With all the good reviews, Â I didn't expect the experience I got- or, rather, didn't get. It was a little busy. No biggie, I tried waving over the proprietor. I was looked at & ignored. I tried again with the lady behind the register. Same result. Mind, they were NOT waiting on anyone else at the moment. After about 10 minutes of being ignored, I figured I wasn't wanted, and left.
I'm disappointed to have have such an experience, especially after the reviews that brought me to it.
This is just another tourist trap. Over priced things to be in the outskirts that you can get at a fraction in the core bay area. Not very impressed. food is mediocre and them skimp and nickel and dime you on everything including drinks.
I'm willing to pay for good service and something that will make me go awe this is awesome and impress my company, all they gave is a meh take me somewhere else.
A lovely little place with very friendly proprietors and GREAT wine!
We arrived a few minutes after they opened on a Saturday, and had the whole deck to ourselves. Â Since there were two of us, we got all six tasting wines on offer, plus a cheese plate. Â The wines (not that I know anything about wine, but) were really delicious and paired well with the cheese, and each other. Â
The deck has a fantastic view, it's right on the water. Â There are also a lot of gifts available in the shop, they have some really cute stuff too. Â We decided to walk away with two bottles of our favorite wine from the tasting. Â Not too pricey either. Â
Gourmet Au Bay is a must-visit if you're in Bodega Bay, you will definitely enjoy their hospitality and fabulous wines.
I have been here several times now and have really enjoyed my experiences. Â Being able to take a flight out onto their desk overlooking the bay is amazing. Â It's such a nice peaceful getaway and I love how the wine being poured changes regularly (I haven't seen the a wine more than once on the list). Â The staff is friendly and attentive and they offer a great wine club.
However, it is time for a remodel. Â The interior is definitely out-dated and could have a better layout and preferably with a bathroom somewhere closer than having to go outside and down stairs.
One other thing that was annoying, one time was there a large group, dominating half the space outside and they were rather loud and annoying. Â Next time we will check the outside first and if there are groups like that we will just leave.
Probably only wine bar in town. The location is great. Right on the water. They have a bunch of wines for sale and also have an amazing wine flight for those that want to have a drink. We also enjoyed the cheese plate ($14) which was huge and came with 3 different cheeses. Super chill and laid back atmosphere with great folks.
Review Source:I loved this place and consider it a do not miss if in or around Bodega Bay. Â Definitely the highlight of my trip to Bodega Bay. Â They had a great selection of wines, and fun little nicknacks, packaged gourmet food items and gifts. Â The guy managing the shop, the owner I presume, was friendly and knowledgeable. Â
Im not sure I get the whole "wine surfing" thing for their wine tasting, but thats neither here nor there. Â They have a list that I assume rotates and for nine bucks you can pick three. Â I like having choice so that was cool and I thought nine dollars was beyond reasonable. Â The pours were generous and the wine options were top notch. Â And they made sure to have something for everyone on the list. Â They have cheese boards available although I did not partake. Â Instead we enjoyed our wine out on the porch overlooking the bay. Â It was a seriously lovely experience.
Awesome wine shop. Â I have been buying wine there during my frequent visits to Bodega Bay. Â However, I have only had the opportunity to do their tasting twice, Monday, being the second time. Â My daughter and I enjoyed tasting the all the wines they were pouring. Â They have a darling patio on the Bay. Â Our only mistake was we were there after lunch and were to full to order the cheese platter which looks great. Â The owners are wonderful hosts!
If you buy your wine there, you don't need to pay corkage at several local restaurants. Â
If you are in the area, don't miss Gourmet au Bay.
I didn't know this place existed and I have been going to Bodega Bay my whole life. Â This past weekend we were camping with friends at Bodega Dunes and they mentioned "wine surfing" so of course I was in, wine was involved...lol
So Saturday afternoon just us girls went wine surfing. Â It's really nice to overlook the bay and sip on a little vino. One of the girls bought a bottle of "Cocoa Vino" and we had it with smores around the campfire later that evening.
I will definitely visit again on our next trip to Bodega Bay.
Love this place! We were hanging out in Bodega Bay for a couple weeks during our road trip and visited Gourmet au Bay several times...met friends here, did some wine surfing on the deck, and every time it was lovely.
The wine club is a cool deal as well since you get wine from many different wineries (mostly CA), but you've got someone (Bob!) curating your shipments for you.
