Redefining fruit wines

November/December 2022 California Bountiful magazine

L’Apéro Les Trois brings Paris
bistro to country farm town

Story by Stacey Vreeken
Photos by Fred Greaves

Nestled in the heart of Winters, tasting lounge L’Apéro Les Trois brings a touch of Paris to the California countryside. A calm oasis in a town charmingly filled with restaurants, tasting rooms and antique and gift boutiques, L’Apéro pays homage to the surrounding orchards, groves and vineyards in every glass.

Infusing locally grown fruits—such as Blenheim apricots, Meyer lemons, quince, blood oranges, Mission figs and green walnuts—with herbs, spices, spirits and Berryessa Gap Vineyards wines, a low-alcohol apéritif is created, meant to be enjoyed before a meal or as a light afternoon repast.

These delicately flavored wines redefine fruit-based wines and the tasting experience, and are the inspiration of three women from three generations, skilled in wine, food and business.

Corinne Martinez, Berryessa Gap Vineyards co-owner and retired Microsoft executive, Berryessa Gap winemaker Nicole Salengo and award-winning cookbook author Georgeanne Brennan bring their individual skills and life experiences together to form an elegant establishment in this small town some 30 miles west of Sacramento.

But it starts in France.

The French influence

Brennan splits her time between France and the U.S., maintaining a home in the countryside of Provence, immersing herself in French culture, raising goats and pigs, cooking, making cheese and writing. Her neighbors taught her to make apéritifs infused with nuts, fruit and herbs.

“I began to see the wine explosion and new beverage explosion in California and thought maybe we could do these commercially,” Brennan says.

She contacted her friend Salengo, and together they made some experimental bottles to present to Martinez to sell alongside Berryessa Gap Vineyards wines.

“I loved the idea but didn’t think the Berryessa Gap tasting room is the right place to sell them because they are such a unique product. I think they deserve their own space, their own experience,” Martinez says.

The longtime friends teamed up to create a separate business.

“It seemed like a great way for us to bring together all our different backgrounds and passions and experiences and introduce a new compelling, unique product to market,” Martinez says.

In a building Martinez owns, just across the street from the Berryessa Gap Vineyards tasting room, the three created L’Apéro Les Trois. Les Trois stands for the three owners and apéro is French slang for apéritif, as in “opening the appetite.” It also has a second meaning in French as “a moment in time.”

“People invite someone over for l’apéro. You’re inviting someone to take a moment, a break between work or what you’re about to do next,” Martinez says. “You can experience this relaxing moment in time.”

Brennan explains: “We have a vision of Paris in the 1930s: a little glamorous, but also part of your neighborhood, part of your daily life ... small tables, but comfortable. That Paris feel meets a small agricultural farming town.”

The Winters influence

These wines connect agricultural products such as walnuts, figs and apricots, which have been farmed in the region for generations, including in Martinez’s family, with Winters’ budding reputation as a wine destination.

It’s what drew winemaker Salengo to Winters, where “you could literally just walk outside your door” to find a bounty of fruit and vegetables, like one can in France. “I’ve always wanted to do something with it, and this is that opportunity,” she says.

After almost 10 years at Berryessa Gap as lead winemaker, making these fruit wines was a new challenge.

“My favorite part is how creative you can get with it,” Salengo says, describing it as “more intense, when you involve all these other ingredients you’ve never worked with before.”

That includes specially made brandy by Patio 29 from Berryessa Gap Vineyards grapes, spices, and fruit and nuts from local orchards.

Because the wines are infused, like a tea, with the fruit and spirits, it has a long shelf life and will last a few months once opened.

“Technically it’s in the vermouth category,” Salengo says, although its alcohol level is relatively low. “We’re going for fresh fruit combined with the wine and balanced out with the acid of the botanicals and the fortification.”

Already finished wine is infused anywhere from three days to two weeks, depending on the ingredients. The solids are removed and the wine is stored in stainless steel tanks.

“It’s really similar to (cooking) over winemaking,” Salengo says.

While different selections have different blending times, all the wines are bottled at the same time in conjunction with Berryessa Gap Vineyards wines.

The perfect pairings

The rosé of zinfandel is the base for the apricot wine, its lighter profile matching the delicacy of the apricot. The Meyer lemon works with the bright acidity of sauvignon blanc, while the quince is made with chardonnay. A spicy rosé of tempranillo balances the orange and rosemary, and primitivo forms the base of the fig and green walnut wines.

Brennan was put in charge of finding just the right seasonal food pairings to match.

“We’re really inspired by the French experience,” she says.

Think fresh goat cheese, olive tapenade, bite-sized Rêve Bistro gougères (cheese puff pastries), nut spreads and even a sunflower spread with olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and a dash of Calabrian peppers to celebrate the local sunflower.

Brennan has created a pâté for the fig and walnut wines for the fall and winter holidays, but the olive tapenade remains her favorite.

“It’s the essence of Provence,” she says. “Olives, the sun, sea salt. It speaks to me of that place.”

Next on the menu will be seasonally themed dinners focused on a single apéritif, six times a year. For example, the winter dinner will focus on walnuts: the green walnut apéritif and dishes such as chicken stuffed with walnuts and a walnut tart for dessert.

The perfect setting

And the experience isn’t complete without setting the scene.

Label posters, in a naturalist style of fruit, herbs and a tiny insect blooming from a glass, adorn one wall, meticulously presented in order of tasting.

A mural of Winters stretches across the opposite wall with images important to Martinez, such as the schoolhouses her parents attended and the rootstock that propelled the family into the wine business.

Woven bistro seats, interspersed with comfy club chairs and a grand player piano create an elegant ambience.

Cookbooks by Brennan, including “Apéritif: Recipes for Simple Pleasures in the French Style,” are available for perusal and to take home, as well as a selection of vintage glassware and serving pieces.

“We keep an eye out for that vintage French feel … so you can re-create the moment at home,” Brennan says.

A mix of people come into L’Apéro: shoppers, couples, groups of friends, many of them locals who come back for a relaxing afternoon. The partners say these light, friendly wines attract people who aren’t necessarily into wines but are instead looking forward to a relaxing experience.

Les Trois—Martinez, Salengo and Brennan—have figured it out.

“We’re bringing the Paris bistro to a country farm town,” Martinez says.  

Stacey Vreeken

A taste of history

The tasting room for Berryessa Gap Vineyards is right across the street from L’Apéro Les Trois in downtown Winters. It’s a chance to taste the wines from which the apéritifs are made and experience a bit of local history.

Corinne Martinez is co-owner with her brother Dan Martinez and Santiago Moreno. Winemaker Nicole Salengo makes wines for both establishments.

The Martinez family has a long history in the area, originally growing walnuts and apricots, in addition to the grapevine rootstock they’ve supplied to wineries for decades.

The siblings began making their own wine in the early 2000s focusing on varietals such as petite sirah, malbec, tempranillo and syrah, later adding white varietals.

At first, Berryessa Gap Vineyards focused on single varietal, estate-grown grapes but as Corinne Martinez says, “We’ve been selling rootstock to vineyards all along the Highway 128 corridor … for the past 40-plus years. Why don’t we partner with some of these people?”

The Highway 128 Collection offers wines from storied regions, including Napa and Sonoma, from vineyards along the highway, all the way to the Redwood Coast. Much of the grapes are from “people who bought rootstock from Martinez orchards,” Martinez says.

They’ve also added red blends in their Legends Collection.

In addition, Martinez is working to get the region recognized as its own American Viticulture Area (AVA), known as Winters Highlands AVA for its alluvial fan soils and unique climate influenced by the lake and gap in the foothills bordering the area.