Welcome to the wine list for our first annual West Coast Wine Tent Event at K&L San Francisco! This is more than just a wine tasting. It’s a rare opportunity to sample over 100 wines from California and Oregon’s most celebrated and emerging producers—all poured by the people who made them. Meet legendary and emerging producers alike, from wineries including Ridge, Spottswoode, Rhys, Hundred Suns, Walter Scott, and more! If you love West Coast wine, this is an event you don’t want to miss.
On the heels of our highly successful Champagne Tent Events, we’re now bringing you not one but TWO new tent events coming in 2025—and we love the idea so much, we’re making it an annual tradition. On May 18th, we’re bringing winemakers and other winery representatives from all over the West Coast to San Francisco for the Great West Coast Wine Tasting! On June 8th in Culver City, we’re celebrating the dolce vita with Italian winemakers and winery reps! Our Domestic and Italian Wine Buyers have worked hard to bring you absolutely stellar lineups, and, at $50 a pop for two-and-a-half hours of tasting and mingling, we think these tickets represent the best deal in town! More info below—snag your tickets before they sell out.
Spring has sprung and with it the official start of rosé season. As I’ve said before, personally I like to drink rosé all year, but here at K&L we definitely start to see an uptick in demand as the lighter evenings draw out and temperatures rise.
With a string of exceptional vintages here on the West Coast, and viticulture and winemaking constantly going from strength to strength, it’s a great time to be a collector or consumer of benchmark wines from the U.S. I’ve put together a broad cross section of some of the very best domestic wines in our inventory for your perusal. These are in-stock ready to go, but many are very limited with massive scores so don’t delay if something takes your fancy!
Orgeon’s Willamette Valley is well known for its world-class Pinot Noir and more recently an emerging reputation for top-notch Chardonnay. However, the sparkling wines from this part of the world often slip under the radar. There are several producers making exceptional traditional-method sparkling wines in the region, but the real stand out for me is Argyle.
If you’re seeking the best of grower Champagne–inspired bubbles, look no further than the fascinating and truly excellent wines of BXT. I’ve written about these brilliant wines at length before, but here’s a quick recap. BXT (that stands for Bubbles by Tom) is a tiny project that comes to you from the aptly named “Crusher District” in the industrial part of south Napa. Proprietor Tom Sherwood has a day job in Napa making mostly big, powerful Napa Cabs. His wife Brittany is the longtime winemaker at Napa icon Heitz Cellars. So, in his spare time (ha ha), Tom decided to start a very small brand focused on extremely limited-production, entirely hand-made, traditional-method sparkling wines.
Schramsberg is a winery with a long and lofty reputation for top-quality sparkling wines, and I’m pleased to say that the wines more than live up to the legacy and hype! The history of the winery dates back to 1862 when Jacob Schram first bought the parcel of land on Diamond Mountain. In 1870 Schram enlisted the help of Chinese workers who had just completed the Transcontinental Railroad one year earlier to use their tunneling expertise to hand-dig Napa Valley’s first-ever wine caves. Now under the ownership of the Davies family since 1965, this winery is one of the stalwarts of the region. The wines are consistently delicious, and very well priced given the quality.
The K&L Holiday Wine Buying Guide is your ultimate resource for selecting the perfect wines to elevate your holiday celebrations. Whether you're searching for the ideal bottle to pair with festive meals, a special gift for a wine lover, or simply a standout wine to enjoy with loved ones, our curated guide offers expert recommendations across all price points and styles. From rich reds and elegant whites to sparkling wines and rare finds, our team of experienced sommeliers and wine buyers has handpicked a selection that embodies the spirit of the season, ensuring your holiday table is stocked with exceptional wines. Let us help you make this holiday season even more memorable with the perfect bottle for every occasion!
For the Holiday Buying Guide this year I decided to take a leaf out of Oprah’s book and present a few of my favorite things! As the Domestic Wine Buyer for K&L, I taste many thousands of wines a year: from high-end luxury cult Cabs to delicious everyday drinkers at $9.95; from solid, dependable, consistent old favorites, to the newest, most esoteric, experimental wines from folks trying something creative to get a start. My role as the buyer here is often not just to assess the quality and value presented by a certain wine, but to match it with a specific customer demand. The idea of this list is to be a little self indulgent (hey, it is the holiday season) and focus on wines that I personally enjoy to drink, share, and gift to others. Wines I believe have a broad appeal and will bring a smile to most people who taste them.
A few years ago, I was absolutely honored to be able to purchase the incredible 45-vintage-deep library of wines from Calera Vineyards. It was one of the most monumental projects of my 13 years here at K&L, and a humbling experience to be able to taste through so many wines that have helped to shape the California wine industry as we know it today. Josh Jensen was a visionary and a dedicated vigneron. I was thrilled to be able to share his life's work with you, our customers. On that note I'm pleased to say that today we have another historic offering to bring to you.
This week, we’re officially kicking off our Thanksgiving planning. Halloween is in the rearview mirror; Hannukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa are just far enough away that we don’t have to wrap our brains around gifting quite yet… No elves on the shelves, but our rally bird is out in Redwood City—it’s the perfect time to talk turkey.
