Upstart Tasting Room The Sweet Spot Is a Unique Adventure

June 29, 2021 – Carmel Valley Wine Country cultivates storylines like it does grape vines, thanks to a range personality-plus winemakers who make both grow.

For the first time in a long time, three of those winemakers have a venue where wine lovers can sample their creations, both current and vintage.

Meanwhile, the man making that space possible presents a tangle of storylines himself, including intel into evil ghosts and untamed enthusiasm for Champagne Twinkies. 

The wineries are Boëté, Karlsen Family/Chock Rock and Chateau Sinnet. The individual who’s assembling them at a tiny spot with a big amount of action going on—from hefty sweets (“big peanut” peanut butter cookies!) to atypical olive oils (black truffle garlic!)—is Gary Munsinger, who also operates Monterey Ghost Tours and Monterey Wine Trolley.

Back to the wineries and why they’re notable. For one, they’re fiercely local. Also important: Each formerly had popular tasting rooms that have been discontinued, and knowing visitors miss them. 

Boëté makes the area’s premier Cab Franc, with a backstory to match. Winemaker and longtime local do-everything entrepreneur John Saunders once knocked out George Foreman in Army sparring matches before Foreman won the heavyweight title, and once made homemade wine with Gary Pisoni before Santa Lucia Highlands and Pisoni broke out big.

“Making wine is actually a lot like boxing,” Saunders once told me. “Things might not go your way, so you do what you can to stay in the fight.” 

Chock Rock Winery founder and winemaker Dan Karlsen is another free-thinking winemaker who gained fame with long stints heightening the likes of Chalone and Talbott Vineyards, among others. 

He left that to start his own brand with his close-knit family, which now includes the Karlsen label. While the fam is experimenting with new varietals, their Chardonnays and Pinots remain memorable expressions of valley terroir. 

Second generation wine pro Rob Karlsen, Dan’s son, works with Munsinger to stock The Sweet Spot. 

“Gary’s making a destination for the unspoken wines that no longer have a storefront,” Rob says. “He’s elevating wines not found on normal lists, that are not always sold or advertised, but he’s getting them out, catering for people who are tourists, but always featuring Carmel Valley first.” 

Rob adds an additional thing that’s not lost on residents. 

“While he’s serving a lot of tourists, he’s given locals something that’s not as prevalent either: A place for coffee and a pastry,” Rob says. “He’s finding a niche that incorporates all of that.” 

Chateau Sinnet owner-operator Gary Sinnet is a wildcard to me, but I know his wines as out-there sweet bombs that don’t seduce my palate. He doesn’t mind because they are a runaway hit with visiting tastebuds who flip for his almond Champagne. Munsinger testifies Sinnet is a full-blown character, which is a little like a Great Dane calling a Saint Bernard a large dog. 

Munsinger invited some friends and I out for a tasting after I asked how he structures tastings given the range of possibilities. In his hands, our tasting took on fluid and far-ranging dimensions, while growing to include more than the three wineries I anticipated. 

Another pair of notes: 

1. The tasting would be a trip with Munsinger and no more than a wine and a Twinkie. Such is the depth of his ghost stories. It turns out the late Dr. James Stokes, whose ghost still lurks around the former Restaurant 1833, may have killed off whole swaths of the city as its lead doctor. And it’s hard to ignore Munsinger’s kinetic energy, which operates as his default setting, complete with Wedding Crasher-style shouts to his team to summon more vegan Morrocan-style soup.

He hesitates when asked to sum up the directions a tasting takes. “I think we just try to offer flavors that are unique to Carmel Valley,” he says.

2. The setup and setting bring elements that may not have come into play without COVID. The sweet and savory baked goods provided a way for Munsinger to survive amid closures: He acquired Idle Hour Winery at 1 Del Fino Place as soon as it shuttered, and turned to crash-learning how to bake everything from popular cinnamon rolls to coffee cakes while working on stocking wines. The mosaic-tiled tables on the patio, which seat at least four people comfortably with surface area for all the tastes to come, were something he imported from Mexico in fall 2020.

On another front, the smoked salmon from local huntsman Bob Sinclair offered an early highlight, on both the charcuterie board ($18-$24) and in the rustic sandwich with ciabatta and avocado ($14). 

The wines, meanwhile, cover a lot of territory. The opening salvo is a strange but intriguing pale pink Manatee White Merlot from Sinnet, which ranks as Sweet Spot’s best seller. From there the ride uncorks things like a 2018 Karlsen Family Chardonnay and its duality of acidity and butter, and another Carmel Valley-bred Sweet Spot exclusive, the Carmel Hills Winery Chardonnay that ranks among best of our afternoon. (Tastings run $12 for a choice of four wines, with each additional pour $3.)

Olive oils and flavored balsamic vinegars, also available for sampling, taste bright, lively and often surprise as much as they satisfy, from the bring-the-heat citrus habanero olive oil to the perfumed white peach-basil balsamic vinegar.

Back in the glass, the 2014 Chock Rock Pinot reveals minerality that helps give the winery its name, Boëté’s Cheval Rouge “winemakers blend” is even better and richer with boysenberry and cherry than I remember, and its sister Cab Franc proves lighter and more nuanced than many a big and inky red. 

The cookies deliver The Sweet Spot’s proudest joy. An informal poll ranked the Meyer lemon cookie, snickerdoodle, and cream cheese triple chocolate up top, but the formidable ginger earned points too. The house “Cha-winkie” (pronounced “SHA-winkie”), inspired by Champagne’s compatibility with Twinkies, is worth trying once.

“The cookies have become a signature,” Munsinger says. “We’re doing a lot of cookie business.”

Somewhere out there, someone has figured out the balance between too much and not enough. Maybe Munsinger has found it here—all the items are a lot, but they are smartly curated, and customizable to arriving taste. 

Whatever the case, in the portfolio of flavors, which also are available in Club Trolley thrice-yearly shipments, he gives Carmel Valley something—many things—not available anywhere else.

The Sweet Spot is open 8am-5pm Wednesday at 1 Del Fino Place in Carmel Valley. More at (831) 624-1700 and carmelvalleysweetspot.com.