Monarch Grove Winery Opens New Grover Beach Tasting Room
Story By Emily Basanese
Photography by Sarah Kathleen
Portugal style wines are on the menu at Monarch Grove Winery in Grover Beach, where as writer Emily Basanese explains, the owners recently opened a new tasting room.
During the cold winter months in the United States, monarch butterflies migrate to warmer climates. Just as tourists warm their bones along the sun-drenched coastline of Pismo Beach, butterflies take refuge from the frost in Grover Beach. Though human visitors don’t come to town by wing, they have frequently arrived via train, and for 15 years their stop here came with an unexpected encounter.
Monarch Grove Winery’s tasting room has been a fixture of the Grover Beach Amtrak station, greeting riders as they disembarked from the train. Like the butterfly, the tasting room recently migrated away, just around the corner to a larger space. Owners Ercilia Martins and Julie Garcia are excited for this new stage of their business.
Ercilia and Julie purchased Monarch Grove Winery on the first day of 2024, but their passion for wine started long before their acquisition. Ercilia is originally from Portugal and grew up in the countryside, where her family made their own table wine. She brought Julie home for visits in 2019 and 2022. That’s when Julie first began learning about winemaking from Ercilia’s father, Joe Martins.
“I fell in love with the culture and wine, and how food went with wine,” Julie says. “It’s an art.”
After that initial trip, Julie was hooked. She began taking winemaking classes and scouting locations for the right space to open a tasting room at home in Grover Beach. They wanted to apply that same Old World approach characteristic of Portuguese winemaking to their wine. That’s when they landed on Monarch Grove Winery.
Transformation has been a running theme in both Julie and Ercilia’s lives, so a winery branded with the Monarch butterfly, a creature that undergoes dramatic physical change itself, was a serendipitous fit.
“The Monarch is a symbol of transformation and this whole experience has been a big transformation in our lives,” says Julie.
Grover Beach was also spot-on. When Ercilia first visited the small beach town, she instantly felt at home; it reminded her so much of Portugal. Grover Beach may not have the renown of San Luis Obispo or Pismo Beach, but that was part of the appeal.
“There definitely has always been a pull to this community,” says Ercilia. In 2018, the two purchased their first home in Grover Beach and easily settled into the relaxed, hyperlocal and slower-paced culture. Another perk of this small town? Being the only wine tasting room.
After purchasing the winery, Ercilia and Julie flew straight into production, essentially learning on the job. Together they tackled sourcing grapes, selecting varietals and handling production.
“We bottle it, we label it, we cork it — all by hand,” says Julie. They often recruit the help of their son, Anthony Belerique, and his fiancé, Rachelle. Even Ercilia’s father, Joe, pitches in when he’s visiting from Portugal.
Their grapes are sourced locally, from Paso Robles into Arroyo Grande and down to the Santa Ynez Valley. Currently, they’re working with a specialist at Estrella Norte Vineyard who practices dry farming, a sustainable approach for growing grapes without irrigation, relying on natural rainfall and groundwater. “We’re thinking about our environment and resources; the grapes are more concentrated with less water, so we may not get as much, but we get really flavorful wines,” explains Julie.
Being so intimately connected to the production process naturally lends itself to hand-selected, small-batch varietals.
“The focus has been fruit-forward, low-tannin wines — a little bit lighter, European style. It’s what I fell in love with,” says Julie. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay and red blends are all staples in production, with the welcome interruption of varietals like Grenache and Petit Verdot. “We tend to barrel really gingerly,” Ercilia says. “Our goal is to make wine in very small batches.” This creates an opportunity to experiment with different grapes, processes and blends.
Monarch Grove Winery has a 1,000-square-foot production building on West Grand Avenue in downtown Grover Beach. Typically, they produce two barrels of their staple wines, which translates to around 600 bottles total. For their more exploratory wines, they produce one barrel at a time (around 300 bottles), making each of these selections a limited edition. This keeps their inventory dynamic and leaves them inspired.
“One of my goals is to produce a Mourvedre wine, along with a crisp, white Portuguese-style wine, like an Alberiño,” says Julie.
From the carefully selected wines to the hand-bottled process, it’s no surprise that Julie and Ercilia want visitors to feel that same amount of care in the tasting room. “When people come into the tasting room to taste the wine, it’s a really personal experience for me,” says Ercilia. “It’s like I’m pouring it in my home, so they’re a visitor, not a customer.”
Early this summer, Monarch Grove Winery moved their tasting room from the train station to just around the corner at their production facility on West Grand Avenue. It’s still just steps from the Amtrak. Several wine members make it a tradition to take the train for pick up parties and day trips. Whether it’s a place to migrate to or a permanent home, it offers a space to commune.
“We want to grow a spot that is that third place for our community,” Ercilia says.
Though the butterfly grove up the road is largely vacant this time of year, the winged beauties will soon return to this idyllic dot on the map. Unlike the butterflies, we’re lucky enough not to have to travel thousands of miles for a taste of paradise.
