San Francisco keeps its wine country in a strange place: a flat, man-made island in the middle of the Bay, built for the 1939 world's fair and run for decades by the Navy. Ride the ferry ten minutes east of the Ferry Building and you land among working urban wineries where the tasting-room view isn't vineyard rows — it's the entire downtown skyline stacked across the water, close enough that you can watch the fog eat Salesforce Tower while you swirl.
Nobody stumbles onto Treasure Island by accident, which is exactly why the rooms out here stay loose, cheap to reach, and blissfully free of wine-country attitude. Here's how to do it properly: which rooms are actually pouring, how to get there without a car, and how to stretch a couple of flights into a full golden-hour afternoon.
Getting There Is Half the Fun
The move is the ferry. Direct service runs daily from Gate B at the San Francisco Ferry Building to the Treasure Island landing, the crossing takes about ten minutes, and the fare is five dollars — children under five ride free. You get a full Bay Bridge flyby for less than the price of a bridge toll. Prefer land? The Muni 25 bus runs from the Salesforce Transit Center to the island every 20 minutes, all day, every day. Drivers take the Bay Bridge exit at Yerba Buena Island, and rideshares operate out here too, which matters at the end of a tasting afternoon.
Treasure Island Wines: A Co-Op at One Counter
Start at Treasure Island Wines on 9th Street, the island's original tasting room — it opened back in 2007 as the first winery operation on the former naval base. It works as a co-op: a handful of small-production wineries share the space and pour at one bar, so a single stop gets you through more labels than you could responsibly attempt anywhere in Napa. The room runs weekend afternoons, roughly 1pm to 5pm, and it's famously relaxed about dogs. Come with questions; the people pouring are usually the people who made the wine.
The Waterfront Studios: VIE and Sol Rouge
On the island's western waterfront, two winemaker studios sit close enough to make a two-stop crawl trivial. VIE Winery on Clipper Cove Way pours limited-production Rhône varietals and zinfandel built from fruit sourced across Santa Barbara, Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, and Lake County — and it has waterfront bocce courts, which turn a tasting into an afternoon faster than any second flight can.
A short walk away, Sol Rouge on Avenue G specializes in Rhône and Bordeaux styles grown at the family's estate vineyard north of Napa Valley, and a number of its bottles have landed scores over 90 points from Wine Enthusiast. Both rooms keep weekend hours in the noon-to-5 range, with weekdays generally by appointment — the studios share the bocce courts, so a friendly grudge match between flights is basically the house tradition.
Mersea: Shipping Containers and Golden Hour
When the tasting rooms wind down, walk to Mersea on Avenue of the Palms. The restaurant is built from repurposed shipping containers facing straight at the downtown skyline, and its outdoor Golden Hour Bar is named for exactly the moment you should be there. It currently runs Wednesday through Sunday from late morning into early evening, which makes it the natural landing pad for a glass of something cold while the city lights come on across the water. This is the single best sunset seat in San Francisco that most San Franciscans have never sat in.
Add-Ons That Make It a Full Day
Two non-wine stops round out the trip. Aracely Cafe, tucked into a converted former school building near the island's center, handles brunch duty with an Argentinean-inflected menu and a generous patio — eat first, taste second, in that order. And the Treasure Island Museum keeps a free public gallery inside Building One, the grand Art Deco survivor from the Golden Gate International Exposition that greets you at the island's entrance. Fifteen minutes in there explains why this odd flat island exists at all, which is a better tasting-room conversation starter than anything about tannins.
A Sample Saturday, Door to Door
- Late morning: ferry from Gate B at the Ferry Building — ten minutes, five bucks, full skyline views.
- Brunch at Aracely Cafe, then a quick pass through the free museum gallery in Building One.
- Early afternoon: flights at Treasure Island Wines when the co-op counter opens.
- Mid-afternoon: walk the waterfront to VIE and Sol Rouge; claim a bocce court between pours.
- Golden hour: a final glass at Mersea's outdoor bar while the city lights up.
- Ferry or Muni 25 home — nobody has to drive.
A Word About the Island's Shifting Roster
Treasure Island is mid-redevelopment, and the venue roster moves. A couple of longtime names — The Winery SF and Sottomarino, the one with the WWII submarine trainer in its tasting room — are currently dark, and the Woods Island Club beer garden is on pause too. The rooms above were pouring as of this writing, but out here more than anywhere in the city, check current hours before you build your whole afternoon around a single door.
Treasure Island Wine Tasting FAQs
Do I need a reservation for Treasure Island wine tasting?
On weekends, walk-ins are the norm at the co-op counter and the waterfront studios. Weekday visits are a different story — most rooms are appointment-only or closed midweek, so call or book ahead if you're coming Monday through Friday, and give larger groups a heads-up regardless.
When are the wineries actually open?
Weekend afternoons are the sweet spot: most tasting rooms pour roughly noon to 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Mersea currently runs Wednesday through Sunday. Hours shift out here more than on the mainland, so a quick check of each room's site the morning of is worth the thirty seconds.
Can I do this without a car?
Easily — it's arguably better without one. The daily ferry from the Ferry Building takes about ten minutes and costs five dollars, the Muni 25 runs every 20 minutes from the Salesforce Transit Center, and the island itself is flat and walkable between rooms. Ask Karpo before you go and it'll sort the timing so you step off the ferry right as the first counter opens.
