Wendy Lamer knows all the stories about each win on her shelves: what soil it grew in, who made it, and what you should cook to eat it with.
, and Redwood Drive-In — than most towns 10 times the size can brag about. The area feels like a glam hippie spot or maybe Sonoma before it got so fancy. Let’s just say it’s the anti-corporate balm we all need right now, whether we know it or not. There’s even a groovy cannabis dispensary,, and so I’ve got Boonville on the brain.Kim Westerman
Lamer, who is from Georgia, had long been an expert in French, Italian and Spanish wines, and when she landed in the Boonville in 2019, she found herself sitting on a goldmine of under-the-radar local wines. The Anderson Valley AVA is just north of Sonoma County’s famous Russian River Valley, known for its cool-climate Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. But now that entry-level prices for those wines hover near $100 a bottle, the Anderson Valley is becoming even more attractive.
In addition to a curated selection of European wines, Lamer has a whole section in her small shop devoted to local wines, and I recently asked her to list her top 10 wineries from the Anderson Valley that are so small they don’t have tasting rooms. These are the hardworking artisans of wine whose bottles you won’t see on restaurant menus or city shelves. They’re all as minimal-intervention as possible, from full-on biodynamic to made with native yeasts.