Owning a wine business in Nevada is no easy feat. A lot of red tape and distribution laws make it difficult to grow the industry. Despite the challenges, there are a few wineries that operate in northern Nevada and make their wine on-site— a requirement of owning a winery here.
Nevada Sunset, which shares its space with Great Basin Winery next door to Lead Dog Brewing on Fourth Street, opened in 2017. However, the original owners recently decided to sell it off, turning the space, the wine and the brand over to Kate Boyle MacDonald and her husband Craig.
Kate and Craig, who own Boyle MacDonald Wines with a tasting room in Murphys, California, first met Alynn Delisle and Mike Steedman, the original Nevada Sunset owners several years ago when the MacDonalds began frequenting Reno.
“We love this town and area for all it has to offer, and you couldn’t find more welcoming folks anywhere,” Kate said.
Two years ago, after moving to Reno, and maintaining a friendship with Delisle and Steedman, talk of a takeover started. Now, Kate and Craig are focused not only on making their own wines and revamping the Nevada Sunset brand but also taking an integral part in boosting the local wine industry.
A portion of the efforts come from a partnership with the University of Nevada, Reno. Kate and Craig have plans to create alumni wines for the university under a new label. They said they are also working with the agriculture college to research grape growing in Nevada and expand the varietals grown in northern Nevada.
“There is so much enthusiasm behind developing the fine wine industry in Reno; every person we meet immediately offers to help,” Kate said. “Since we also maintain our business in Murphys, we feel like we are living in two incredible places surrounded by two incredible communities.”
Nevada Sunset is partially reliant on grapes from southern Nevada and California. However, they do create varietals from vines grown in Reno and Gardnerville, as well.
The Lemberger is one such grape. The varietal is widely grown in central California but does well in Nevada’s high desert climate. The Nevada Sunset bottle is big and bold, a great wine to pair with foods in large part because of its higher acidity.
High acidity is actually one of the main characteristics Kate has noticed in Nevada wines, and it’s one she’s actively working on mellowing now that she’s discovered the cause.
While Kate toys with Nevada vines and grapes sourced in California to create new blends for UNR and the Nevada Sunset label, she isn’t starting from scratch. Kate has run 25 harvests and has more than 20 years of cellar experience.
In addition to her Calaveras County tasting room, Kate tends to a family estate in Napa Valley. Despite her California roots, she is dedicated to crafting traditional, old-world style wines more common in Germany and France, where she spent part of her childhood. The end goal is elegance, finesse and balance.
“There’s a lot of support around developing a local winegrowing and wine production industry, and a fun buzz about Reno’s Downtown Brewery District,” Kate said. “We host folks from Reno almost every weekend in our tasting room in Murphys, so when this opportunity to purchase Nevada Sunset Winery came about, we decided to finally bring our family and our wines to Reno.”
There’s a long road ahead for Kate and Craig, who currently split time between Nevada Sunset and their Murphys tasting room. It will take a few years before they are crafting new wines that are completely their own.
However, that doesn’t discourage Kate. She’s thrilled at the opportunity to share Nevada Sunset’s award-winning wines with the community and expand on the efforts from Delisle and Steedman.
“Not only did they make lovely wines from proven California fruit, they have also crafted wines from fruit grown right here in northern Nevada,” Kate added.
The tasting room will also get a mini makeover. Kate and Craig are adding refrigeration to the production part of the winery to give themselves more control over temperature during the wine-making process and creating more space for guests at the winery.
Wines available to taste will change every few months so that over the course of the year customers can try everything, seven (or so) wines at a time.
Kate is especially excited about the 2018 Riesling.
The wine club will also move forward, so if you’re a member of the club, keep an eye on those emails for the next release party.
For the first year, Delisle and Steedman are staying on in an advisory role to help ease the transition.
While Nevada Sunset is undergoing some big changes, Great Basin Winery remains under the ownership of Adam and Wendy Hand with no planned changes at this time. The Hands have owned the winery since 2018.
