Scoop: Lucchesi Winery plans to expand in downtown Grass Valley

We noticed Lucchesi Winery had placed a new sign in the window at 128 Mill Street this afternoon — formerly the Grass Valley Wine Co.— confirming plans that it plans to expand on Mill Street.

The sign, an application to open a tasting room there, was drawing the attention of onlookers.

For years, Lucchesi had a much smaller tasting room at the corner of Mill and Neal streets, next to the Del Oro Theatre. Now it’s planning to relocate to a much larger space, a restored Gold Rush-era building, pending routine regulatory approval.

We predict it’s going to be before Thanksgiving.

Lucchesi’s vines grow on 20 acres of steeply terraced terrain called the “View Forever Vineyard” in Nevada County. We are particularly fond of their Sauvignon Blanc.

Owners Mario and Linda Clough are affable and knowledgeable owners. You’re likely to see Linda in the downtown tasting room.

Lucchesi was the first winery we ever visited in the county many years ago: It was a wonderful outdoor event with good food and wine, and music. Their wines are frequent award winners.

Rumor of Lucchesi’s expansion has been floating around, so we had checked with Matt Seck, of the state ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) in Sacramento, the other day about the process. Seck said such an ownership transfer normally is 45-60 days from when a sign appears in the window.

We’re hoping it will be sooner, since this space already was a wine tasting room and Lucchesi had the same business just down the street. We expect Lucchesi to hold some fun food, wine and art events at the new space.

Our mission is to provide all the food, wine, art & beer news in the region first (and we often do), but we also had more pragmatic concerns this time around: Making sure the Grass Valley Wine Walk Map in our October-December print issue was current for holiday visitors to the historic downtown.

We also hear that Artists’ Studio in the Foothills will continue to show local art exhibits at the new Lucchesi tasting room, just as it did when it was the Grass Valley Wine Co.

We’re going to promote all of this in our upcoming issue, as well as on our companion website, SierraCulture.com, promoted at SacBee.com.

As reported, the Grass Valley Wine Co. closed their tasting room and wine sales location on Mill Street at the end of August, as the partners — Pilot Peak, Bent Metal and Solune — decided to shift their focus. They also are represented at a new Visitors Center downtown, run by the Grass Valley Chamber of Commerce.

We’ve also heard plans are afoot to sell unopened bottles of local wine at the Visitors Center, though a special license would be required. And there are visions of jeep tours to the wineries. But that’s for another day.

FALL ISSUE

Our upcoming issue is full of information about the region’s wineries, including the harvest, new events in October, more wineries being open year-round, barrel tasting and wine tours (in vehicles, motorcycles, RVs — and jeeps). We’re upping the press run for the holidays, with distribution to Sacramento, Reno, the foothills, Chico and Marysville.

We’ll also do some targeted drops in the Bay Area, for families and couples planning to vacation in the foothills. (Think ski shops, wine shops, California Welcome Centers and more). We’ll be promoting the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City and Grass Valley, and this is another reason for expanded distribution.

If it’s news, you’ll read about it on our blog in real-time. In addition, all magazine articles are archived on our website.