Ahh Lake County.  Home of Indian Casinos and the Konacti Harbor Resort, where you can see the best of 70s and 80s has been bands.  Ok just kidding.  Not really.  But really.

Did you know that Lake County is also home to dozens of wineries?  Some of the areas oldest wineries include the Langtree Estate Winery (formerly Guenoc), which sits on the grounds where Lily Langtree, minor British royalty and silent film star, once lived.

For over a hundred years, visitors would escape the city life and crawl over Howell Mountain to get to the Guenoc Valley, gateway to Lake County.  Lake County is so named for the largest freshwater lake in California (Lake Tahoe is the largest that shares area with Nevada), which is believed to be one of the oldest lakes in North America.  Clear Lake used to be even larger than it is now, once joined with the smaller Blue Lake, and has only one outlet – Cache Creek.  The Volcanic soil deposit from nearby Mt Konacti creates a perfect climate for wines.

The Lake County Winery Association is happy to show off some of these wines by bringing them to San Francisco (yay!) on August 20th, with a tasting event of some of the local wares.  Wines With Altitude will showcase how Lake County, it’s own AVA and vasty different from neighboring Napa Valley, has a uniuqe terroir and flavor.

**News Flash** I have discount tickets for you!  Use code “winebratsf” at checkout, and save 50%! TICKETS HERE

This event will feature some of Lake County’s best, and is being hosted at Winery SF – a new venue on Treasure Island where some of my favorite local, VERY local, wines are made (VIE and Sol Rouge).  Featured wineries will include Beaver Creek Winery, Cache Creek Winery, Gregory Graham Wines, Langtry Estate & Vineyards, Rosa d’Oro Winery, Shannon Ridge Winery, Shed Horn Cellars, Six Sigma Ranch & Winery, Sol Rouge, Steele Wines, and Vigilance Winery.

Tickets for the tasting on Treasure Island are $35 if you buy them now – $50 after August 4th.  You can also get a VIP ticket which includes a special tasting, logo class, and olive oil tasting.

A few weeks later, the Lake County Wine Auction will take place on September 17th in Nice.  No, we’re not going to France.  Nice is really very…nice!  About 2.5 hours north of San Francisco, Nice is the center of Lake Country wine industry.  This auction celebrates the bounty of Laek County, and tickets are $75 ($150 for a Reserve ticket with food & wine tasting, as well as dinner & dancing).

Over 3.0 wineries will be offering samples of 100 different wines, and 25 chefs will show off the bounty of Lake County at Ceago Vineyards, Jim Fetzer’s biodynamic showpiece.

The Live Auction is the gem of this event.  Lots of  getaways, fine art, winery tours and tastings to reserved wines and winemaker dinners will be offered, and there will certainly be some great deals!

And once again, all proceeds go to local charities, so you really are eating and rinking for charity.  HOw can you resist/

Hope to see you out and about enjoying the tastes of Lake County!

Ah, Sonoma.  That illustrious wine growing region to the north.  Oh the delicious pinot, zinfandel, and other wines created there!  Well, here in San Francisco, sometimes it’s hard to get up there.  Traffic, time, gas, etc.

Fortunately for us city dwellers, Sonoma is coming to the city!  This week, through a series of tastings and events, the wines of Sonoma are being showcased here in the city.

Starting tomorrow, the Grand Tasting at the Westin St Francis, over 200 wines from 100 wineries and growers will be poured.   Here, you can explore over 200 Sonoma County wines from 13 regions hand picked to show off the diverse terroir and winemaking styles.  Tickets are $55, but you can get a discount if you use your VISA Signature card!  There is also a special VIP room ($65).

On Thursday, Forks & Corks will be at the Firehouse at Fort Mason.  Eighty wines will be paired with five of our best food trucks: An the Go, Brass Knuckle, El Porteno Empanadas, Japa Curry and the Crème Brulee Guy. Tickets are $75 ($50 with the VISA discount, or $40 using code SPECIAL).

For those who like a little less formal of a stating, Vin12, who does monthly wine tastings at urban locations, is hosting a tasting on Friday at SLOANE for $25.  Featured wineries include Ceja, Gloria ferrere, Roessler, and Tin Barn.

I hope to see you out and one or more of the events!

Happy Sipping!

Who needs Burning Man or Woodstock!  We have Rootstock!  Rootstock is a festival of food, wine, an music that brings together people of all kinds in an urban winery coop in Santa Rosa.

