Lindsay and Greg Hamilton first met in Glasgow, Scotland, where Greg was working as a wine merchant and Lindsay was visiting from California.
Marriage, moving to Berkeley and making garage wine soon ensued. And even through terrible disasters and loss of a home, the Hamiltons’ resilience ultimately shaped what Hamilton Family Wines is today, with a new chapter involving a rebrand to Hamilton Family Wines, Kitchen, & Mercantile, including a menu featuring the Scottish favorite: Toasties.
Amber Turpin: How did you get into this work?
Greg Hamilton: My wife, Lindsay, and I started making wine in our garage in Berkeley in 2011. At that time, it was just for fun and our own consumption. In 2016, we moved to a small vineyard property in Kenwood. At that time, we felt like we had a pretty good handle on the fermentation side of wine making, but not so much the farming side. As any good winemaker will tell you, great wine starts in the vineyard, so we wanted to better understand that aspect…
Fourteen months after we moved to Sonoma, we lost our home in the 2017 wildfires, and a week or so after that we decided we were going to launch Hamilton Family Wines. As we still had our day jobs, we hired Sonoma native Jess Wade as our consultant winemaker and have worked with him ever since. We launched in June of 2019 and opened our tasting room in Kenwood in 2022.
Did you ever have an ‘aha’ moment with a certain beverage? If so, tell us about it.
Yes. I grew up in Scotland and was lucky to spend a lot of time in France. I was in my mid-teens and was with my parents on a trip to the Rhône to pick up some wine. On our second stop, which was literally in a barn with the stereotypical plank across two barrels for a counter, we tasted some wines. I believe it was in Gigondas, but it could have been Vacqueyras, and as soon as I tasted the second wine something clicked.
What is your favorite thing to drink at home?
Wine. I enjoy a cocktail, a cold beer and even an occasional Scotch, but wine is my passion.
Where do you like to go out for a drink?
I prefer to drink at home, but if I’m grabbing a drink with a friend I’ll typically head to Palooza in Kenwood. If it’s a date night with my wife, then we most frequently head to Salt & Stone in Kenwood.
If you were stuck on a desert island, what would you want to be drinking (besides fresh water)?
Seeing as it’s a desert island, I’d probably want our Rosé of Grenache … the ultimate rosé varietal, and ours is truly delicious.
Hamilton Family Wines,8860 Sonoma Hwy., Kenwood, 707.408.3090, hamilton.wine.