Highly recommended.
Cool little wine bar and souvenir shop. We had a 2-for-1 wine tasting card from the nearby Bodega Bay Lodge, so wanted keep our drink on going after the free wine reception at the hotel. ;) Note that although they are open til 8 on a saturday, apparently they normally stop pouring the 'wine surfing' flights after 6pm, and prefer to just pour glasses. Â That said, the owner Bob (I believe, based on their website pics), was cool about it all, knowing that we just showed up to try it out for the first time, and poured us a flight of the day's reds and whites. Â (He also would've happily poured just glasses of an individual wine if you knew what you liked instead of smaller pours of each wine.)
The flights are served in fun little surfboard trays, which we took out onto their cozy little covered deck. No bad wines, and I particularly liked the pinot gris by Tremani, and the sangiovese by Maysie. Great place to kick back with some friends and enjoy the warm sun. The other owner was also chilling out there for a bit, too, with some of her friends. The outside might look a bit unassuming, but if you're in the area this little place is worth checking out!
We purchased two Groupons and had to use the last one today before it expired. Â Both times we each had three wines to taste along with the cheese plate. Â The cheese plate was better today, but the two of the three reds were weak this time. Â I like reds but not Barbera and Red Zinfandel is usually better if it comes from the Foothills or Lodi area. Â The Pinot was great and my wife enjoyed the white wines. Â Great view many different kinds of birds and one sea lion being harassed by the sea gulls because they wanted his fish. Â I left it four stars because the reds were much better on my first visit.
Review Source:I am so thrilled we had a chance to check out this place. Â The other reviewers were spot on about this spot. Â The flight wines were great, with their cute surf board wine glass holders...it held 3 glasses with your choice of wines. Â The pours were generous. Â We also ordered a cheese and crackers plate. Â My husband and I had a wonderful time relaxing on their patio and watching the sunset. Â On our way out, we even checked out their boutique and bought a really cute ring there. Â Yeah!! Â A little souvenir for me to remember this wonderful trip we had together!
Review Source:We had a great time here today. It was an incredibly sunny day--once a decade kind of day. Had a nice flight of wine, a cheese and cracker plate (really nice, simple, but delicious)
Would have given 5 stars but 3 of the six wines in the flight were NOT Sonoma County wines. In the middle of Sonoma County? Overall a great experience--but serve SoCo wines!
Came here with my girlfriend this weekend and loved it! Â We tried the red and white wine surfs and enjoyed them out on the covered part of the deck overlooking the bay. Â There had just been a light rain, so it smelled great but wasn't too wet. Â We met a bunch of others (who were from not too far away and seemed to frequent the place) and had a lot of fun. Â The place had just the right number of people the whole time (almost all the seats filled, but no one had to stand).
To be honest, we didn't like the wine that much (there was a white Rhone mix that was really good, though), but that didn't really matter.  The owners  were both super friendly and engaged with people the whole time.  I got one of the little tchotchke sailboats, and we bought a bottle of wine to have with dinner that night (they have an agreement with most of the local restaurants where they'll waive the corkage fee if you buy from here). Â
We even came back the next morning to pick up another little sailboat for my girlfriend. Â Great place!
You can get a wine tasting flight for $9 three glass of a red or white wine served on a surf bored with an option of cheeses crackers chocolate and nuts. You can also bring in your own food while you drink some wine. The seating facing the Bodega Bay outside is awesome and very private with the soothing sound of jazz.. This is a must go to spot and is very easy to pass on Highway 1.
Review Source:YES YES YES! Should be your answer when deciding to stop by this cute wine tasting shop in Bodega Bay. Â
Gourmet au Bay is a small boutique wine store with a great balcony over looking the bay. Â It's a wonderful place for a casual, talkative date or an outing with a group of friends. Â The view over the bay is enjoyable and Sissy & her husband (the owners/operators) are great! - helpful, knowledgeable & super friendly. Â Â
We went with a Living Social coupon, which got us two flights of three wines (poor fairly generously) and a small cheese plate (normally $32) & some store credit. Â They switch up there wine tasting selection every two weeks or so & I will def. be back! Â This time my boyfriend and I just went, even though it is a drive, I think my parents would love to check it out when they visit.
We stopped here on our tour of the wine country, and weren't disappointed. It is a must-visit for any trip to Bodega, as other reviewers have said.
