Enriquez family found a passion for winemaking in Forestville

Everyone who visits Enriquez Estate Winery in Forestville becomes an honorary family member for the day.

The family immersion starts with the location: The hospitality center is an old barn on an 8.5-acre ranch where 35-year-old winemaker Cecilia Enriquez lives. The family experience continues during the tasting, when brand ambassadors regale you with the story of how Cecilia’s Mexican immigrant parents fell in love with the wine industry and staked their claim in the ground 11 years ago.

If you’re not feeling like an Enriquez by that point, surely you’ll catch the vibe when you sip the wine — estate-grown pinot noir plucked from the very vines that stretch out in front of the private outdoor tasting areas.

“We want visitors to feel like they are old friends,” Cecilia said. “Our home is their home, too.”

Finding Wine Country on a whim

A bad ski trip to Lake Tahoe is essentially the reason Enriquez Estate Winery exists today. The year was 2009, and Cecilia came to the Bay Area with her parents, Eduardo and Ana Enriquez, from their home in New Jersey. The plan was simple: Ski. The problem: There was no snow.

Instead of bailing on the trip completely, the Enriquez family decided to rebook. Their new destination: Wine Country, which they had never visited before.

They ended up in Sonoma County, where they became enamored with both the lifestyle and the wine.

“I didn’t even like wine,” Cecilia remembered, adding that at the time of the trip she was five months out of college and still drinking box wine. “Then I tried the wine (in Sonoma County) and was like, ‘This is really good.’ That’s when it hit me: I had never tried good wine, and the stuff people were drinking back home was bad.”

The Enriquez family bought a case of wine from every place they stopped. One night, they joined a winery owner for dinner and learned that the man was also a realtor. The winery owner convinced Eduardo to look at a 30-acre vineyard property in Petaluma the next day.

You can imagine what happened next.

Eduardo fell in love with the property and agreed to purchase it. He challenged Cecilia to put together a business plan to run it.

By June 2011, Cecilia had picked up her life and moved to Petaluma to run the family business.

“The only thing (my) Dad told me was, ‘Don’t bankrupt me,’” she said. “I knew what a big opportunity and responsibility it was.”

Building the Enriquez brand

At 23, Cecilia stepped into the job with little to no experience running a business, and she had zero experience with wine. Like any entrepreneur, however, she set out to overcome both deficiencies as quickly as possible. She “attached herself” to anyone who would teach her winemaking and farming practices, learning from vineyard management crews and others who had been in the industry for years. She took winemaking classes at Santa Rosa Junior College and elsewhere. She plied her craft, every day.

By 2015, Cecilia had hit her stride — she was moving wine and people were taking her seriously.

She advised her father on a move to sell the property in Petaluma and purchase the 8.5-acre ranch in Forestville just south of Shone Farm. This ranch is now Enriquez Estate Winery.

In addition to a historic barn that has been converted into an indoor tasting venue with a small gift shop, this ranch has 4.5 acres planted to grapes — all pinot noir. Depending on the year, Cecilia buys fruit from other vineyards to make different wines. Current releases for 2022 include a 2017 Russian River Brisa white field blend and a 2017 Russian River Muscat, both with grapes from Windsor Oaks.

Other wines on the tasting menu include a non-vintage pinot noir from Russian River Estate Rose, the 2017 Russian River Estate Pinot Noir and a 2015 Sonoma Coast Tempranillo.

The last of the wines are unusual, as Enriquez Estate Winery is one of the only Sonoma County wineries making wine with the red Spanish varietal. The years of the wines also are notable, since Cecilia eschews annual releases for a strategy that emphasizes holding on to wine until each variety is ready.

“We embrace a bit of a different perspective, and let the wine speak for itself,” she said, noting that the winery makes just under 1,000 cases per year right now.

Connecting with culture, community

Weather permitting, tastings are conducted outside on no-frills backyard furniture with views of the vineyard. Each tasting includes five 2-ounce samples and a box of local cheese and charcuterie for $50. There’s also a short tour. Visitors can opt to add on a short walk or ATV ride to the southernmost point of the property.

Brand Ambassador Mark Rieber administers some of these tastings and noted visitors are often surprised by the breadth and depth of the Enriquez Estate Winery wines.

“We usually get visitors who care about small, family-owned wineries like ours,” said Rieber, who originally hails from Minnesota. “They have a sense of what we’re about when they arrive. When they taste our wines, they’re blown away by how good they are.”

Overnight visitors can stay at the winery vacation rental on the property — an old milking barn that has been converted into a two-bedroom house available through Airbnb. It’s $384 a night.

Another aspect of the Enriquez story that resonates with guests: Culture.

Both Eduardo and Ana came from Mexico, which makes Cecilia’s story as a first-generation female Mexican-American winemaker unique.

Enriquez Estate Winery doesn’t really advertise. Instead, Cecilia participates in events for the local Latino community. What’s more, members of the four-person winery staff regularly lead pourings and wine hour celebrations at local inns.

According to Joe Bartolomei, managing partner of the Farmhouse Inn in Forestville, Enriquez Estate Winery has poured at his wine hour, and the winery is a great partner.

“Cecilia and team are wonderful and really speak to the ethics and values that we look for with the wineries that we choose to partner with,” Bartolomei said. “As a small family-owned winery, Enriquez is clearly a labor of love, and you can see that in everything they do. Our guests love the personal attention, the authentic and genuine vibe. And we love supporting the little guys, as wineries like Enriquez really epitomize the true spirit of the Sonoma County wine country experience.”

Eyeing growth, more connections

Looking forward, Enriquez Estate Winery plans to continue these marketing strategies and participate in even more industry events such as wine competitions.

Rieber said the team also intends to continue and amplify guest-oriented events at the winery itself.

Every year one of the most popular events at the winery is a Sunday brunch that’s open to the public. The brunch costs anywhere from $60 to $90, and it includes wine, food and live music. Though brunches have shut down for the winter, they will pick up again in April.

Finally, Cecilia vows to continue traveling the country to make direct connections with wine club members and their friends. Membership in the top two levels of the Enriquez Estate Winery wine club includes one VIP private tasting in the member’s home for up to 20 people, and the winemaker stays busy flying all over to fulfill these commitments.

“I never thought I’d make a career out of wine,” Cecilia said. “Now I can’t imagine doing anything else.”