Lusu Cellars

Cute little spot and delicious, unique wine! The winemaker poured our tasting and was very friendly and knowledgeable. Dog-friendly and relaxed!

A small winery, with a cozy tasting experience. This spot is cool because you get to sit where the wine is made and interact directly with the owner who makes the wine himself. All the wines were delightful and would be worthwhile visiting for again :)

You'll love it here! Lusu Cellars is a small and intimate space to sip on great wine. Our highlight was definitely the personalized attention. We really enjoyed our conversation with the owner, David, and learned a lot about his work in the industry. The fact that he's passionate about what he does adds a lot to the customer experience. He was very attentive with everybody and even welcomed in one couple that came in near closing.We sat on their little patio for a bit and it was very relaxing and peaceful. I love the wall vines around the building. Definitely recommend a visit!

Z. and I were treated to two whites, three reds by the winemaker, David, himself! The Lusu Cellars business has been self-funded for 12 years, and has explored a variety of wines over the years. David is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about winemaking, and we gladly listened as he guided us through various wines that are historical or explorations in viniculture and winemaking. While his Zinfandel, pinot grigio, and a sparkling red (can't remember the varietal) can be found at Berkeley Bowl, the wines he serves at his tasting room are his smaller-batch creative creations. So if you enjoy Lusu, you can get a chance to see more of his intimate work at the tasting room. Here are some of the highlights from our experience: 1. Skin-on sauvignon blanc: aka orange wine! This was cool to learn. Apparently pinot grigio and gewurztraminer are both red-skinned grapes, and it's only by slowly pressing these grapes that the wines are clear/white. If you press it normally, with skin on, you get orange wine. This evidently adds a little sourness, and Z., who loves sour beers, really liked this one. It almost just tastes like a sour beer. We gladly bought this one. 2. Mission varietal, chilled red: we bought this one too. A bit of history we learned: Mission grapes were brought by the Spaniards during their mission trips, and most of them were actually grown in the Canary islands, possibly because those islands were a good stopping point by ship. Nowadays Mission grapes are not nearly as popular, so this wine is a historical nod to the early days of California. This one is very easy drinking, good for a summer day when you are thinking rosé but want a little more savoriness. 3. Carignan: grape from Contra Costa. Lovely mouthy red to finish off the tasting. Clearly David can deal with all kinds of wines, from the lightest fumé sauvignon blanc to the bold Zinfandels and carignans. We also enjoyed David's blend of pinot blanc, pinot gris, and pinot noir (60%), which is an ode to his Portuguese roots. We had a great time getting treated to front-row seats of the thought process of a winemaker! We will be recommending this place for anyone who wants to drink nice wine and learn more about winemaking.

Friends invited us to a join them for wine tasting here and I'm so glad that we said yes! We found parking right across the street. Lusu proved to be the perfect place to spend a rainy day Saturday afternoon. They were having a small event, complete with cheese and meat platters and other snacks to accompany tastings.The owner, Davide, was super nice and obviously cares a lot about his wine and his business. Portugese-inspired wines, we enjoyed a bubbly rosé, viognier, zin, tempranillo/cab blend, and a madera. (There may have been one other that I'm forgetting.) We left with bottles of the zin and tempranillo/cab blend. Wines are all in the $20-$30 price range.We thoroughly enjoyed our time here, and with a few other wine tasting spots within a block, this has turned into quite the destination for tasting, snacks, and good times with friends.

I second (actually, tenth) the recommendation for Lusu Cellars. I stopped by last Saturday for an open house that included the possibility of buying tap wines (a rosé and a house red) that would be squirted directly into customer-supplied vessels (growlers and old wine bottles, mainly). I tasted the tap wines and then moved on to the five or six wines in bottles that were available for purchase. I ended up buying one bottle each of two different reds.I'm sure that David is very proud of his wines. He has every right to be.

My cousin who came from out of town got us a groupon for a tasting and even though it wasn't valid that day, they made an exception for us, which was very much appreciated! We had gone tasting to a couple of places nearby beforehand but this place was my favorite of the day. I ended up purchasing the Methode Ancentral Sparkling Rose which is yummy sweet. It was the first thing we tasted, not on the list that day, but highly recommended! Super friendly and a cozy little place.

