Nevada Sunset to Launch Wine Club, Host Local Winemakers Series
Nevada Sunset has spent its short existence in the spotlight, and it hasn’t always been comfortable. But Washoe County’s first urban winery is hitting its stride in 2018 with unique special events and a new wine club.
A monthly tasting series featuring local home winemakers is planned, starting February 9 at the Nevada Sunset tasting room. The inaugural tasting will feature Twin Mustang’s estate grown 2017 Frontenac Gris, 2017 Edelweiss, 2016 Marquette, and 2016 Frontenac. Each of the Twin Mustang wines has captured gold, double gold, or silver medals in competition.
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Nevada Sunset has new momentum for 2018, including a new wine club. The club has no membership fee.
Twin Mustang proprietor Jason Schultz is enthusiastic about kicking off the series.
“Anything that draws attention to the home and commercial winemaking community should be seen as positive,” he told GBN. “We need all the help we can get.”
The tastings will create public profile for local wines that can’t legally be sold, and stimulate discussion of state law that many in Nevada’s wine community view as overly restrictive.
It was Statutory changes pushed through in the final days of the 2017 legislative session that made it possible for the 4th Street winery to clear legal hurdles allowing it to open last fall. Nevada Sunset shares space with two other wineries. The cost saving arrangement, called an alternating proprietorship, had been illegal even as the three entities secured commercial space in 2016 with plans to bottle wine under separate labels for commercial consumption.
Nevada Sunset’s two collaborators are producing wine on the premises, but have not yet begun pouring. Basin and Range will bottle its first vintage later this month, and there appears to be activity in the third production area, which belongs to Great Basin Wines.
Some local winemakers with an eye on starting commercial operation believe more changes to Nevada law are needed.
Admission to the Nevada Sunset tasting series is free, but guests can make optional donations to a nonprofit selected by the featured winemakers. Jason and Debora Schultz have chosen Foundation Fighting Blindness, which devotes resources to retinitis pigmentosa. The condition runs in Debora’s family.
