Central Coast winery opens tasting room in SLO County city. See inside the wine bar
A Central Coast winery has opened a vibrant local tasting room in downtown Atascadero, bringing new nightlife to the city.
Marin’s Vineyard is a family-owned wine label from southern Monterey County.
Operating out of a custom crush facility in Paso Robles, the small label produces less than 500 cases a year, featuring varietals like viognier, cabernet sauvignon and malbec.
It was established in 1999 by Brenda and Duane Wolgamott, who named the label after their daughter, Marin.
Decades later, Marin Wolgamott has inherited and transformed her family’s generational passion for wine into a vibrant tasting experience in the heart of downtown Atascadero.
Where is the new downtown Atascadero tasting room?
Wolgamott, 32, grew up harvesting grapes and working among the vines on her family’s 4-acre vineyard in Lockwood, a small town near the border of Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.
After graduating from Cal Poly’s wine and viticulture program in 2014 and traveling the world working wine harvests in Oregon, Australia and New Zealand for a few years, her parents made her head winemaker of Marin’s Vineyard.
Wolgamott moved to Atascadero in 2022 and found it the perfect place to expand their then small-scale operation. She opened the new tasting room in August.
Located at 5983 Entrada Ave., the tasting room is decorated with lush plants, an indoor bar, wall art hand-painted by Wolgamott and a cozy outdoor space with a fire pit for the evening hours.
A flight at Marin’s tasting room costs an affordable $15, with wine ranging from $10 to $15 a glass.
That’s important to Wolgamott’s plan to appeal to younger customers.
“I recognize in the industry that prices keep going up, and people are trying to figure out, how can we market to a younger generation where they may be on a tighter budget?” Wolgamott said.
The label’s best seller is its sparkling viognier, a naturally carbonated white wine made in the pétillant naturel style. The wine is known for its aromatics, with notes of stone fruit and honeysuckle, Wolgamott said.
The Stockholder’s Reserve, a 2022 viognier, is barrel fermented with a touch of butterscotch flavor. It won a double gold at the 2024 Mid-State Fair.
Some of their other popular wines include a malbec, a lighter style cabernet sauvignon with black cherry and bright red fruit characters and a petite verdot and malbec red blend named the Rancher’s Wife, after her mother.
Wolgamott designs and paints the unique water color wine labels herself, odes to her family and upbringing.
The windmill on their malbec is reminiscent of the windmills she would see everyday on the drive to school with her dad, and the red pick-up truck on the Rancher’s Wife label represents her mother’s car.
How can I visit the tasting room?
The tasting room is open every weekend, on Fridays from 2 to 7 p.m., Saturdays noon to 6 p.m. and Sundays noon to 5 p.m., with special events on choice other days of the week.
Wine lovers who want a little extra can join Marin’s Vineyard’s wine club, offering flexible options of two shipments per year.
Members can choose between a four-, six- or 12-bottle commitment with no flat fee for membership. Members can mix and match their wine shipments and earn perks like complimentary tastings that increase with their bottle commitment.
The tasting room hosts other unique events for their wine club members, like their Day of the Dead celebration at which a tarot card reader paired specific wines with a reading for guests.
The club currently has around 40 members, who can all bring a plus-one to special events.
“We really want it to be as consumer friendly as possible,” Wolgamott said. “We want people to use their wine club and, of course, enjoy the wines that they drink.”
Marin’s Vineyard also hosts two unique events for avid readers, a silent and a social book club.
The silent book club, held each Thursday, allows participants to bring their own books or borrow one from the bar’s “take a book, leave a book” bookshelf, enjoy a glass of wine or a mocktail and read together in the quiet company of others for an hour, providing a peaceful space for introverts and book lovers once a week.
The social book club focuses on specific genres each month, where members choose their own books within that theme and gather to discuss their readings. The February theme was crime and magic, Wolgamott said.
“If you love wine, we are the place,” Wolgamott said.
Wolgamott also works full-time as the head winemaker at Pacific Wine Services in Paso Robles, a custom crush facility where she not only makes wine for her own label but also manages winemaking for other clients.
She splits her time, working in Paso Robles Monday through Thursday, and dedicating Fridays and her weekends to her own tasting room in Atascadero.
In the future, Wolgamott hopes to keep growing the wine club, hosting more unique events and eventually expand into a larger downtown space, she said.
“To me, the sky is the limit,” Wolgamott said.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