So we came out to Berkeley to use up our Groupons. Unfortunately we weren't allowed in this place (actually, the guy at the door initially acted like he had no idea where Lusu was- until I pointed out it was painted on the wall he was sitting in front of.)Since there was an event we could not try the wines. As this was our day in Berkeley, we're not going back just for this one. I'll try to get my money back on the deal, but it was a bummer of an inexperience in an otherwise stellar day.

Lovely tucked away winery. The maker was very knowledgeable and kind. Would recommend!

A "man on a mission." Words often spoken, but seldom realized. Lusu Cellars is the public face of a soft-spoken man on a mission to honor family heritage while also forging new ground in the world of California wine. David T., the winemaker at Lusu, occupies a small urban winery in Berkeley first used by Steve Edmunds (of Edmunds St. John) and then Chris Brockway (of Broc Cellars), and formerly shared with ENO wines. It's a bit like a college dorm room at some elite liberal arts college, with the vine-covered exterior walls and idiosyncratic interior to match. In a few months, Lusu will get another winemaking roommate, from the Sonoma coast, who will also make and pour wines at their shared tasting room space inside the winery, right among the barrels, fermenting vats, hoses, and assorted gear needed to make small-batch, artisan wines. In the case of Lusu, the wines are made using feral yeast strains naturally present on the grapes, which are sourced from family-owned, dry-farmed vineyards in the Sierra Foothills near the town of Fairplay (El Dorado County), or from locations east of Lodi, where good grapes at affordable prices are available. Lusu's tiny production of under 1000 cases means that the winemaker has to work other jobs in the industry to help underwrite his efforts, which yield extremely inviting, elegant wines that will appeal to those interested in locally sourced wines made in low tech styles, without elaborate manipulation in the cellar room or wine lab. You can sample Lusu's variable lineup on weekends only. Given the small scale nature of the operation, it's probably sound advice to email David ahead of time to confirm that someone will be there to oversee the tasting, which has a nominal fee waived with bottle purchase. There isn't a huge range here, but what there is, you might really like. The Roussanne-Viognier white blend is a very delicate, nuanced wine without the intense colors and aromas of many California white Rhone blends. It's extremely quaffable on its own or with light foods and fish dishes. Lusu's Zinfandels are aromatic and full of red fruit and moderate alcohol with a good acid balance and very mild tannins, and additions of Carignane give them a bit more color and black fruit depth. A "Farmer's Hand" red blend, dedicated to family who worked the land, varies from year to year, but the current vintage is made up of Petit Verdot, Cabernet, and Merlot and is quite attractive, but not in a bombshell sort of way. The El Dorado vineyards that provide the grapes are fairly high in elevation (2000-3000 feet), and they are cooler than Sierra Foothills growing regions in Amador and Calaveras Counties, so they don't get as super ripe and bold as those appellations. Lusu's approach is geared more to making wines that harken back to the Portuguese-American traditions of an earlier generation, where wines were made for everyday meals using on-hand ingredients like root vegetables, garlic, kale, beans, cheese, and stewed meats. Given the family connection to Madiera, Lusu also offers a port-style late harvest Zinfandel, which is fortified to 17% with the addition of brandy. It's barrel aged for 3 years in neutral oak before release and sells, like many other wines here, for around $22 a bottle (375ml in this case). Of course, by the time you read this review, things will likely have changed. Some wines will be sold out, while others will be coming on-line. Lusu can't outbid its deeper pocketed neighbors like Broc or Donkey & Goat for prized grapes from Sonoma, Napa, or the Santa Lucia Highlands, but more than makes up for this by creative cellar practices designed to make wines that both Portuguese grandparents as well as East Bay millennials would like - all the while supporting a personal mission to "infuse old world minimalist techniques with heritage California varietals sourced from family-owned, sustainable, and dry farmed vineyards." If you can't succeed with this noble (but hopefully not Quixotic) mission in an urban wine ghetto like Berkley's ... then where can you? Cast your vote today! Come to Lusu Cellars and support David's mission. It may not put your preferred candidate in the White House, but it will yield some really cool wines for storage in your cellar. Or for chilling in your dorm room mini-fridge. Or a wine for gifting to friends at your next BBQ or wine and cheese dinner party. Any way you play it, you (and Lusu) will win!