Donkey and Goat Winery

Great spot for east bay wine tasting! Great value for a single tasting and delicious wine.

Great food pairing wine. A great blend of lightness, mystique and brightness. They have beautiful seasonal wines that are minimally touched. They even use some foot stomping techniques, occasionally. Unfiltered and fined… they let the grapes speak for themselves. They have wine tastings on the weekend. It is an amazing local family run business. Make sure to check them out.

My boyfriend declared this the best wine tasting he has ever had and I have to agree!
Good, light wines. All four were drinkable and three were highly enjoyable. Nice atmosphere — not very pretentious. This is a good wine place for people new to drinking wine or people who think they do not like wine.
I see a lot of reviews complaining about the price. I agree that it seems expensive to have four small pours for 15 dollars at first glance. However, we were each given an additional pour of choice to help us decide between two wines for purchase. Additionally, both of our tasting fees were waived with purchase of a bottle, so we only paid for our bottle of wine and each had 5 tastings for free!
I will definitely go back.

A winery and tasting room in the middle of Berkeley? (to be fair, there are actually 2 on that block) Cool little spot that does 5 small pours for $ 10, or waived if you buy a bottle.
The wines are ok… Sincerely enjoyed the Grenache Blanc… the noir was ok, but unspectacular. Chardonnay and Syrah were pretty good… the Syrah was super acidic. The conversation starter is their white merlot… yes…white merlot. Not sure how I feel about it… didn’t particularly like it — but it definitely warranted a conversation.

I love Donkey and Goat. I used to live in the East Bay, and the cozy, beautiful tasting room was my favorite wine tasting room south of Napa. I don’t generally like white wines — often they are cloyingly sweet or too oaky — but I love the mineral, light, round whites and orange wines that Donkey and Goat produces.

What a cool spot in Berkley!!! I really enjoyed their wine. The pourers were very knowledgeable, and the general scene was super laid back. I really enjoyed the space, and am always swayed by a good bocce ball court.

Great atmosphere and location, but I disliked a lot of the wines.

A little expensive wine tasting. It was 5 wines tasting for $ 15 and the tasting were so small that it wasn’t worth it. I glad I shared the wine with my boyfriend because it wasn’t worth it. I really only likely one wine. It was kind of a sparkling wine. The atmosphere was really nice but I wish I could have been able to go back to where the wine club members were because they have cheese and a place to sit.

Let me start off by saying that I really appreciate what they are trying to do here. A sparkling with no added sugar? Cool idea! And grapes picked from untended vineyards? Can’t complain about that!
The price is also good. $ 10 for like 6 pours I believe. But the pours are preeeeeeetty small.
The wine was just not that good. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t BAD, but it wasn’t standout in any way.

I recently stopped by this place on my way back from Marin, I knew I could just make the 6pm closing. Dim lighting with the perfect amount of LED holiday flare was an inviting welcome into the intimate tasting space.
A warm and friendly host poured my glasses and gave me a brief low down of the wineries history. Not your typical Bordeaux Burgundy varieties here, be prepared for an artistic sampling of grapes from the Rhone appellation!
Pay the $ 10 tasting fee or waive that and come home with a bottle to share with friends!

Went to an awesome wine tasting here a few weeks ago. Beautiful summer afternoon in Berkeley. Free tasting, but you have to pay for $ 5 tickets for a pour. Not a bad deal by any means. They pulled up a food truck and had other snacks for sale. There was even a live band, even if it was kind of a hippy noodling jam band. Ah, Berkeley.

Had a tasting at Jardinière’s on April 8 with my cheesemonger dude in tow. Donkey and Goat has broke the Chardonnay curse. Really, every wine we sampled was great.
Nice, nerdy wine-​makers too! We enjoyed talking wine and cheese in between great Jardinière courses — perfectly paired with Donkey and Goat wine!

The great visit to their 5^th Street Tasting Room began even before we got there, when I emailed the winery two days before to ask about a largish party of us six visiting and if any special arrangements needed to be made. Tracey, one of the winemakers, quickly emailed me back and CCed the staff person who was working that day to alert her. Tracey said, «Nothing else is needed except for you to enjoy the wine.» Thanks, Tracey– what a nice way to feel welcome!
The tasting room is very comfortable and the woman who was working that day was great: super knowledgeable and very patient with our slowly moving party.
The wines are pretty unusual: they use a bunch of natural techniques (See here: don​keyand​goat​.com/​o​u​r​-​story) and all Northern California grapes– perfect for an progressive East Bay Winery!
Unfortunately, there bocce ball court wasn’t open, but I guess that means we have to go back, soon.

I had a tasting of the 2012 Chardonnay Lily’s Cuvée Anderson Valley Sparkling Wine last night. Wow was the good. Sweet with a hint of bubbles. Yum

A nice find of a local winery in the Berkeley area. Their hours are later in the day from 2 – 6 which makes for a nice afternoon stop in. The wines themselves are good, different than much of whats being done in Napa/​Sonoma.
The atmosphere of the place feels hidden away well once you’re inside, feeling more like a cellar room than a place just off the street in Berkeley. Their wines are made more in a Rhone style so they’re softer and lighter than many which you would find up in Wine country.

Nice tasting room down below Picante in Berkeley. Taste 4 – 5 wines for 10 bucks, or spend $ 30/​person on wine.
We had the Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Noir, 513, and a Syrah. I wasn’t actually a fan of the Grenache wines (though I am not a big fan of Grenache in general), but I enjoyed the Syrah and 513. The Grenache wines were a bit minerally for me.
Pros: Really nice pourers, the wines are biodynamic, and they have free saltines you can munch on. Also, it’s a nice break from Pinot Noirs (which I’m used to tasting around here). The wine will really remind you of «French» wine, more than «California» wine.
Cons: They had so many other wines they were selling, especially ones from the Anderson Valley & Mendocino ridge (which I was really excited to try) but they only poured the Dorado ones. I just wish they had poured at least one wine from a different region.
I think they change their wines often, so you could probably go back and try 4 different wines pretty regularly.
All in all, a sweet little spot — I’m glad biodynamic places like Donkey & Goat exist!

Grenache Blanc. Yes effin please.
I’ve been travelling the road of blends lately and have happily stumbled upon the Grenache Blanc at the YEE recently.
After tasting 4 of their varietals, this one stood out for me. I bought a bottle, pleased and anxiously trying to figure out when I’d sip my way through it.
Inside, it’s comfortable and not intimidating as most bigger wineries can be.
The life of the urban winery is thriving and I’m glad Donkey & Goat is among the best.

Who knew that Berkeley had so many hidden places to discover? As soon as we hit the neighborhood there were signs for wine tasting and we stopped in.
We were there for a Unilocal event, but I was happy to know that you can find some local wines closer to home than Napa. The tiny little winery was cute, but the wine sampling was great.
They offer great deals on wine and cases, so you can stock up to enjoy with friends. Sharing is caring!

These folks were kind enough to host a YEE today — a beautiful, breezy, sunny Sunday by the Bay. As others have mentioned, the wine is grown and created using naturally-​based materials and techniques, resulting in some intriguing reds. Chatty owner described the process, a bit techie but enlightening. We’ll be back when it’s not as filled with like-​minded Unilocalers as today.

Interesting local winery that gets most of it’s grapes from Mendocino and North Coast.
Very much enjoyed the small taste of Grenache Blanc today. Granache Noir was a bit sharp… maybe needed to open up a bit.
Thanks for hosting a fun YEE event!