This year, Chef Bob Blumer will host the TasteLive broadcast, pairing wines with foods created from his new book “Glutton for Pleasure”.  Yours truely will be on deck with $20 Wine aka my other half, to interview the chef after the live tasting.  We will be live tweeting from the event under the hastag #rootstock!  Ziggy the Wine Gal and Alan Kropf of Mutineer Magazine will also be in attendance.

Tickets to the extravaganza are $35 each and can (and should) be purchased in advance.  But for you, I am giving away a pair!  Two lucky readers will win tickets to the festival on July 16th.  Just leave me a comment about your favorite street food and I’ll draw two random names.

Rootstock was founded in 2009 by Joel Quigley & Cailyn McCauley of Creative Furnace, Rootstock will have tons of live music hosted by Ziggy and KRSH 95.9.  Additionally, Heather Irwin of Bite Club Eats will host the Best Bites, with food from Mateo Granados (yay Mateo!) who was recently written up in the Chronicle, and other local chefs of tasty treats.  Wines from more than 20 wineries wil be poured for your sipping pleasure!  Sounds like fun right?

Rootstock is tasking place at Santa Rosa Vintner’s Square, a complex of four wineries in town, who will be adding several new winery tenants over the next year.  Stop by and check it out!

So, what’s YOUR favorite street food?  Mine is Chairman Bao here in SF.

Do tell!

Having arrived safely in Paso Robles, I am eagerly anticipating the kick off of Hopices du Rhone tonight at the Rhône ‘n Bowl.  This event is sure to bring out the athlete in all of us, or at the very least be sure to make us all laugh hysterically as we sip some terriffic Rhône wines.

I myself am sporting a Twisted Oak Ron Dover (brother of Bend) bowling shirt, replete with rubber chicken.

Be sure to tune in to the updates here and on twitter for all of the frivolity this weekend!

It’s January, and for me, that means a busy wine month.  First, Winter Wineland is next weekend – January 16-17.  At Winter Wineland, over 100 wineries in Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valley throw open their doors and show their best wines and nibbles. There are some wonderful themes at wineries, including my personal favorite, The Winter Wineland Olympics at Michel-Schlumberger.  I heard tell that there will be an Elvis sighting at Hanna as well!  Now, I normally avoid the wine country on event weekends, but with the list this year including some 5-10 new additions, this is a great opportunity to taste the wares of many wineries on a single weekend, where they show their best bottles.  Thickets are $40 online until 9pm TONIGHT January 11th, and are good for both days.  You can buy 1 or 2 day tickets at the door, but the price increases.

That same weekend, Santa Cruz Mountain Wine Assocaition’s Password Weekend allows you the unusual opportunity to visit some of their terrific wineries, many of which are only open on special occasions.  I have enjoyed this event every tiem I’ve gone, and your $40 passport is good until you have every winery stamped.  The passport event is every January, April, July and November, so it’s actually a great way to see all of the Santa Cruz area wineries over the course of a year!

Finally, at the end of the month, ZAP!  The Zinfandel Advocates and Producers week long tasting extravaganza hits the town in San Francisco.  nter is January 15th, and this year’s theme is Zinfandel in Paradise, and it promises to be a great event as always.

• The event weekend kicks off with Thursday, January 28th’s Good Eats & Zin, where noteworthy restaurants and award-winning wineries turn the art of food and wine pairing into an entertaining and approachable affair. Talented chefs present the ultimate combination of distinctive tastes, while winery proprietors offer delectable Zinfandels to match.
• Friday has two events, starting with Flights! A showcase of Zinfandel, where you can immerse yourself in the hitory and diversity of Zinfandel.
• Friday evening is Evening with the Winemakers which is your chance to hobnob with famous winemakers and wineaux alike at the intercontinental.
• The weekend culminates in Grand Tasting on Saturday, where you can taste over 200 zinfandels from around the state, as well as a few from lesser known regions.

As luck would have it, my friends at Vintuba are giving away 2 pairs of tickets to the Grand Tasting for some lucky viewers.  You’ll hav eto meander over to their site to find out how to win, but let’s just say , some great words, and facebook are involved.  Deadline to enter is January 15th, so don’t miss out on this great contest!

