Black Sheep Winery

Black Sheep Winery pours its wine in a converted Flying-A gas station on Main Street in Murphys, Friday through Sunday, eleven to five. The Calaveras Visitors Bureau places it near Alchemy Restaurant at the western end of town. A visitor from San Francisco, in a review the winery reprints, called it a “fun tasting room at one end of Main Street.” She started there and worked her way down the street over the course of the day. The Calaveras Winegrape Alliance lists Milliaire Winery at the same number, 276 Main Street, also in a refurbished gas station, with a patio alongside Murphys Creek where visitors can picnic. Inside Black Sheep stands an antique wooden wine press, kept on display, and it is older in the winery’s service than the station.

Semillon, Cinsault, and a 2026 Merlot

The pour runs from Semillon, Chardonnay and Cinsault through Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to Fortissimo, a Port-style dessert wine. The winery describes its 2023 Chardonnay as lightly oaked, with a delicate apple character. Its 2022 Calaveras County Semillon is “crisp and refreshing” in its own notes, with a touch of citrus on the nose and a finish of pear. A listing with the Wine Institute adds Sauvignon Blanc and a second label, True Frogs Lily Pad Wines.

Production is about 2,500 cases a year, all from grapes grown in Calaveras and Amador Counties. Zinfandels and Rhône varietals are the specialty. The winery says it introduced Rhône varietals to the Calaveras County foothills. A reviewer from Waukon, Iowa, wrote that the staff is friendly and the place is dog friendly, and that Black Sheep bottles also turn up on grocery store shelves.

The winery’s award list for 2026 names a gold medal for the 2023 Calaveras Zinfandel at both the Orange County Fair and the San Joaquin Wine Competition. It also names a double gold for the 2023 Merlot at the California State Fair, a double gold for a Red Blend at the Sierra Foothills Wine Competition, and a gold for the same blend at the Amador County Fair. The 2022 Amador Zinfandel took gold at the Orange County Fair in 2025.

The medals go back further. On August 5, 2002, the Calaveras Enterprise ran a photograph by Craig Koscho of Dave and Jan Olson holding the gold medals won by Black Sheep’s Semillon in state fair judging. In February 2010 the paper reported a double gold for the 2008 Dusty Lane Cinsault at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Judging, which concluded January 8 in Sonoma County. A double gold, the paper explained, is given when the judging panel votes unanimously for gold.

Unsold grapes in late October 1984

Black Sheep arrived in Murphys with the 1984 harvest, and it arrived late. By the winery’s account, it was late October and most of the grapes were already picked when an Amador County grower called with unsold Zinfandel and asked whether they wanted it. “From that moment we were off and running,” the winery’s history says.

They had fruit but no winery. The owner of Chispa Cellars offered to let them make the wine at his place. They crushed with a small gasoline-powered Zambelli crusher and pressed on the antique wooden press that now stands in the tasting room. The history calls it “our humble beginning: using homeless grapes and borrowed equipment thanks to the kindness of friends.”

That first wine was the 1984 Amador Zinfandel, made in a big, bold style that, the winery says, nobody else did. It also gave the place its name: “That’s what makes us Black Sheep; we’re different from the rest of the flock.” The Calaveras Heritage Council writes that Zinfandel’s potential as a fine table wine was discovered in the 1960s from the California foothills, primarily in Amador County. The winery’s own page now counts a 42nd harvest.

The barn at the end of Main Street

Chispa Cellars stood in what the winery calls the old Snyder barn at the end of Murphys’ Main Street. Black Sheep’s history says Chispa was the first winery licensed and bonded in Calaveras County since the end of Prohibition. The Calaveras Winegrape Alliance gives the date as 1976 and calls it the first new winery bonded in 40 years. By the Alliance’s account, Bob Bliss ran it with his partner, Jim Riggs. The Alliance traces the true beginning of modern winemaking in the county to Barden Stevenot, who bought the Shaw Ranch on San Domingo Creek in the late 1960s. Wine itself goes back much further. In 1869 John Heinsdorff of Murphys took the State Fair’s first award for the best red wine.

The Alliance says the barn is now home to Val du Vino Winery, which it lists at 634 French Gulch Road. In May 2005 the Enterprise listed Black Sheep at that same address, at French Gulch Road and Murphys Grade Road, open Saturday and Sunday from noon to five and on weekdays by appointment. In the same listing, Milliaire Winery was already pouring daily at 276 Main Street. The Alliance names Steve and Liz Millier as the people behind both Black Sheep and Milliaire. It also records that they bought Chispa Cellars and moved it to the other side of town.