Jeff Runquist Winery and Tasting Room

The wines are pretty good. I ended up getting the Muscat Canelli because I love dessert wines. When we went on a Sunday, they were having their monthly club meeting. Good thing they have a separate room for the members, or else it’ll be crowded.
Out of 4 wineries that we’ve been to, this has the best interior. They need to turn up the temperature though, it was pretty cold inside.
The lady who poured our wines wasn’t really a good conversationalist. We went as a group of college seniors (early-​mid20s) and she doesn’t know approx 70% of our questions regarding the area and their wine…
It’s nice that they have round tables and chairs outside with shade. We brought our charcuterie for picnic and they let us borrow their glasses.

This place was pretty busy when we arrived. There were two tasting bars and plenty of servers ready to pour your tasting. I’m glad that even though they were busy they did a good job of making sure everyone who walked in felt welcome.
You get a little cheese plate with your tasting which I thought was a very nice touch. I like seeing how wines taste with food. It can make the whole experience that much better! My favorite was the dessert wine which went amazingly well with the bleu cheese. Wow!

We love this winery. The owners are great. The tasting staff are very friendly. The wines are extremely good. I would put these wines up against Napa/​Sonoma wines any time. One of our two best wineries in the Foothills.

We are club members and always look forward to stopping here to taste and collect our wine! This is definitely my favorite winery in the area. Service is usually good, tho they do get busy. At some wineries we struggle to find one we like, others have several we like, but at Runquist we rarely taste something we don’t like! My favorite is the Z Zinfandel. Their Cab Franc and Touriga are also consistently phenomenal!

We were there on Saturday with a large group. The winery welcomed us and our server Lori was very accommodating. All the wines tasted great and the conversation centered around folks discussing which ones were their favorites. Almost everyone walked away with some wine. Their Zins, Barbera and even the sparkling wine are great.

My husband and I came out to Amador wine country for labor day weekend and stopped by Runquist based on good reviews we had read on Unilocal.
However, I would strongly NOT recommend this winery. Our server was extremely rude and I believe that we were age discriminated against. (We are married couple in our early 30’s).
Our server took an extremely long time pouring our wine, and give us the tiniest pours that we have ever seen. The pours were so small that we could barley get a sense of what the wine tasted like. She served us with a frown and spent most of her time ignoring us while she served a few older couples around us. (Presumably who she thought they were more worthy of her time). We noticed that she gave them much larger pours and spent time explaining the wine to them. For us, she simply said «here you go».
Our impression was that she thought that we were just there to get free wine and not actually buy anything. However, the entire reason we drove 3+ hours from San Francisco this weekend was to taste and purchase wine.
We ended up walking out. I would not recommend. Service was poor and wine was average/​below average for the region (from what we could tell from our tiny pours!)
Runquist should learn from the wineries in Napa/​Sonoma and recognize that younger people also enjoy tasting great wine and can be a good source of (repeat) business.

This was our last stop on our tasting day. Before we entered we said «the last few places have held a high standard» little did we know that we were in to meet Lorrie who was absolutely amazing. She was overly accommodating and a customer service expert. Lorrie made our experience! Thank you to whoever trained/​hired her because she made our day!

Lorrie made our day! She was friendly, knowledgable, and made our experience at the tasting room incredible! Delicious wines! Go see her!

Oh, petite sirah. You are a thing of beauty. That gorgeous deep purple color and rich flavor is something I will never tire of.
I have been coming here for years, and it’s because they make my favorite reds in Amador County. The Barbara, Petite Sirah, and Zin are all very pleasing. The only thing that I am deducting on my star count is the customer service. I’ve USUALLY had good customer service here. But the times that it’s been not-​so-​great, were actually really, really bad. Once a lady was pouring us a tasting and when we asked to try the Petite Sirah, she shrugged her shoulders and said, «Sorry we’re out,» and just walked over to pour a taste for someone else. Only to watch her pour a taste of the exact Petite Sirah I asked to try for another couple a few minutes later. When I asked someone else if I could try it, it wasn’t a problem. Oh that did not sit well with me. A couple other times the workers have made it seem like they are too busy to help you.
The membership here is quite good. Every couple of months you get a shipment which works well because it’s not expensive and the wines you get are always great. When they have the pickups, they are nicely staffed and provide a smörgåsbord of cheeses and appetizers for you to snack on.

I have to start by saying that I love many of the wines here. I especially like the Barbera and Cabernet Franc. The service, however, is less than adequate. There was a lady there (Lori ??) that gave me an attitude and made me feel unwelcome. Other than that, we did enjoy the experience.

I’ve always been a big fan of the R Barbera (which I’ve only had at restaurants), and was delighted to recently find that the Runquist winery was located just a 45 minute drive from my city!
Jeff Runquist only makes red wines save for the Muscat Canelli. I’m a huge red wine fan so that works for me, but even white drinkers will enjoy Runquist wines. I loved every single red that I tasted, the Barbera and Zin being my favorites. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked the Muscat as well, those are usually too sweet for me. I happily signed up for their wine club and am looking forward to the next visit to this winery!