Just Grapes is also giving away 2 tickets to ZAP.  You have until January 23rd to tweet the following to be entered to win:

I want to win 2 tickets to the ZAP Zinfandel Festival in San Francisco from @justgrapeswine Go to http://tinyurl.com/yg4ynst for details

Each tweet will give you one “ticket” in the drawing, which will happen on January 24th.    Good Luck!

This is one of my favorite times of year.  The weather is chilly, I can curl up by the fireplace, and sip…cold beer!  That’s right, even the Wine Brat loves some beer from time to time.

On Sunday, November 15th, beer lovers from the Bay Area will converge on Fort Mason to celebrate with the BevMo Holiday Beer Fest.  Over 50 holiday, Sesasonal & Special, and soon to be released brews will be poured, and all of the beer will be available for purchase at BevMo.

Seasonal brews go back as far as the art of brewing itself, where these big bold sippers were made to celebrate the coming of winter.  The Medieval Monks, the first professional brewers, added special ingredients to create warming beers to get us through the long cold winter.  Today, brewers use these old methods and add new techniques and flavors like fruits, herbs, coffee and chocolate.  Mmmm chocolate!

Join me and The Beer Wench for this special event!  Tickets are $35 adn can be purchasd HERE, which includes all of your beer tasting.  Food will be available for purchase as well.

Next door to the Beer Fest, the SF Vintners Market will be the first and only wine tasting and buying event in the Bay Area.  On November 14th and 15th at Fort Mason Center over 300 wineries from Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Russian River Valley and beyond will be pouring their favorite wines including new releases, special collections and hard to find vintages for you to taste.  The fun part about this event is that you can actually buy the wine after you taste it, something that hasn’t been done until now due to licensing issues and legal tangles.

The brainchild of Cornelius Geary and Jeff Player, founders of Wine 2.0 and RadCru.com, this event promises to be a good time.  WIth the economy still in the dumper, smaller wineries struggle to get their wares of there.  These event will get the winemaker closer to the customers, and allow us to buy what we like without searching out after a tasting.  In addition to the winemakers at many of the winery booths, we’ll be hosting a special section for “Major famous” winemakers and wine industry celebs where you can get a few minutes of personal time and a quick picture with the winemaker!

Tickets for the SF Vintners Market are $15 each day for General Admission, or $50 for a VIP ticket which allows you access to a special VIP section each day.  You can buy tickets HERE.

I hope to see you there!

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!

Previously, I have written about the importance of supporting the little guy.  I still think it’s very important to find boutique wines that are limited production and unusual, so we can spend our dollars differently.

The Winery Collective, an urban tasting room and wine bar here in San Francisco,  is currently offering a Summer Sipper series at their Cannary location.  During the summer season, they are opening the Del Monte Courtyard, a gathering space for sidewalk cafes and buskers, as their outdoor winebar in a  serises of tasting events.

Winery Collective is a destination winery tasting room in Fisherman’s Wharf, that focuses on boutique California wines.  It is owned and operated by small, family winemakers, and lets the consumer taste dozens of small production wines in one spot.  They also offer a by the glass menu, as well as chocolate pairings.

The Sunday Sippers Summer Wine Tasting Series is an opportunity for wine lovers in the Bay Area, as well as visitors to San Francisco, to taste unique wines not readily found in other outlets.  The current schedule for the San Francisco Summer Wine Tasting Series includes the following wine regions:These events have different themes, and range in price from $15-25 (prepaid), offering upwards of 20 different wines to taste as well as the opportunity to speak to the winemakers of these boutique cellars.

Last weekend, the summer series kicked off with a tasting of Lake & Mendocino county selections.  It was a great aftertoon to sip some cool whites in the rare San Francisco warmth, and I look forward to the next one.

The current summer tasting schedule is:

July 19^{th –} SF Wine Pour

Taste 100 wines in one spot!  Unique opportunity to taste all over the state in one afternoon.

1-4:30pm over 100 wines for $25 (advance) / $35 (door) TICKETS: http://sfwinepour.eventbrite.com/

July 26^{th –} Napa Valley

August 2^{nd –} Sonoma

August 9^{th -} Urban Wineries

August 16^{th –} South Central Coast / Paso Robles & Santa Barbara

Hope to see you there!

Winery Collective is located in San Francisco’s Wine Tasting District at 485 Jefferson Street @ Hyde Street next to The Cannery and 1 block from the Hyde Street Cable Car Turnaround. Open daily 11a-9p for wine tasting.