Purple Line Urban Winery is a small family-owned winery born out of our long romance and passion for good wine. My name is Kate (Owner/Tasting room manager) my husband’s name is George (Owner/Winemaker/cellar rat) and this is our story.
Our story begins a few years ago when George decided that we needed to build a wine cellar in the basement of our 1865 Victorian home in the historic district of Oroville. George doesn’t do anything half way and once he gets an idea in his head he is as tenacious as a bull. So the wine cellar was built. Now we need to fill it up. Ok, we can do that…we belong to wine clubs from many regions and surely that will fill the cellar. With our thoughts on filling the cellar we ventured out into the countryside on one beautiful Sunday afternoon to do a little wine tasting in our region. We met the people making the wine, we talked to the people tasting the wine, we smelled the wine fermenting in the oak barrels.
That is the day we fell in love with the craft of making wine, with its intrigue and romance.
Then before we knew it we were helping at the local wineries and learning to make wine from the winemakers. Our innocent flirtations quickly evolved to a full-fledged love affair, as passionate and all-consuming as any love affair can be. We were hooked! What made us want to grow our passion into a serious business are the people and the camaraderie that develops because of the wine.
The stars aligned and the signs were all around us pointing the way.
We jumped – heart, soul and pocket book – into the wine industry and Purple Line Urban Winery was born. After a few character-building moments (ok, more like questioning our sanity moments), encouragement and guidance from industry winemakers and mentors, and timely opportunities (funny what following the signs will do sometimes), we found ourselves standing in a cold, rundown, warehouse with a leaky roof in downtown Oroville.. Amidst the dust and darkness, we thought “Perfect” Just like our love affair with wine has been a journey that at times has seemed like one challenge after another….. This is the perfect setting to share our passion for wine with you. Our grapes will be sourced from mostly local vineyards in our North Sierra Region. We will crush, ferment, press and bottle the wine ourselves in our cellar. Thus, the name “Urban Winery”.
We will take advantage of so many incredible grape varietals grown in our North Sierra Foothills region and hand craft them into our wine using time honored traditional methods right here in our fully functioning winery
In the fall of 2013, (when all the stars aligned) we opened the doors to our tasting room and cellar in the Old Warehouse. We call it “Warehouse Chic” and we introduce the wines of Purple Line Urban Winery to you. We are different, we are edgy, but we make great wine.
Be a “ part of History” come out and see us and help promote the wines, art, music and food of our region.
So begins the next chapter of our story… We looking forward to meeting you every step along the way…