First wine club I ever joined! Still happy with it! Jeff & Margie are great people & their wine is delicious!

Great wines the Barbera is awesome, actually didn’t taste a varietal we didn’t enjoy. Liked it so much we joined the wine club.

Loved it !

I was never much of a wine guy till I married a Napa gal. I fell he love with Jeff‘s reds while visiting Susan‘s Place in Sutter Creek. When they opened their tasting room it became a favorite day trip, especially when the wife’s family is visiting.
I still don’t know a lot about wine, but I know what I like. We always keep a few bottles stashed for special dinners and have taken to giving them as presents to friends who enjoy fine wines.

I have been there twice. I love this place. They have a wonderful selection of wines. It is definitely worth a stop when in Amador County. I particularly enjoyed the Vigioner blend this year.

My favorite wines from Amador.
WINE
The wines are made from grapes that aren’t grown there. The winemaker travels throughout the state to choose the grapes to make his wine with. These are the best reds that I’ve had in the county. I love big and bold reds but there’s quite a range of them starting from the really easy to drink ones.
TASTING
The tasting room is open Thurs-​Mon 11−5pm. We went on a Sunday and it was still crowded but we were promptly greeted by the friendly staff who gave us the history of the winery. The tasting comes with a small plate of bread and cheese. The only down-​side is that there’s not much of a view from the tasting room. Tastings are free though.
Good wines here. I ended up buying a few bottles!

I have to say that I LOOOOVE heading to Amador County for their wine and wineries, and we’ve carved out a couple of fab places we ALWAYS hit up when we’re there. I thought we had it all worked out, until we stumbled across this little slice of red wine heaven. If you love reds, you absolutely MUST try Runquist!
Now, I’ll admit, I’m not a big red wine fan (I know, don’t judge), but Hubby LOVES reds; the spiciness, the peppery-​ness, the bold flavors. We stepped up to the bar and were greeted by fantastic, helpful, informative staff, who knew their stuff and seemed genuinely happy to educate us first-​timers to their fare (which meant we got to sample the «wine club members only» flight… awesome!).
Perusing the impressive list of wines from which to choose, we noticed immediately it was all reds, except the dessert wine (which was fine by me because I LOVE dessert wines!). Hubby was in heaven; I was thrilled there was at least a dessert wine (which was divine with its bleu cheese pairing). Hubby had a hard time paring down his choice to just one bottle (we would have chosen more, but had just picked up our Renwood Wine Club offerings, so already had three super bottles of red to take home). Though he loved every wine offered, he settled on the 2011 Petit Verdot Danir Ranch Stanislaus County just because we don’t already have one of those varietals. If we weren’t already sitting on three bottles of Zin, he would have gone with the «Z» with the Primitivo a VERY close second.
I do drink reds, but only if they’re lighter without all the tannins. To that end, I do love a good Barbera. I love the Barbera offered by Renwood, but I do love the Barbera from Dick Cooper Vineyards right here in Amador County, offered by Runquist… absolutely delightful, Hubby said I probably would have liked the Petit Syrah being offered, but I’d already partaken in the Muscat, so couldn’t go back!
All in all, Jeff Runquist Winery impressed me no end, both their wines and their tasting room staff. Since they only offer reds, and they rotate their wines for an awesome selection every TWO months with their wine club, I think I’ll sign Hubby up for their Wine Club as a «really late Valentine’s/really early birthday» gift. He’ll love it, I hope.
Do yourself a favor and give this place a try… I’m sure you’ll love it as much as we did. I know we will be coming back often. They earned it :)

LOVE LOVE LOVE this place.
Their wines are rotated out so even for someone who is up here wine tasting quite a bit I can expect to come here and try something new.
Their Cab Franc was exquisite. I mean straight up. Perfect Red wine for summer. Of course their completely sold out now.
Probably only wine I didn’t like was a dessert wine, but then I am not a fan of that anywhere. They did pair it with some blue cheese, that was fun to see the difference before and after the cheese. But otherwise not my favorite.
Jeff’s wife was actually pouring for us, which was fun to meet and talk to her. They are really laid back and it is a fun atmosphere. Great people here and Great wine.
With that said, their tasting room is not the prettiest one around. But they just built a backroom that I believe they want to utilize more.

Our neighbor kept telling us that this was a great wine, and so we plan to include it in our trip, on a Thursday, to the area. As usual, I want to be sure to have a plan and so I check the website to verify everything, and I find out that it’s closed. So, I decide to call ahead, and Margie is willing to meet us to do a tasting on the day it’s closed. Suffice it to say, my neighbor was correct, and Margie’s willingness to open for us was appreciated.
She opened at least six bottles of wine for us, and we bought Barbera, Zinfandel, and my wife’s favorite, Petite Sarah.
We will be back, and we will be telling our friends about this place.
Margie, Thank You!