Mendocino LULA CELLARS Travel Review — Breezy Tasting Experience in California’s Coastal Countryside

Seated on an oak-barrel stool in Lula Cellars’ outdoor tasting room, making your way through their six-wine menu, you may find that your sips start to slow somewhere between the 2020 Guntly Red blend and pinot noir number two or three… 

A party of two chats quietly over chardonnay at the glass table to your left, warmed by the flames of two standing gas heaters. A new group settles at the picnic table behind you, unpacking a tupperware spread of crackers, cheese, and charcuterie. You look beyond your tented surroundings to the grassy hill out front, where four oak-barrel-turned-patio chairs sit angled toward their own view: Lula’s large, algae-covered duck pond and fourteen acres of marigold-dotted pinot noir vineyards.

As you slowly resume tasting, Lula’s hospitality manager, Kim, comes over and informs you there is no pressure to finish each pour — may he demonstrate a disposal technique? He takes your glass and, with a dramatic flourish, sends the remains in a sparkling red arc over the gray sky and green fields beyond. Surprised laughter ensues, and Kim replaces your glass on the table — would you like a refill?

Lula Cellars Pairs Elegant Wines with Laid-Back Atmosphere 

You may enjoy this relaxed approach to wine tasting, especially after the long, winding drive up CA Hwy 128 — though its narrow, tree-lined roads might whet your appetite for nature, the drive can be as dizzying as it is picturesque.

But if, like this writer, you’re traveling from the south (Philo, where Lula is located, is about 2.5 hours north of San Francisco and ten miles from the coast), you’ll find that the road straightens out for the last twelve miles of your journey, allowing you to ease your grip on the steering wheel and settle your gaze into the rolling green hills, vineyards, and farmland that surround your destination.

When Kim comes over with the next bottle, we ask how our location affects the final product. He explains how the cool coastal climate of the “Deep End” (how locals refer to the northwestern stretch) of Anderson Valley, where Lula is located, results in wines that are “elegant” and comparably lighter than those made further south or inland. He tells us that even wines produced as close as Booneville, just thirteen miles south and 6-7 degrees warmer on average, are noticeably sweeter and more full-bodied than the ones made from Lula vines.

Once you finish the menu, you can contemplate these distinctions up close with a short walk through their pinot noir vineyards — to the left of the tasting room, there’s a low-incline dirt path that takes you up past the duck pond and left through rows of trellised vines. We visited during the grapes’ dormant season, so there was no visible growth, but this writer found that the light walk and sweeping view of the valley (on this visit, layered with fog and speckled with wildflowers) was a very pleasant way to round out our tasting experience.

If you’re passing through on your way to some of the more populous destinations in Mendocino, a visit to Lula Cellars can be a relaxing, countryside alternative to the more concentrated natural and urban activity further west. With their knowledgeable and friendly staff, easy-to-drink wines, and on-the-ground vineyard views, you may find that a tasting at Lula nicely balances and enhances your experience of Mendocino’s diverse natural landscape.

RECOMMENDED

For more information or to schedule a tasting, visit Lula Cellars’ website.

Photos by the author

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