Election Section

Vintage Berkeley refills the wine-store niche that ran dry in the North Shattuck district a couple of years ago when North Berkeley Wine moved west to Martin Luther King Jr. Way. But this new arrival may be a bit different from any wine store the Bay Area has seen before. 

The owners select wines for both flavor and value, with almost nothing on the floor costing more than $20. They also open something different for tasting every weekday from 4-7 p.m. and Saturdays from 2-4 p.m. 

For bottles that you can’t try-before-you-buy on a given day, there’s a complete, and opinionated, description card. Premium, higher-priced wines can be chosen from a cabinet at the back of the store. 

Out front, the finds include $8 wines made from delicious but little-known Spanish grape varietals (whose kissing cousins fetch many times the price when crushed in France or California). Co-owner Peter Eastlake boasts of a stock that ranges from a “cheapo Puglian for pizza” to some sweetly “sinful ice wine.” His partner Michael Werther says they emphasize “small-production vineyards, artisan offerings.” 

Eastlake managed similarly value-oriented wine stores in New York and Boston, then became a national wine buyer for Cost Plus World Market in Oakland. Werther is a former investment banker. The two have been friends since “the first day of pre-kindergarten” outside Philadelphia, says Eastlake. 

To uncork a value-priced wine boutique in Berkeley, they’ve appropriately chosen a location on Vine Street. It’s in the former East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) pump house, opposite Peet’s Coffee and Tea—an elegant water temple from 1930 now converted to dispense a whole different kind of liquid. 

“I see the store as our neighborhood wine cellar,” says Eastlake. “It’s a public utility station.” 

Why a mostly-under-$20 wine store? 

“Because wine is such an esoteric product,” says Werther, some customers have “an expectation or fear that this lack of knowledge will be exploited by retailers. By setting a price cap at $20, we allow the customer to experiment with our wines with confidence—remember that this is a handpicked selection—and without breaking the bank.” 

Eastlake adds, “We love wines that...deliver sheer pleasure without costing too much.” 

His education included a year studying wine and winemaking in South Africa, and his enthusiasm for sharing good vintages is contagious. 

“We buy only what we love,” he says, “stuff that has good regional and varietal character, is made in limited quantities, and above all offers terrific value.” 

It took the partners about a year to secure the permits they needed to open the store. Hurdles included seeming last-minute demands from a Zoning Department that they perceived as understaffed. But they have praise for the Zoning Adjustments Board and for the support they received from neighbors and City Councilmember Laurie Capitelli. They especially acknowledge Landmarks Commissioner Carrie Olson, who had initiated the pump house’s landmarking and who enthusiastically endorsed their application. 

“This was the first pumping plant [the Utility District] built in Berkeley,” says Olson. “It was fascinating researching the 70 years that preceded the formation of EBMUD. Water companies came and went. One early company was near a slaughterhouse, and when the company finally made sure the water supply was free of the ‘residue’ from the nearby business, their customers complained—they had gotten used to the taste of the blood in their water.” 

Olson said she was excited by Vintage Berkeley’s potential to “make use of the existing building in such a unique way—customers will come and appreciate that the building is special, and see that it was worth saving.” 

She said she sees the store as a promising reuse that will be “good for community building.” 

Eastlake suggests that she’s right. 

“Vintage Berkeley happened because this neighborhood and its residents, merchants, and band of wandering poets are truly special,” he says. “The support from those who we met on the sidewalk during construction kept us going. The neighbors are the benefactors.”