Up the hill and past the Walnut trees you spy the blue colored home of the winery that has “gone to the dogs”. Here you can taste hand made Rhone and Bordeaux varietals, and zesty Zinfandel.

On every label of Dover Canyon wines is a painting of the late great Saint Bernard, Blue. Back in 1992 the future Dover Canyon winemaker, Dan Panico, was surfing in the swells in Santa Cruz where he was knocked unconscious by his surfboard. Blue witnessed the wipeout, swam out in the waves and pulled his master to safety. The pooch later succumbed from the rigors of the rescue and is now immortalized with every bottle.

The tasting room has knotty pine walls and ceilings and a very simple wooden tasting bar. There are stainless steel fermentors out front and nice views of the Three Nut Vineyard in the back. Dover Canyon is one of the first wineries in the region to focus on small lots of vineyard-designated wines, often from very small and specific sites like Alto Pomar (Rhone’s) and Bella Vineyard (Westside Zinfandel).

Dan’s commitment to natural farming is rooted in his love for intense varietal character, and the spicy flavors that come from dry-farmed, head-trained vines and mountain grown fruit. He buys fruit only from vineyards that meet his criteria. Dan also has a small estate vineyard planted to Syrah, and head-trained, dry farmed Zinfandel. The soils are exceptionally stony, and very calcareous. Dover Canyon’s farming methods are low-impact and organic. The vineyard is also a certified national wildlife habitat.