Joe and Norma Ramazzotti founded their family label in 2002, drawing on years of growing grapes across Dry Creek and Alexander Valley to make handcrafted, Italian-leaning wines. The tasting room sits just off the avenue on School House Lane, a short walk from the main strip, and the welcome is famously warm. Their wines also pour inside the Locals collective downtown.

Bannister fills the restored Geyserville Vault — the early-1900s bank that once held Meeker, its antique teller cages and steel vault now part of the room — as a tasting room and rotating art gallery. The label was founded in 1989 by enologist Marty Bannister and is now run by her son, winemaker Brook Bannister, with wife Morgania behind the handmade design of the space. Order Diavola next door to the patio and stay a while.

Pech Merle — Occitan for 'cave under the hill,' after the prehistoric caves Bruce and Cheryl Lawton visited in France — is a boutique, family-run label built around a theme of romance and devotion. The upcycled-chic downtown room pours single-vineyard current releases made by veteran winemaker John Pepe, with cheese, charcuterie, or Diavola pizza alongside. Dog-friendly and certified sustainable.

Mercury is owner-winemaker Brad Beard's no-rules workshop, founded in 2009 and named for the mercury mines that once ringed the Alexander Valley. Brad often pours himself, walking guests through bold reds, cheeky blends, and one-off bottlings that tend to sell out fast. The room shares its space with Fermata Coffee, with a small patio out front.

Locals does a wine-country vacation's worth of tasting in a single room: a family-run collective on Geyserville Avenue pouring small, hard-to-find labels side by side, with knowledgeable staff and no reservation required. The lineup of artisan wineries rotates, so there's always something new to taste in parallel. And the pour is always free.