We tried both the red and the white flights, and she poured quite a bit more than the average tasting into the glasses. Points for that! We took them out to the deck, it was a bit breezy but tolerable considering the view of the bay was spectacular. We took our time tasting and relaxing, it was a very enjoyable experience. After chilling on the deck for a while, we went inside and browsed their selection of wine. We ended up buying one from the tasting and another that had a cute label (I know you aren't supposed to do that, but how can you resist a tractor on the label?) We also bought two plastic stemless glasses, they ended up being well used later on in the trip. More points there!
I would highly recommend this wine bar, it has character and is very relaxing. The service was excellent and the amount of wine you get for the price is quite generous.
Setting: valentine's weekend
Reservations: no. but we got there just before sunset and there were still seats out on the patio. i snagged two by the heat lamps. score!
Order: a flight of red wines (or wine surfing as they call it). three good pours of reds on a surfboard that makes it easy to carry around. we also got a cheese plate to snack on. after our surf, we ended up buying a bottle of the pinot noir.
Tip: they have arrangements with the local restaurants so that you can get free corkage if you buy and bring a bottle of wine from Gourmet. For some restaurants they only give out one ticket a day, but for others, they have multiple tickets. If you know which restaurant you're going to for dinner, let them know when you come in!
Service: Cute store full of goodies and gifts. The staff was polite, but didn't offer much advice on the wines or a taste as I'm used to. I picked a flight so that I could try a variety. Â On the plus side, they didn't bother us on the patio and just let us enjoy the sunset and atmosphere.
Cost: $48 for a flight of wine, cheese plate, and a bottle of pinot to take away to dinner.
A must-visit for any trip to Bodega! Â For $18, we were able to get 6 VERY generous (I think each pour was 3-4 oz) tastings of wine (3 reds, 3 whites... $9 for 3 tastings), which we enjoyed on a couch on the indoor area of the patio (it was much warmer than the porch), overlooking the beautiful Bodega Harbor. Â It was the highlight of our trip and we had a blast! Â I am usually not a fan of Riesling, but if they have it on the tasting menu, definitely try it! Â Not overly sweet, and quite tasty!
The gift shop is cute as well, though I didn't buy anything, and the owners are very nice! Â I would definitely come back:)
Before coming here we were contemplating driving 30 minutes to another winery near Sonoma. Glad we didn't because the folks here are friendly and they have a cool gift shop (though too pricy). We went for one each of the red surf and white surf (wine tastings). Then we decided the Cuvée was the best of the bunch.
We sat outside for a while, but it was just too hot and the sun was in our eyes. We sat at a table inside and low and behold they had Bananagrams.
Went full scale with simultaneously red wine surfing and white wine surfing. Both best sets of triplets. The whites were most striking: a baked apple, a pear, and an apple 'n' mixed berry. Lightly guzzled with nuzzles of cheese on crackers. We handpicked the recommended english breakfast cheese which wasn't quite that rich consistency of double or triple cream french brie but was steadily treading along that avenue. It's perpetually splendid to intake a different stake on a picnic or table corner of the cheese market (<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FWinning-Moves-1015-Classic-Pit%2Fdp%2FB00004YV3T&s=714a89b29254b56d81fdc916a714d438dc886f70ee5806d3c0d9b7c15bde10b5" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Wi…</a>). Panoramic view is wow and gift shop is how do they fit all that in there.
Review Source:Best gift shop in Bodega. Excellent wine & tasting selections. We shared a surf board tasting and bought a bottle of locally made port. Had a baby with us so we had to sit inside but the tunes were good and we were able to shop more easily for wine.
Beer available.
Did not see menu for food but it was holiday week of torrential rain so vibe may have been a bit abnormal.
Definitely worth a stop while in Bodega.
Perfect place to get a little wine buzz before embarking on sight seeing.
Stopped in for wine tasting and was happy to see they had some original/hand made gifts available as well.
We opted for the wine flight at $9 per person. Heavy pours of 3 varietals served in a surfboard. I loooved the muscat canelli and downed my 3 glasses way too fast.
We sat on the patio and was harassed by a little blue bird who wanted my wine.. or something. Someone gave him a cracker to get the hell away from us.. and he sat on the deck and ate it while looking at the bay. Aww, little birdie.. you're a jerk but, you just want love.. I get it.
