June 4, 2003

Healdsburg winemaker brings a tasting room to the coast

By KIRSTEN FAIRCHILDS
SENTINEL CORRESPONDENT

If Bruce Cousins has his way, Capitola will become a wine-taster’s paradise one day.

The co-owner of the Healdsburg-based Armida Winery, Cousins believes that tasting world-class wines while relaxing alongside the Pacific Ocean makes for an unbeatable combination.

And, if a recent Saturday afternoon was any indication, both tourists and Santa Cruz County residents alike appeared to be quite taken with the idea as they lingered in Armida’s tasting room at the corner of Stockton Avenue and the Esplanade.

Open since November, the tasting room has done brisk business, Cousins said.

"I opened in the dead of winter," said the 49-year-old Cousins, who is also the winery’s general manager. "Since the day I opened, I have been paying the bills. The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive by both the locals and the tourists."

Along with his brother Steve, Cousins bought the winery in 1994 from its original owner, Bob Frugoli, who had named it after his grandmother Armida.

The Cousins have not only produced an abundance of award-winning wines since assuming ownership, but have also won awards for their on-site tasting rooms, which occupy three geodesic domes in Healdsburg, located in Sonoma County.

Bruce Cousins said every California winery that has a tasting-room license is entitled to have one off-site tasting room that must be located within the state. He wasn’t looking to open an off-site venue, but his friends, Peter and Ashley Hubback of Capitola, suggested he consider renting one of their commercial properties near the Esplanade.

It sounded like a good idea to Cousins, whose tasting room now occupies the 2,000-square-foot building at 103 Stockton Ave., alongside Ashley Fine Art, a gift store owned and managed by Ashley Hubback.

"What better thing to put on a corner in Capitola than a wine-tasting bar?" Ashley Hubback said. "Sometimes, they’re three- or four-people deep in there. My business (at Ashley Fine Art) has already doubled since (Armida) opened in November."

Managed by Carie Norton, the tasting room is open every day from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and offers tastes of six wines for $2.

Most customers are already familiar with Armida wines before they walk through the door, Norton said.

"Wine is such a huge industry now that people who go wine tasting do it almost like a hobby," said Norton, a 1995 Soquel High graduate. "We get people from all over the place in here, and it seems that everyone knows about our wine and loves our wine. It helps that our wines have won so many awards."

While Norton said all of the wines have been selling equally in the tasting room, Bruce Cousins said the winery’s best-selling wine is its Maple Vineyard Zinfandel.

Out of the 12,000 cases of wine produced in a year, Armida sells 2,000 cases of the reserve Zinfandel.

Other Armida wines have garnered attention not only for their taste, but also for their creative labeling which reflects the winery’s focus on fun.

They include "Poizin," described by Norton as the barrel-select of the Zinfandel; "Antidote," a 2001 dry Pinot Gris; and "La Femme Mystique," a Bordeaux-style blend which gives 10 percent of its proceeds to various breast-cancer programs and features a beautifully etched silhouette of a woman on its bottle.

Ensconced in Healdsburg where he lives on the winery, which he describes as a "boutique winery," Bruce Cousins said he’s received plenty of positive feedback about his Capitola venture.

"I’ve had winery personnel come in here and a few have said ‘Why didn’t I think of doing that?’" said Bruce Cousins, who signed a long-term lease with the Hubbacks. "For me, I’d like to see a couple of wineries do the same thing and turn Capitola into a wine-tasting destination.

"Tasting wine and overlooking the ocean — what a pleasant thing to do."

Contact Kirsten Fairchilds at kfairchilds@santa-cruz.com.