Passaggio Wines is back in Glen Ellen

Passaggio Wines offers a quiet nod to owner Cindy Cosco’s Italian heritage.

“Her grandfather was Italian, came over from Italy. She learned about wine from her grandfather. We have a copy of his pass through Ellis Island here in the wine bar and Passaggio means passageway in Italian,” said tasting room manager Carole Martinson. “So it's all apropos.”

The business reopened in October with a wine bar in the historic Jack London Village, allowing locals to again enjoy the old-world wines made by Cosco. The large airy space, with its beautiful decks, create a welcoming setting to visit, take in the view and simply relax.

Martinson was born and raised in the area, and has been in the wine industry for 40 years and said she’s thrilled to be back in her favorite community. Cosco first hired Martinson in March of 2020 when the business was located just off the Sonoma Plaza.

Then the unthinkable happened.

“We ended up having to close the doors off and on for that full year,” Martinson said. “We did have quite the local following, but with COVID things just kind of petered out.”

Cosco was making her wine on Eighth Street East at the time and because of the high rents she was paying on both places, she was forced to make a hard decision. She closed her doors in Sonoma Valley and moved the winery to Treasure Island.

“There is a winery out there called Treasure Island Wines and now Cindy makes her wines there,” Martinson said.

They knew that they would eventually return to the region and were thrilled to open the new Glen Ellen wine bar last fall.

“We're back in the Valley, and we want everybody to come and visit us,” Martinson said. “I was born and raised here in town so it's fun to be in the wine business in the town where I grew up.”

She said that Cosco hopes to bring her production facility back to the Sonoma area as well.

At the new place in Jack London Village, Martinson said they want locals to feel at home when they come to visit.

“We do tastings for sure, but we like to call it a wine bar because we want locals to come in, have a glass of wine or a bottle of wine and just relax,” she said.

She encourages patrons to drop by before enjoying a dinner at nearby Yeti or The Mill, or bring their own food to pair with a glass of wine while sitting on the deck and listening to the babble of the nearby creek.

“That's why we call it a wine bar, so you don't feel like you're going to a tasting room and you know you can really stay a while,” Martinson said. “We'll just pour you a little and talk about it and see what you're up to. It's just a comfortable place to come and relax, really. And it's gorgeous out here. There's decks off the backside along the creek that people can walk to.”

When the weather's warm, Martinson said she can leave the side doors open so people can be on the patio taking in the fresh air.

“It's not a tiny place,” she said. “The ceilings are very tall and so it's not like you're going into an enclosed place that’s going to feel suffocating or that you’ll be worried about, you know?”

Martinson said they love being in Jack London Village.

“It's like our own little village out here,” she said. “I love all the tenants. There's Schermeister Winery, there’s Sonoma 707 Candle Company, Wine Country Chocolates makes their chocolates out here. There’s Yeti Restaurant and the Mill Restaurant. There’s so many great businesses here.”

Right now they’re open Thursdays through Sundays and once the weather gets better they’ll add a few days during the week. They have an upstairs mezzanine that people can use for private events and the patio will be open to parties in the summer. They’ve had a few small events since they opened. Tricia Reisman, a local artist, did special paintings for the wine bar and they held a reception for her in December.

Martinson explained that Cosco buys grapes from local, sustainable vineyards.

“We love John Albini,” Martinson said. “So we buy a lot of our grapes from John and another vineyard, Gloria Ferrer. We try to stay in the Valley for sure. And, you know, 99% of the county's vineyards now are sustainable.”

Martinson explained that Cosco makes old-world style wines that can be harder to find here.

“She loves to find Italian grapes that maybe are a little obscure,” Martinson said, that includes an Aglianico and Montepulciano.

Martinson explained that old-world style means that they tend to be lower in alcohol. Their wine list includes a good selection of reds, whites and roses, as well as their sparkling wine.

“With the drought for the last few years our yields on the whites were very low and the reds as well,” Martinson said. “So last year Cindy focused on whites. Our latest in March is going to be our sparkling rose that she's just bottling right now.”

She added, “They go with about every kind of food you can have. I try to have something that doesn't have alcohol in it, too. We're checking out different things that don't have alcohol.”

On March 4, they will host the Passaggio's Pre-Spring Fling.

“We’re going to have a preview of the sparkling rose,” Martinson said. “I know this sounds funny, but we're going to have potato chips and ice cream made from Sweet Scoops. They're infusing our wine into two ice creams, so it's just going to be a fun event. I think we all kind of need it with this cold weather and the rain.”

She continued, “Cindy has this great quote, she says ‘Every empty bottle is filled with a great story. Drinking wine should be fun. We have reasonably priced, easy drinking, wonderful wine. And that's what we want for people. Everybody here in Glen Ellen and Oakmont and Kenwood have been wonderfully supportive, and it's only going to get better.”