Address: 4280 Red Hill Road, Vallecito, CA 95251
Phone: 209-736-9080
Website: www.twistedoak.com
Winery Tasting Room Open Daily 10:30am to 5:30pm
Murphys Tasting Room Summer Hours! Open Daily 10:30am to 5:30pm
350 Main Street at Church Street In the Heart of Downtown Murphys

Built on a hillside, Twisted Oak Winery uses old-world gravity flow techniques, allowing gentle movement of the grapes, juice and wine throughout the winemaking process. The grapes are received and carefully inspected at the top level. A hopper then drops the grapes to the crusher located on the level immediately beneath it. A pump gently nudges the must in through the top of the fermentation tanks on the next level down.

Our very own Twisted Oak vineyards (that’s all that “Estate” means, don’t look for the mansion) are located at the Winery in Vallecito and on Sheep Ranch Road in Murphys. Our 11 acres of vineyards give us Tempranillo, Grenache, and Graciano grapes which are used to make The Spaniard, Torcido (coming in early 2007), and Grenache. Often throughout the growing season, our winemaker, Scott, can be found roaming vineyards muttering the words “location, location, location.” This mantra has become the battle-cry for our vineyard program. When we began this project, Scott was given the green light to seek out these special places. Fortunately, many of them also came with special people.

To make a commitment to these special places, they needed to have the four major factors that affect wine quality; sun exposure, air flow, water and proximity to the winery, in order to ensure that the fruit could be delivered to the winery at the coldest possible temperature and at the earliest possible time of day. In addition, the growers needed to be absolutely committed to producing the best fruit in the region.

In addition to their estate vines, they also buy grapes from El Dorado County and Lodi. Twisted Oak’s Tempranillo, Albarino, and Viognier are particularly good.