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A Place to Discover Monterey County
A Taste of Monterey was created to be a welcoming place where people discover the wines, flavors, and stories of Monterey County.
From the vineyards of the Santa Lucia Highlands, Carmel Valley, and Arroyo Seco to the farms, kitchens, and communities that make this region special, A Taste of Monterey brings the flavors and character of Monterey County together all in one place.
Creating a complete wine tasting experience
From its inception, A Taste of Monterey has been more than a tasting room and wine shop. Directors and staff proudly assume the mantle of “Monterey County Wine Ambassador” and promote the bounty of the region through educational exhibits, events, a catered wine tasting program, a nationwide wine club and a popular website.
It all started in 1993 when Ken and Robyn Rauh were recruited by Monterey County vineyard owners, Richard Smith and W.B. Butch Lindley, to establish a unique regional wine tasting and education center in the old Paul Masson Tasting Room & Museum on historic Cannery Row in Monterey.
Ken and Robyn each had more than a decade of experience in the industry and neither was a stranger to the area or the prominence it had rightfully gained as a world-class wine region. Working cooperatively with the Monterey County Vintners and Growers Association, Ken and Robyn launched what has become a popular destination with tourists as well as local wine connoisseurs.
Experience the Essence of Monterey County
For more than 30 years, A Taste of Monterey has been more than a wine shop — it’s been a celebration of everything that makes Monterey County extraordinary. From our perch on historic Cannery Row, overlooking the blue expanse of Monterey Bay, we invite you to explore the wines, flavors, and stories that define our region.
Founded in 1994 by Ken and Robyn Rauh in partnership with local vineyard visionaries, Richard Smith and W.B. Butch Lindley, A Taste of Monterey was created to bring together the best of Monterey County wines under one roof. Today, Britt and Belynda Talbert carry that legacy forward — honoring the past while introducing a new generation to the region’s bounty, from vineyard to coastline.
Every glass we pour is a tribute to Monterey County — to its vineyards, farms, and the people who call it home. Come taste, discover, and experience the complete Monterey County story with us.
Visit us on Cannery Row · Join the Wine Club · Shop Monterey Wines Online
A rich history and connection with the Monterey wine industry
Housed in a renovated circa 1918 sardine cannery, the flagship tasting room on Monterey’s Cannery Row allows one to bask in the history of the place as well as the decades-long heritage of the many wineries represented here. An entire wall of windows overlooks the magnificent Monterey Bay, providing a stunning backdrop for a wine tasting adventure.
When Bobbie Flay, celebrity chef and host of the Food Network’s Food Nation series, decided to feature Monterey in an episode, A Taste of Monterey was called on to showcase the area’s wines with local cuisine. It was a natural fit, and A Taste of Monterey had its debut on national television.
A growing club of wine lovers
Thanks to the innovation and intuitiveness of Ken and Robyn, the fruits of Monterey County’s vines are accessible through the Monterey Wine Club that now has more than 3,400 members nationwide. “The Wine Club is our way of introducing people to a greater variety of our county’s wines,” explains Ken. “It’s impractical for a person to try more than a few wines during a visit to our tasting rooms. So the Wine Club lets members sample and learn about new wines each month. We think it’s important for members to not only know about the wine but also the winemakers who craft each vintage.”
“It’s impossible to separate winegrowing and winemaking from the history of Monterey County and its people,” says Ken Rauh. “Vineyards were first planted here in the 18th century. Today, our vintners gracefully blend old-world traditions with the best of modern winemaking techniques. Robyn and I enjoy sharing what we know about Monterey County and its wines, and we learn something new every day.” The visitors’ centers of A Taste of Monterey welcome over 100,000 guests annually. A Taste of Monterey currently presents 250 wines from 75 different wineries and hosts over 130 private group events each year.
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.