Solomon Wine Tasting Room

Good, affordable, drinkable wines. I’m a big fan of their Genie, a white blend. They also do a light red blend called Mingle (perfect for making mulled wine from too). Unfortunately, today is their last day in this location; their main tasting room is in Clarksburg (just south of Sac) so they’re just going to be operating out of there from now on.

I was also there for the ladies’ weekend kick off tasting and I absolutely loved this place. I’m so glad we ended up here. Our wine dispenser (I think John is correct) was so personable and if he was put out by having a large crowd of women show up he didn’t show it at all. The wine glass markers were especially clever. I bought my friend a «Wasted» wine charm for $ 3 or $ 4 and was quite amused with all the other adjectives. The only sour note was when two angry looking women came in, seemed pretty upset that there was no space at the packed bar (even when space was made for them), complained that service was slow to John (1 man for about 14 people? Shut the F up and be patient you idiots), then walked out claiming they didn’t have to pay for their tasting because the price wasn’t listed anywhere (there is a sign outside the front door so apparently the fat, ugly, hags can’t read in addition to being a drain on happiness-​big surprise). When one of our party called out that they should leave a tip if they weren’t going to pay for their tastings the uglier one shouted a charming expletive about «F-​ing oneself» which I’m guessing is her only way of getting anyone to associate her fat load with any sort of sexual reference. John handled the whole event with much dignity, further proving our collective love for him. The wine was great, the bar was large and well designed and the charms were you guessed it… charming! Yay for Solomon Wine Tasting Room!

We recently kicked off a girls’ weekend with wine tasting here.
We initially picked this tasting room because:
1. It was near where we parked.
2. It was open after 5:00 pm on a Friday.
3. It was spacious enough to hold our group of nine boisterous women.
4. It was only $ 3 for a tasting. (no tasting fee charge if you make a purchase)
The man working there (John?) was fantastic. As we marched our way in, he greeted us with a smile and kept the wine flowing. He didn’t rush us through the tasting although I have a feeling we kept them open later than scheduled. The wine was all really delicious and I liked the creative names. Prices range from ~$ 15 to $ 50+ so they have something for everyone.
This was a great start to our weekend and I would definitely return. If you ever find yourself in Murphys (the Queen of the Sierra!
), you should stop by too.

TRY THE MINGLE AND THE CIRCUS… I think it was the circus or a fruity white that was similar. Grrrreat wine wonderful tasting room.
They were having a sale on their wine and did the mid teens to $ 60 a bottle range.

Wrote a review on this winery on their Modesto address. Said it all there but will again say that their Cloud 9 is some of the best Red Wine around.

My favorite tasting room in Murphys by far! The gentleman who helped us was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. I kinda felt like I was on Sideways. I enjoyed many of the wines we tasted (for free!) and we ended up buying a bottle from the Garsa label. Go here!

So close between a four-​star and five-​star review, but I wanted my favorite Murphys winery (Twisted Oak) to stand out, so Solomon gets four. I know we will all cheer the day Unilocal lets us do ½ stars! Moving on …
Solomon’s tasting room downtown Murphys is very nice. Spacious but not empty-​feeling. The woman who poured the wine for us was ridiculously nice, very knowledgeable and friendly. The wines were good. I didn’t buy any, but two of my friends did. The designs on the wine bottles are creative, colorful and whimsical. Some of the bottles are even in the shape of bowling pins.
They have some fabulous olive oil tasting here, too. If you go, definitely try the one described as «rich and buttery.» Mmm … how can you not like that? Unfortunately, it was $ 24 for a not-​so-​big bottle, so I just tasted and savored.
Definitely worth a look-​see when in Murphys.

Note that my star review is based exclusively on the experience, the atmosphere, and knowledge of the people at the tasting room. I’ll give my opinion of the wine, but what I think is great, you might think is crap (and vice versa).
The wine tasting room is large and spacious, and there are multiple servers all of whom appear to be reading off a script — as opposed to, say, Hatcher, where everything is pretty free form — but the result is a coherent presentation that explains their different wines, their approach to making their various wines, and they even have little morsels to go with some of the wines to more vividly illustrate how the wine pairs with a given flavor/​ingredient.
The wine itself is a mixed bag, with some being very good, and other being «eh», at best. Solomon actually produces wine under 3 different labels: Muse, Garsa, and Cloud 9; and I ended up liking one from each label: the 2005 «Genie» (Muse), NV «Portrait» (Garsa), and the 2001 «Composition» (Cloud 9).