A Guide to the Best of Southern California : WINE : Fruit Cocktails

At 9-year-old Jul Bochantin, California’s smallest commercial winery, grapes have no place. Instead, wild honey, raspberries, tomatoes, apricots and other fruits are hand-crushed and -processed, using traditional wine-making techniques, to produce exquisite, intense wines that appeal to almost every taste.

Co-owners and brothers Julius and Arnold Bochantin, who work out of a few rooms in a Pasadena office complex, invite customers to sample their wines, priced from $14 to $20, Thursday through Saturday from 1 to 7 p.m. They also will ship them anywhere in the state.

All the Bochantins--designed as much for mixing as for sipping--come with recipes. Among the serving suggestions: Combine the dry-fermented honey wine, which takes five years to go from the hive to the glass, with orange juice to make an “Orange Jewel” cocktail; the flavor is something like a very grown-up take on the Creamsicle. Or add the sherry-style tomato wine to pasta sauces, aspics, marinades or the “Cup of Kindness Bloody Marianne,” a cousin of the Bloody Mary.

Bochantin Winery, 344 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena; (818) 584-9048.