Welcome to Avanguardia Wines

Visit Our Tasting Room

A small (actually ultra-boutique) winery, we are the home of non-traditional blended wines, with the majority of our wines being proprietary blends, each crafted from 2-6 different grape varieties, many of which are Italian, and all of which are pretty much out of the mainstream.

Dare to be different and try us out – you won’t be disappointed! You can visit us at the Winery, five miles due west of Nevada City, or at the Tasting Room at 163 Mill Street in Grass Valley, CA.

Discover Our Wines

Avanguardia does not much use the more common varietals, like Cabernet, Zinfandel, or Chardonnay. Our flagship white wine, CRISTALLO, features a grape from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia in Eastern Europe. Our most unique red, AMPIO, combines the UC-patented cross, Carmine, with the French Mondeuse for a taste sensation that is uniquely different. Our newest blend, TRE “T”, after the three international varieties used (Teroldego, Tempranillo, and Tannat) is a wine of deep color and great substance, already recognized more than once with Gold Medals at the San Francisco Chronicle competition.

Our emphasis is always on balance, with just the right amount of alcohol, acidity, tannin or oak, avoiding contemporary trends towards excess in these areas; in some ways our wines are more like those from Europe than California.

Join the Club

For all clubs, we select and release a pack of three (3) wines each season of the year: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Wines are chosen by our winemaker from both our proprietary blends and our Varietal Select Series^TM.

Our Story

Avanguardia Wines is a family business developed by Rob and Marilyn Chrisman.

When Rob and Marilyn met in college in Los Angeles and married, they did not intend to farm. But they both rediscovered the joy of country living when Rob decided he wanted to grow grapes and make wine. In his 20’s Rob worked as a computer programmer/analyst and spent his lunch hours trolling stores for dusty treasures of old wines. He learned to appreciate traditional blends of famous European wine regions. He also discovered that delicious grapes came not only from France, but also Italy, Spain, and parts of eastern Europe.