Farmstead Cheeses and Wines

Farmstead Creates a Buzz in Montclair

    Less than a month after opening the doors to his new shop in Montclair Village on June 1, cheesemonger and wine purveyor Jeff Diamond found himself shepherding a new flock of wine fanciers and introducing them to his latest finds and favorite selections. Throughout the summer, attendance grew for the Friday-night wine tasting at Farmstead Cheeses & Wine, the Oakland hills sibling to the shop Diamond opened in the Alameda Marketplace in 2003.

One balmy August evening, 30 or 40 people, wine glasses in hand, stationed themselves near the small bar on the store’s rear mezzanine and worked their way through tastes of Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, Saintsbury Carneros Chardonnay, Muga Rosado (a Spanish rosé), Bitch Grenache (an Australian wine described as “a hedonistic fruit bomb”), Garretson’s “The Aisling” Paso Robles Syrah and Rutherford Ranch Napa Valley Cabernet. Couples and small groups of friends chatted and compared notes, and Diamond snaked through the crowd, cracking jokes and offering bits of fresh mozzarella from the cheese case.

“From the gate we had 20 people over the course of the evening,” says Diamond, recalling the first tasting in June, when his wife, Carol Huntington, poured some her favorite rosés. “It’s more than doubled in size since, and it’s become something of a social scene.”

    That’s something that’s been needed in Montclair Village since the long-gone days of live jazz at the Equinox and the New Orleans Bar & Grill. Despite lively dinner business in some eateries, and a thriving Sunday farmers market, once the caffeinated daytime crowds have dispersed from Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Starbucks and Royal Ground, the sidewalks tend to roll up with the twilight.

    “When I decided to become a retailer, Montclair was always in my sights,” says Diamond, who lives a few minutes away in the Oakland hills. Now he’s sparked a congenial scene in his virtual front yard.

    Farmstead Cheeses and Wines. Tastings 6 p.m.–8 p.m. Fridays, $3 per flight, waived for wine club members or with purchase. 6218 La Salle Ave., (510) 864-9463, www.farmsteadcheesesandwines.com.