Vision
City Winery was founded in New York City in 2008 by Michael Dorf to deliver a unique combined culinary and cultural experience to urban wine enthusiasts. Each City Winery offers intimate concerts, food and wine seminars, private event spaces, upscale dining, and a fully functioning winery. Today, City Winery has physical locations in New York, Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Hudson Valley. There are also four other concepts run by the company: City Vineyard at Pier 26, City Winery at Rockefeller Center, City Winery Chicago at the Riverwalk, and City Winery Greenway in Boston.
Our Founder
City Winery is the brainchild of Michael Dorf, founder of the iconic Knitting Factory, one of New York’s longest running music venues, who wanted to create a space in Manhattan where he could combine his shared passions for wine and music. After making his first barrel of wine in California with his brother Josh and wine maker David Tate, formerly of Ridge Winery and now at Barnett Vineyards, Michael caught the bug: "For a long time I'd been enjoying wine as a fan - drinking it, taking classes, attending wine dinners - but it was not until I actually started participating in the process of working with the grape, turning it into wine, putting it into a bottle, and watching it develop over time, that I really started to understand wine. And when I would give my friends a bottle of wine with my name on it, most would respond by saying: 'I wanna do that too!' It was this experience that led Michael to conceptualize and start working on the City Winery business plan in 2006.
The core target audience of City Winery - urban wine enthusiasts who desire the experience of making their own wine, but who are not going to leave their comfortable Manhattan lifestyle to decamp to a vineyard - immediately became clear. But Michael wanted to create more than just a custom crush facility. Beyond making wine, Michael also wanted to focus on the enjoyment and satisfaction that comes from sharing wine with friends, and to capture the unique social bond that occurs when communities of like-minded people gather over a bottle of quality Cabernet, while dining on a freshly-prepared meal and listening to their favorite artists perform.
Our Team
We’ve built a team of people passionate about wine, food and music. We know you’ll have lots to talk about with them. Many of our managers started in entry level roles or internships and have grown with the company. We love what we do and we are so grateful for the opportunity to share it with you.
Philanthropy
We believe strongly that what goes around, comes around and that we have a role in caring for, nourishing, and helping repair the world. We feel fortunate to be in a position to leverage our resources including our space, wine, human capital, and energy for philanthropy. Since we opened in 2008, we have been giving away a portion of our wine, averaging about 10% of our annual production, to a variety of causes. We also provide a venue for a variety of benefits and fundraisers at a discounted rate to help raise money for important causes.
Venue Design
Step into urban wine country. Each of our locations evokes the warmth of wine country with modern comfort and convenience. Our performance venues offer pristine acoustics courtesy of Meyer Sound. Before your concert begins, visit our tasting room for a flight of wines and join us at the bar after the show. With a variety of functional spaces, City Winery can host a memorable night out for two or an unforgettable private event.
Video Archive
Many legends have graced the stage at City Winery. Our venues have hosted performances by Prince, Graham Nash, Brandi Carlile, Patti Smith, Robert Glasper, Allen Toussaint, Sinead O’Connor, Los Lobos, Lalah Hathaway, Wynonna, John Prine, Eric Burdon, Joan Armatrading, Randy Newman, Talib Kweli, Kris Kristofferson, Aaron Neville and thousands of other great performers. Browse our Video Archive to glimpse some memorable experiences we've captured.
Highlights
With a range of experiences offered at City Winery, one guest’s highlight might have been seeing their favorite artist performing an intimate concert while they discovered their new favorite wine. Another guest’s highlight might be the evening that they exchanged vows with their spouse at a beautiful wedding ceremony in our wine garden followed by an epic celebration (complete with amazing food and wine) with their closest friends and family. New highlights happen everyday across our locations. Plan your unforgettable night out at City Winery today.
