhaps most famously, the Wine Block spills out onto Fifth Street during First Friday Block Party, hosted by Broc Cellars, Donkey & Goat, Hammerling Wines and nearby Vinca Minor. Held the first Friday of each month, the event brings in numerous chefs for the monthly pop-up, including California cuisine from Rucolina Dining, Chicano supper club stylings (the ceviche tostada with squid ink tortillas is a must-try) from My Friend Fernando, Basque cheesecakes from Keki SF and one-of-a-kind sourdough donuts from SoDo Donuts (don’t miss the green mango fritter). 

If wine is not your thing, no worries. Beer is also made on and near the Wine Block. Around the corner, the taps at Gilman Brewing Company pull everything from an Auto Shop IPA to a Guava Jardín Sour. Come thirsty, and hungry: the taproom is open daily for dough knots (I’d call them soft pretzels), pizza and New York cheesecake. 

About a block the other direction, at the corner of Camelia and Fourth streets, Trumer Brauerei is finally getting in on the Wine Block action. Though the brewery has offered tours and tastings for years, it finally launched a taproom on Oct. 7, the day the brewery also celebrated Oktoberfest. “We are proud to showcase our award-winning Trumer Pils and invite our community in to experience our other beer styles and menu inspired by our German and Austrian heritage,” brewmaster Lars Larson told SFGATE. 

A full menu is in the works, which can be enjoyed inside or on the dog-friendly patio. Sate yourself with a classic Trumer pils or Keller pils (it’s unfiltered) or tap styles like a Vienna lager, schwarzbier, Munich helles or a Flensburger pils. And as is true with the rest of the businesses along the Wine Block, arrive hungry. Plans include offering soft German pretzels from Squabisch Pretzels on Solano Avenue (they are made with Trumer pils wort) and bratwurst. Now that’s news anyone can raise a glass to.

This story was edited by Hearst Newspapers Managing Editor Kristina Moy; you can contact her at [email protected].