Hanson of Sonoma Tasting Room At Hanson Gallery
★★★★★ 4.5 (53)
"Handcrafted flavored vodka made with organic ingredients, festive cocktails that highlight that vodka and beautiful artwork all along a picturesque setting makes for a great tasting experience along the Sausalito waterfront. At the Hanson of Sonoma Tasting Room at Hanson Gallery (now that's a mouthful of a title) any visitor can enter to look at the extensive art collection of Hanson Gallery, which has a wide variety of artwork from around the world. But what makes this art gallery so different from all of the others that dot Bridgeway in Sausalito is they also serve highly-specialized vodka in addition to craft cocktails. A friend and I had made some plans to meet up in Marin County, and a vodka and cocktail tasting sounded like the perfect way to spend an afternoon. My friend and I had previously been to the Hanson Gallery for a special event many years before and we both promised ourselves to one day make a return visit because we both remembered how great their flavored vodkas, or as they call them here, expressions tasted. Reservations were easy to make and prepay for online. They have a number of tastings and pairings to select from, but we opted for their Hanson Vodka Tasting of 3 Expressions and a Cocktail for 30 dollars a person. They have five vodka flavors made with organic ingredients that they also sell by the bottle: Original, Cucumber, Meyer Lemon, Mandarin and Habanero. When we arrived, there were plenty of seats available for us to sit as there are two levels to the art gallery with plenty of sofas, counter areas, and even elegantly set outdoor tables in front of their front door on Bridgeway. We decided to sit right at their main bar on their first floor, so we got to see our mixologist Shannon weave her magic, as she not only explained every vodka we decided to try, she showed us how she made our handcrafted cocktails, in addition to creating a number of cocktails that other customers ordered for takeout, which thankfully has now become a major thing due to our current situation. At Hanson, they craft their vodka in their own distillery in nearby Sonoma, which is appropriate since it is wine country and their vodka is distilled from organic grapes and infused with organic ingredients to create a pure and deliciously smooth vodka that's both gluten and GMO free. Since we pre-ordered their three expressions and a cocktail tasting we were allowed to select from their five aforementioned vodkas, plus a seasonal vodka and a whiskey they craft in Sonoma and sell here in their tasting room in Sausalito. I opted for their Cucumber, Mandarin and Habanero vodkas, and although they had a vast menu of cocktails to select from, Shannon let us know they actually had a secret menu that actually had a few extra cocktails on it, one of which featured their seasonal expression, or vodka if you will, called the Prickly and Pink, which took the pink part from a cactus plant and mixed it with their seasonal Hawaiian Ginger Vodka, and Shannon added a little orange bitters direct from local purveyor Bitter Girl Bitters. My friend decided to order their Road to Hana cocktail which features their Hanson Ginger Vodka, Passionfruit, Lime and Agave, which was the cocktail that I would have ordered, had it not been for their secret menu.The Expressions, or vodkas, tasted wonderful as the flavors of all three that we tried, really rang throughout each sip we enjoyed. Their Cucumber Expression has two types of cucumber with a tiny hint of mint, while their Mandarin Expression are cuties sourced from a local farm in Sebastopol, and their Habanero has that extra kick of jalapeno every drop. The star of our afternoon was definitely their cocktails, my Prickly and Pink was made with such precision by Shannon and it was so sublime yet still festive that I felt I was sipping on a drink on the beaches of Kona, which is where Hanson's sources the ginger from which make this particular vodka. I can't wait to return many more times in the year to sample their other seasonal expressions, where they take seasonal ingredients and turn them into a special flavor of vodka, from Boysenberry in the fall to Espresso in the Winter to Grapefruit in the Summer, there isn't a season that doesn't sound divine. Enjoying my time at Hanson of Sonoma Tasting Room sipping on both cocktails and vodka shots is the only way to spend a relaxing Saturday afternoon with friends. They also serve charcuterie platters, shucked oysters and marcona almonds, of which we ordered some and noshed while we sipped away. Here they make you feel as if we were all members of their Club, of which we saw many people come in to pick up their quarterly bottle shipments, in addition to pre-mixed cocktails to-go. They're proud to be both distillers and artists at the Hanson of Sonoma Tasting Room at Hanson Gallery and at their Sausalito location, you get the best of both worlds."
"This place is a gem. Very unique and beautiful property , friendly laid back staff and some delicious one of kind tasty drinks"
"What a great find! We were randomly driving around and found this place. For now seating is outside and soon indoors will be available. The wines are organic and are from around the world. The wines here are like no other. Tyler was fantastic and introduced us to a number of unique wines.A great experience and we'll be returning soon!"
