Viva Viansa! Sam and Vicki's namesake winery lives to pour again

Sam and Vicki’s namesake winery lives to pour again...|

Viansa is the winery on a little hill south of Jacuzzi Winery, with its driveway entrance just below (north of) the curvy, dangerous looking part of Highway 121.

To get there you enter from Highway 121 (Arnold Drive) and wind up through tall cypresses, olive trees and newly replanted vineyards among the 168 planted to grapes.

Viansa recently unveiled a $6 million “updating” of the winery and a rebranding as Viansa Sonoma. It’s the latest of several changes the winery has undergone since its founding over a quarter century ago.

Vicky and Sam Sebastiani (hence the name from Vi’ an’ Sa) built the winery as their Italianesque dream at the turn of the 1990s after Sam left his position as president the family’s Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery following a family dispute. As a parting gift, mother Sylvia Sebastiani gave Sam the Sebastiani Theatre, which he eventually sold to some Oakland developers, who still own the theater.

The couple sold their house on the eastside, purchased the then-bare hillside, put a mobile home on the property to live in, and put all of their emotional and monetary assets into building their winery and Italian Marketplace, which opened in February 1990.

Sam followed his father in creating a wildlife preserve and flyway, having great affection for birds.

When Vicki and Sam broke up, their kids took over management of Viansa Winery & Italian Marketplace, which was later sold to an east coast investor, then to Lloyd Davis (now of Corner 103), and currently to Vintage Wine Estates, led by Pat Roney.

Roney and his vast team are working to reduce the number of wines produced from 63 so they can focus on just 25 different wines.

The physical premises have a new wheelchair-accessible path that circles the knoll and leads first to three binoculars-equipped bird watching lookouts where you can also enjoy your picnic and wine. And that big white tent that used to stand out in the landscape? It has been replaced by a handsome building perfectly designed for entertaining.

The biggest surprise of all is that local chef Moaya Scheiman and pastry chef Andrea Koweek of Crisp Bakeshop prepare special lunches and all of the food sold in the tasting room, while Paula Le Duc considers Viansa to be one of her entertaining venues.

On a recent visit, our Crisp-catered lunch was divine and included a lentil, watermelon radish, beet and arugula salad; wild caught Pacific salmon rillettes with cucumbers, truffled baby carrots and grilled toast; followed by Crisp blackberry and salted caramel chocolate macarons. With all of this we tasted Viansa NV Blanc de Noir, a 2014 Rosé, 2012 Reserve Sangiovese, and their 2013 Reserve Heritage Blend.

Give Viansa another try. The view is fabulous, as Vintage Estates restores Sam Sebastiani’s wetlands.

Vintage Estates also owns B.R. Cohn, Cartlidge & Browne, Clos Pegase, Cosentino, Girard, Swanson, Windsor and Wine Sisterhood wineries among others.

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