The other night, my friends and I were walking downtown for pizza at Bricks when someone stuck his head out of Vine and Barrel, the new wine shop we were walking by.

“Hey, do you guys want to come in for a free wine tasting?” he said.

“Okay!” we said.

Inside at the back, the winemaker from St. Francis Winery was showcasing their new Wild Oak wine to a crowd of people hovering around the tasting bar. We tasted three varietals, chatted with some locals, and listened to the winemaker explain about the wines.

I ended up talking to shop owner Chris Sawyer. He and his partner Jason Jenkins had been thinking of opening a wine shop together for the past six years. Since they both went to high school in Petaluma, they wanted the store to be in town, but nothing had worked out until their current location–143 Kentucky Street–went up for rent last fall.

With his peach tie and long sideburns, Chris Sawyer looked like he would be more comfortable in a tee-shirt and jeans than the suit he was wearing. His attitude was direct and unpretentious.

“When I don’t like a wine, I will tell the winemaker,” he said. “I don’t care how good it’s supposed to be. I’ll say, This wine tastes like gerbil food if that’s what it tastes like.”

The wine buyer, Lee, laughed. “He’ll be like, This tastes like Dog Chow,” she said. “This tastes like, green olives and … scalded milk.”

This kind of thing may be why I found the shop’s wine selection more interesting and accessible than that of most wine shops. And in any case, I definitely liked the wine we tasted that night.