Oddish Wine sprouting in The Gärten

Oddish Wine, San Diego’s newest winery, has opened its tasting room doors and is releasing an impressive lineup of creative wines and adventurous beverages just in time for summer. As a distinct craft-beverage venture from San Diego’s award-winning Lost Cause Meadery team, Oddish Wine is focused on minimal intervention wines made from San Diego County grapes alongside experimental ciders, co-fermented fruit wines, amaro, vermouth, canned spritz and more.

Having quietly soft-opened in late 2022 and working determinedly to bring a full lineup of products into fruition by its grand opening, Oddish Wine offers an exploratory drinking experience that highlights San Diego terroir and the renowned innovative spirit of San Diego’s craft beverage scene. In addition to natural wines from familiar grape varietals, Oddish’s lineup includes naturally sparkling wines co-fermented with other fruits as well as fortified wines with botanicals, such as the Tart Cherry Vermouth and pineapple-centric Amaro D’Oro.

After quickly growing Lost Cause Meadery into one of the most awarded meaderies in the world, owners and local residents Billy and Suzanna Beltz dreamed of applying their uncompromising focus on quality and adventurous spirit to winemaking. Through Oddish Wine, the husband-wife team has developed wines to seamlessly fit into the San Diego lifestyle, emphasizing fun over formality and easy-to-drink products intended to be enjoyed in social settings where consumers might normally find local craft beer, hard seltzers or canned cocktails.

At Oddish Wine’s outdoor tasting room, guests can order a glass, flight or bottle before self-seating at communal tables within The Gärten, a newer biergarten-style, multi-vendor social hub in which Oddish is located. Serving local drinks, artisanal pizza and live music more than 150 nights of the year, The Gärten’s vendors include Lost Cause Mead, Deft Brewing and Pizza Cassette, with Oddish Wine being the final vendor to join this now-popular neighborhood spot.

Oddish Wine’s three-day grand opening will take place Friday, May 19 through Sunday, May 21—which is also the tail end of San Diego Wine Week—and will include live music at varying times, a pop-up spritz bar, a crème brûlée station from The Brûlée Bar, and first-time access to new Oddish releases such as Cosmic Dance, a chilled red blend of syrah and grenache grapes from San Diego County. A special grand opening menu showcasing Oddish’s wide range will include a skin contact white wine (AKA “orange wine”) from locally grown malvasia grapes and native yeast; a tempranillo aged in mead barrels; sparkling co-ferments combining grapes with fruits like quince, guava and blueberries; a session-style piquette made from grape pomace; a sparkling cider aged on grape pomace; and a signature spritz with organic raw blue agave and orange bitters.

“Through Oddish, we have the opportunity to make the types of wines that we love to drink: vibrant, low intervention wines that showcase local terroir and a sense of place,” says Billy. “At the same time, we’re pushing the boundaries of our wine license to see what other unconventional products we can craft, which really makes each visit to Oddish Wine an adventure.”

Oddish Wine is located at 5322 Banks Street in Morena