History / Winemaking

Honey Run Winery was founded in 1992 in Chico, CA, in a small canyon that is part of the Sierra Nevada Foothills.  Honey Run makes wonderful tasting, berry honey wine without sulfites or preservatives added.

        Looking back, the winery was a wedding present. John and Amy met at a dinner and guitar fest at John’s house (it’s a much longer story than that). Within a few years friends urged John to get a license to sell his honey wine, because they wanted more than they felt comfortable taking for free: "You have to let us pay for this.  I have friends that would pay for this," they would say.

       John and Amy's wedding plans coincided with converting the garage to winery / meadery. John searched boneyards, welded, and earned a sticker that said "Pound to fit. Paint to match."    Near the end of the construction, they had a $2,000 budget for the honeymoon, and a $2,000 budget for the remaining winery equipment; except that they were the same $2,000! So the Mexican Riviera brochures were returned to the drawer, and out came the brochure for a $125 week of kayaking in San Juan Islands above Seattle. The full grown grown golden retriever rode in the center hatch if you must know.

  John and Amy didn’t need to look far for the meadery name.  They were making honey wine a mile away from the Honey Run covered bridge, and John was still producing Honey Run Honey.  So Honey Run Winery it was. Three years later the winery outgrew its space in the canyon and moved to Park Avenue, which is south of downtown Chico. Honey Run fruit wine and mead is sold in natural food stores in twelve States, in many Chico and Paradise stores, and in most States online. Give it a try!

Winemaking