By Emily Cook
Rick and Elizabeth Myllenbeck’s meet cute? A California winery, of course.
The two Old Town Alexandria residents are getting back to their roots with Sonoma Cellar, which had a few days of soft service and will re-open tomorrow with Restaurant Week specials.
Though they still own a home in Sonoma County, Rick, a Navy veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, and Elizabeth, an online teacher for the Department of Defense, weren’t ready to move back West. “We both love wine. We knew we wanted to go back to California and pour wine or get involved with a winery, and we just didn’t want to retire yet. We weren’t ready for that,” Elizabeth says.
But they both wanted to be more connected to the wine scene. “We love the beauty of wine and that camaraderie and sense of community you get in a winery. It’s relaxed, it’s fun, there’s good food, and we wanted to bring that to the area. The Virginia wineries do that, but it’s a commitment to drive two hours out to a winery,” she says.
The space, built in 1810, features a wine tasting room with a 20-foot tasting table, an outdoor wine garden, a pro bono art gallery for local artists and a small gift area with wine-related gifts and Virginia- and California-made beauty and food products from Simply Pure, Gearharts Fine Chocolates, B.R. Cohn, Wine Country Chocolates, Sonoma Lavender and McEvoy Ranch.
The second floor is home to a small dining room where wine tasting classes will be hosted, with a focus on California and Virginia wine with vertical (tasting the same varietals from the same winery from different vintages) and horizontal tastings (tasting versions of the same wine with the same vintage but harvested from different appellations). Special events include Taco Tuesdays, Wednesday Pinot, dog-friendly nights in the wine garden and pick-up parties for members of Club SoCel, Sonoma Cellars’ wine club.
Executive chef Bernard Henry, who previously worked at Open Kitchen in Falls Church and was a personal chef to Leonardo DiCaprio when the star was filming in the area, offers a bistro menu featuring California craft food, such as mini Asian crab cakes; cheese from Pennyroyal Farm in Sonoma; charcuterie plates from Stachowski’s Market in Georgetown; beef carpaccio with arugula and artichoke dressing; a lamb burger; and short ribs.
As for the wines, “[that] is the fun part,” says Elizabeth. “Everything we’re doing is from an incredibly reasonably priced bottle of wine that tastes great all the way to high-end wine. We’ve tasted them; we know the winemakers; we know the wineries; we know the appellation where they come from.”
The focus on Virginia wineries includes Otium Cellars, North Gate Vineyard, DuCard Vineyards, Paradise Springs Winery, Trump Winery, Thibaut-Janisson Winery, 868 Estate Vineyards, Tarara Winery, Linden Vineyards, Jefferson Vineyards, General’s Ridge Vineyard, Blenheim Vineyards, Barren Ridge Vineyards and Ox Eye Vineyards.
“We also have Robledo Family Winery in Carneros Sonoma Valley,” Elizabeth says. “They’re going to private-bottle Sonoma Cellar wines for us. They are currently sending us samples of their wines, but we want to choose a sauvignon blanc, rosé, pinot noir or merlot and a zinfandel.” The wine labels will be be painted by local artist Jane Jordan. / Sonoma Cellar, 207 King St., Alexandria
