Here a zin there a zin, everywhere a zinzin!

Septemberber is California Wine month!  Ok fine, so if you know me, you know that every month is California wine month, but this is the officially sanctioned month to enjoy California wine like you’ve never enjoyed it before.  September is the start of harvest time, and this month celebrates our ideal climate for wine, beautiful wine country landscape, and talented winemaking families.

2009 is the fifth annual celebration of California Wine Month, and it’s also a great time to celebrate Zinfandel. It’s no secret that I love my zin.  In fact, if you read my WBW piece or follow my car around (my vanity plate says ZINNIN1 in case you haven’t been to see me), you know how much I love zin.  Lucky for me, there is a lot of this juice around.

On Saturday, September 19th, the Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley are hosting an event at the Lake Sonoma Recreation Area that focuses on the unique zins from this region.  Now, I not only made a zinfandel from Dry Creek at Crushpad this past year, but there are tons of my favorite wineries participating!  (partial list of my faves.  For a full list, click HERE)

Since it’s almost Labor Day and there is a lot going on, I’ve listed some other highlights here as well.

• Bella Vineyards & Wine Caves – is having a Labor Day party with tasting, nibbles, and walks through the wine cave!  $10.  If you start here, you might as well meander down West Dry Creek road to…
• Michel-Schlumberger – is having a fund raiser for the Bird Rescue Center on Sept 5th.  You can go birdwatching, see a raptor display, and, well, eat some pizza and drink some wine!  $10 fee goes to the Bird Center.  And if you go there, go next door to…
• Mounts Family Winery -who incidentally is having a fantastic Labor Day BBQ this weekend.  Wine and BBQ for $5, can’t beat it!  Besides, the wine is just plain YUM.
• Kokomo Winery
• Mauritson Family Winery
• Optima Wine Cellars
• Preston of Dry Creek

The festivities start at 2pm, when there is a wine tasting of Sav Blanc, other unusual white wines, Zins, and more reds to get things started.  This tasting is a change to tour Dry Creek while standing still at the park, and tasting over 50 wines.  Over 30 wineries will be in attendance, and you can sip your wines of distinction while walking around the artisan market and rocking out to the SoulShine blues band.

There will be food by Park Avenue Catering, which has the unique distinction of being Sonoma County’s ONLY certified green catering company.  Quite an accomplishment when you consider what goes in to running a successful catering enterprise.  There will also be music from 2-5, and a chance for you to have your own Lucille Ball moment stomping the grapes!

Tickets for this event are usually $75, but for my readers, you can get 30% off by entering coupon code zin at checkout.  This makes the tickets a more affordable $50, and worth it – that’s about $1 a taste of wine, plus all the food and fun!