If I'm ever back in Bodega Bay, I plan to spend way more time here.
This was a cool little gift shop in Bodega Bay.  They did serve beer in this shop (plus), but I think they definitely cater to the winos  :)  My bro scoured the place because he had a gift certificate here for his impending wedding. Â
The place is right on the water with a great view and tables to lounge on when you're done shopping.
This lovely little wine shop off the Highway in Bodega has a nice selection of reasonably priced wines and also has an agreement with many local restaurants to allow customers to bring in a bottle and not get charged any corkage.  Nice.  But the best thing to do is to grab a flight, or two, of wines to sample and take them out on the back deck and watch the bay, the seals and the gulls, all while tasting.  Not all the wines are home runs, but they are all reasonably priced wines and the time spent relaxing on the bay is priceless.  It's especially nice on those rare warm sunny days as it was yesterday, but even on  chilly day, dressed warmly, it's a nice time.
LindySez - 3 two ounce pours for $9.00, the sun shining on my face, the gulls swooping about...what's not to like?
Great jazz standards on the stereo, gorgeous bay stretched out before you (if you're on the back porch; and if it's a nice day, why wouldn't you be?), tasty wine samples, no corkage fee arrangements with several local restaurants, your standard wine themed craft items, and friendly staff.
If they served the shrimp from the Elite Cafe in SF I'd never leave. Â Plus the wines we were sampling were all in the $20 range, which I appreciate. Â You can get a flight of 3 for $9, a glass of anything for $9, or a bottle - whatever you don't finish you take with you. Â What a great, taster friendly model.
Gourmet Au Bay concluded our GWO (Girls Weekend Out) with pleasantries such as wine tasting, souvenir shopping & engaging in chick conversation ("chick conversation" is a plethora of topics discussed such as what to and what not to wear for the season, hollywood gossip, sports...such as Tiger Woods' infidelity crises, household tips via Real Simple magazine and sex...just to name a few
Men should know that we're not that different when women congregate except that we usually respond to discussions in giggles or bursts of tears...while men typically reciprocate by a head nod or grunt
Nevertheless, this cute wine bar made our Bodega Bay trip all the more daintier as we went on about sampling wine and taking in the fresh air & beautiful scenery
I particularly loved the adorable wooden deck in the back of the wine store. There were enough seats & standing room for about 20-25 people. I can imagine this place to be crowded during the summer because of the relaxing views plus it does get cold during the fall, winter months. However, they provide you with blankets to keep warm...the shopkeepers (or owners?) are very hospitable & knowledgeable about the wine they served
I would come back for any topic discussed
The view is so beautiful that I feel I have to echo reviewers before me. If you're nearby on a nice day - go have a glass a wine on the deck.
Prices are very reasonable and we picked up several bottles to take home. The people who run this place are extremely nice (if this was my job, I would be too!) We stopped in on a whim, and I'm so glad we did. It was a perfect way to spend part of an afternoon during our relaxing weekend in Bodega Bay.
The Boo and I were driving through Bodega Bay on V-Day and I made him turn the car around as were driving for two reasons:
1.Saltwater taffy.
2. Wine tasting.
After indulging me with peppermint taffy, we went to Gourmet Au Bay for wine tasting. This is such a friendly place with a good selection of wines. We each had a wine 'surf' and sat on the balcony to take in the scenery.
After "surfing" I had another glass of wine and chatted with Sissy (the gal from FL who now runs the place with her Boo) and was impressed with my experience here. After feeling a little warm in the cheeks, I joined the 2 x 4 wine club and can't wait for my first arrival!
Bodega Bay doesn't have much going on in the way of nightlife.
This little spot is just about the only chill place to hang out - and it's a good one. Open from 11a-7p most days and until 8p on Fri & Saturday, Gourmet Au Bay is a wine store, gift shop and tasting room.
A lovely couple took over ownership in August, having recently relocated from Florida to run the shop. They're quite lovely people, who man the gift shop and wine tasting bar with a smile. Â They offer a daily tasting of 3 whites and 3 reds (which you can get by the glass or 3 2oz pours in a 'surf') along with 2-3 featured beers and somem cheeses.
The main appeal is that you can take your wine out onto the deck and sip it while enjoying the sunset over Bodega Bay. Â Nice conversation, tasty Zin - and a view. What more could you want?
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