A new boutique wine shop and bottle bar, with a focus on female producers is set to bring a taste of California to Crookes when it opens later this week.
Tenaya Wine has transformed a former charity book shop on Crookes High Street into a stylish bottle shop and drinking space inspired by owners and friends, Sarah Hatton and Virginia Myers’ love of wine and the West Coast of America.
Tenaya Wines’ owners Sarah Hatton and Virginia Myers
Virginia explained: “It’s inspired by places in California where you can sit and have a really casual, relaxed drink, but with really good, honest service.”
“We both just really love California. We love the vibe and we love the produce. The people are so relaxed, open and friendly, so I think we’re just wanting to bring a bit of that lifestyle over here.”
“It’s something very different for Sheffield.”
Sarah added: “I think Sheffield’s probably a good city for it because it’s quite a friendly city. I think it all kind of clicks together.”
Between them, the pair have over 20-years-experience in the wine industry, giving them a vast amount of knowledge, not to mention qualifications (both having qualifications from WSUT, the Wine and Spirits Education Trust) when it comes to the best way to enjoy fruit.
Their friendship was formed whilst working together at popular Sheffield wine shop Starmore Boss, where Sarah, who is also a designer creating knitting patterns (ask your nan), worked for eight years.
Prior to meeting Sarah, Virginia had a stint running her own independent wine shop in Winchester, before moving to California and becoming a wine maker for an independent urban winery in San Francisco.
The name Tenaya is a nod that part of the world and comes from the idyllic Tenaya canyon, creek and lake in Yosemite Valley, California. As you might expect, the shop will offer lots of Californian choices, and Virginia feels confident there will be more than any shop in the UK, but also wines from around the world, and even a few from little old Blighty.
Wines will be available to drink-in by the glass and there will be a small menu of a couple of reds, a couple of whites and an orange, rose or fizz, but you will also be able to buy any bottle from the shop and drink that in for a small amount of corkage.
They are also working with Porter Brook Deli to offer a deli range which will allow you to build your own cheese and savoury picnic boards. This is another nod to Californian wine culture and can be enjoyed at the table with cutlery and plates provided.
The vast selection of wines will cover all price points and will also focus on female produced wines and sustainable brands. They want Tenaya to be an accessible, inclusive and fun destination.
Sarah said: “We want people to feel welcome and not to feel intimidated by the wine. I think a lot of wine bars can feel like quite dark, scary spaces, where if you don’t know what something means, you shouldn’t even go in.
“We want people to come in and be like, I know nothing about wine, apart from I like this certain wine, so we can be like, if you like that why don’t you try this? Just to help people have a good experience, that’s what we want more than anything.”
Virginia added: “We want to be accessible because over the years, working in wine, we’ve had quite a lot of sexist experiences as a lot of like middle aged white men who think that they’re the only people who can know about wine can be really intimidating and feel quite old fashioned.
“We want it to feel modern, fresh and easy to be relaxed in. Just a nice place to be.”
Sarah added: “No wine-splaining!”
Tenaya is set to open in the former Fable charity shop in on Friday August 5, 2022 with the bar expected to open two weeks later. Initial shop opening hours will be Tuesday to Saturday, 11am-7pm. For more info, head over to their socials here.
