Donkey & Goat is celebrated for being amongst a handful of pioneers in the Natural Wine community because in 2004 we were unique for our ecological principles driving decisions in both the vineyard and the cellar and ten years later for promoting transparency, being one of the first to list ingredients on our label. Founding winemakers Tracey Rogers Brandt (me) & Jared Brandt (business partner & estranged husband) spent a year with the inimitable Eric Texier in 2002, studying the art of crafting natural wines in the Rhone Valley before co-founding Donkey & Goat in 2004 in San Francisco.

I  also co-founded Crushpad, at 1890 Bryant Street, which provided Donkey & Goat a launchpad with absolute winemaking control (imagine a custom crush facility in 2004 supporting natural wines?!). This was crucial as it allowed us to begin without investors, who might have driven a more popular approach to winemaking and chasing Parker scores was at odds with making food friendly, high acid, low ABV natural wines. Over the next 19 years Donkey & Goat was among the first to make & name skin-contact or orange wines (Stone Crusher 2009), sparkling Pétillant-Naturel Wines (Lily’s Pet Nat 2011), and chillable red wines (Twinkle 2015).

In 2006, with distribution around the U.S. and a growing mailing list, I led the build out of my second facility, the first was Crushpad two years earlier with Tom Leaf teaching me. I moved us to 2323-B 4th Street in Berkeley, where we made wine and hosted private tastings and release parties. Five years later, in January 2011, my over sensitized olfactory from being six months pregnant, declared a CODE RED emergency at our facility due to an illegal food making operation next door who failed to install any ventilation or obtain a health permit.

On Martin Luther King Jr.  Day 2011, I walked into our winery and nearly collapsed from the overwhelming aroma of onion from next door. In record time and with completely unreasonable requirements (Berkeley, street front, outside space, big trucks, etc.), Scott Robinson from Robinson Real Estate, helps me sign a 10 year lease at the newly redeveloped, and largely vacant 750 Gilman project that Orton Development had recently completed. By March I had a new baby girl and a new lease for 1340 & 1330 5th Street. I managed the extensive build out at the new facility and the moving of a winery. The 1.4 mile distance between the two locations is just far enough to be enormously painful, since winery toys are big, heavy and often filled with wine. I managed the move, the build out, the regular operations and I was ready to harvest by August 2011 AND opened our first Tasting Room, with two daughters who were 6 and 4 months.  Yet I believed, FOR YEARS, that I “stole his dream.”

Three years later, in 2014, I  ignored my business partner’s objections and took advantage of the opportunity to expand into the adjacent 1700 square feet to our North, 1320 5th Street. This allowed us to move our office out of the cellar, and obtain extra storage space which, both supported the growth achieved during the following nine years under my leadership.  Lily turns thirteen this month and Donkey & Goat has now anchored, the Gilman Wine Block for thirteen years.  Today the block includes three additional wineries that I personally recruited to join the block: Broc Cellars (2013), Hammerling Wines (2018) and Vinca Minor (2019).  If you have not visited the Gilman Wine Block lately, I whole heartedly hope you will, including my legacy, Donkey & Goat Winery & Tasting Room.