We are the twoooo amigos! Okay so maybe this hidden gem of a winery is not named after one of my…read morefavorite comedy motion pictures of the 1980s...but what they are is an intriguing winery that focuses on the customer, especially their members. Located in the winding hills high above Glen Ellen in the heart of Sonoma's wine country, the namesake comes from two friends and partners Bob Briner and Squire Fridell. What makes the wines at Two Amigos Winery so unique is that the tastings they offer are done by appointment only as they give a tour of their entire estate and wine production facility and their tastings after their tour are complementary to visitors. Bob and Squire have known each other for almost six decades after being roommates in college. Two Amigos Winery is actually two wineries in one as their sister winery is known as GlenLyon Vineyards & Winery, where at one point all of the grapes they have grown on their estate were all outsourced to other wineries. After being unable to obtain a permit to make more wine of their own, they opted to obtain a permit to create a second winery with its own signature label. At Two Amigos, they make no fewer than nine wines, and through our guided tour from managing partner Bob himself, we learned that as a smaller winery they host a number of unique aspects from having all of their own equipment on site, including open air fermentation tanks so their wine ferments naturally with no yeast. This process may take a while longer for their wine to mature, but thanks to this process it not only picks up a nice color with a strong fruit-forward bouquet. After touring their laboratory and cellar that hosts their French oak wine barrels, we then followed Bob and his adorable dogs Theo and Stella up to their main house where they host their annual springtime pick up party for their members for an extraordinary tasting of no fewer than seven wines.
Upon walking into their gorgeous estate home, we learned that all of their wines are crafted by a clown, a real one in fact as Squire is a retired actor and former pitchman who served as none other than Ronald McDonald himself in numerous commercials in the 80s and 90s. With a fun look at all of the memorabilia that he has collected as an actor over the decades and a truly remarkable hillside views of their vineyards that were not yet in bloom, but thanks to the abundance of water being stored and managed, it would only be a matter of weeks, before we were blooming. We headed to their shaded deck for our tasting, which began with their 2022 Vino Rosato, which is their appetizer wine, and on the slightly drier side but had a nice grapefruit finish. From there, Bob poured us one of my favorite wines of our tasting, their Viognier was a nicely chilled afternoon wine that had a real subtle taste to it, when paired with spicy cuisine could only add to the umami of your overall meal. For our third pour we enjoyed their non-okay and non-buttery Chardonnay, which was a real change of pace versus your traditional Chardonnays. With hints of green apples, we learned that this originated as a cool climate grape from the Parmalee-Hill Vineyards where Two Amigos also sources their grapes that produce their Pinot Noirs.
Bob then had us delve into their red wines, including their signature Pinot Noir, which among all the wines, Bob taught us to swirl the wine in the glass by putting our hands over the top of the glass thereby locking in the bouquet and then when you are able to smell it, it completely changes the profile of the wine. When paired with generous amounts of cheese, this wine along with the next two red wines that we sampled, their Tirare il Dito and their Syrah, both grown on their estate. Tirare il Dito literally means "pull my finger" in Italian and exemplifies the humorous ways that the two amigos approach their wines. This wine was the only blend they source here at Two Amigos and was a highlight of our tasting. To finish our complimentary tasting, we enjoyed their Wee Moor Port wine, which was paired with Toblerone chocolate and was one of the sweetest wines one could enjoy. After ninety minutes of this extraordinary tour and tasting we realized that purchasing wine on the spot wasn't available if we weren't a club member. Not needing that much wine was our only regret as we weren't allowed to purchase any bottles of wine on this visit, as their Tirare il Dito and Wee Moor Port were real winners. But what we did get out of our experience at Two Amigos was a wonderful tutorial in how fine exclusive wine is crafted high in the hills of Sonoma, both Bob and Squire have achieved their goal of simply sharing their passion with appreciative visitors to Two Amigos Winery who love to sample new wines and take it all in, and at Two Amigos you will truly feel like a new best friend.
