About Amphora Winery
Amphora Winery is the most genuinely adventurous and varietal-diverse small producer in the Dry Creek Valley. Rick Hutchinson founded the label in 1996 with a conviction that was genuinely unusual for Dry Creek Valley at the time, and remains unusual today: that the warm Mediterranean climate of the valley's benchland terrain is ideally suited not just to Zinfandel and Cabernet, but to the varietals of Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Greece that share the same climate origins.
The Amphora program spans Tempranillo, Graciano, Aglianico, Touriga Nacional, Primitivo, Mourvèdre, and other Mediterranean varieties sourced from California and Pacific Northwest vineyards, a genuinely educational journey through the world of warm-climate Southern European viticulture expressed through American terroir. Each wine is produced in tiny quantities that reflect the research project character of the program: Hutchinson is genuinely curious about what each variety can achieve in California conditions, and the wines are the results of that decades-long experiment.
The Wine Creek Road tasting room, dogs welcome, picnics available, walk-ins genuinely warmly received, provides the most intellectually stimulating varietal education available anywhere on the Dry Creek wine circuit.
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Dry Creek Valley SettingAmphora is part of the historic Dry Creek Valley AVA, famous for old-vine Zinfandel and Mediterranean varieties.
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Warm-Day TerroirDry Creek Valley enjoys hot, dry summer days that ripen Zinfandel and Rhône varieties beautifully.
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Casual Sonoma HospitalityDry Creek Valley tasting rooms tend to be casual, dog-friendly, and value-oriented compared to Napa.
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Featured Wines
Tempranillo
Tempranillo
California · Pacific Northwest
Amphora's Spanish flagship, Tempranillo from carefully selected California and Pacific Northwest sources showing what this Spanish Rioja variety produces when farmed in warm-climate California conditions with Rick Hutchinson's minimal-intervention small-lot approach.
Aglianico
Aglianico
California
Southern Italian Aglianico, one of California's rarest varietal programs, showing the dark, tannic, age-worthy character of this Campanian variety in Amphora's patient, research-driven production style.
Graciano
Graciano
California · Pacific Northwest
Spanish Graciano, the variety most associated with Rioja's finest traditional blends, produced as a varietal wine at Amphora showing the aromatic complexity and structural depth that this rare Spanish grape achieves in Hutchinson's adventurous sourcing program.
Touriga Nacional
Touriga Nacional
California
Portugal's noble Port variety produced as a dry table wine at Amphora, one of California's only Touriga Nacional programs showing the dark fruit intensity and floral complexity that this Portuguese variety produces when farmed for table wine rather than fortification.
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Mediterranean Variety Walk-In Tasting
Walk in Thursday through Monday for Rick Hutchinson's most adventurous wine education on Dry Creek Road, Tempranillo, Aglianico, Graciano, and Touriga Nacional from California and Pacific Northwest sources in one of the valley's most intellectually unusual and genuinely fascinating small-producer programs. Dogs welcome.
$20
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