Echo Park has a winery?!

With all this talk about beer with the Sunset Beer Company moving in and Tony Yanow’s Mohawk Brasserie, I haven’t been thinking too much about wine. But after reading yesterday about D’Augustine Vineyard on The Eastsider LA and Chicken Corner, I really want on in this grape pickin’ and wine drinkin’!

Joe and Heather D’Augustine bottled their first wine (a Syrah) in 2006, and even won a bronze medal at the California State Fair. They don’t sell their wines, but each year rely on the help of volunteer laborers consisting of family and friends to pick and sort the fruit (in 2008 they picked 500 pounds of Shiraz grapes).

Sunday was the annual grape picking and crushing, and laborers were treated to fresh oven pizza and some 2008 wine; the 2009 harvest was hampered by the Station Fire smoke.

I don’t know exactly where in Echo Park the winery is located, but I will be keeping an eye out on those hills to see if I can find it!