Wine Competition Tastings

This is one of the larger tasting events with over 200 wineries set up in booths around the four buildings.  These are some of the finest wineries from all of the major wine regions of California.  In addition to the incredible selection of great wines, there were also 80 California restaurants and 26 Microbreweries taking part.  Being a lover of a well made microbrew as well as great food and wine, it was hard to focus.  Not only one of the largest of these types of events, it is also one of the most crowded as well.  It definitely required persistence to get up to the most popular wineries and restaurants to get a taste of what they were serving.  There were tables scattered throughout the buildings to take a break and eat the great selection of food when you could find one empty. It was great fun to pick a wine and then search out a food from one of the many restaurants that might go with it.

Although it may seem that from 5:30 to 9:00 pm is not nearly enough time to see even a tiny bit of what was being offered, by 8:00 pm the crowds had cleared significantly, a few of the wineries had stopped pouring and most of the food was running low.  It was definitely easier to get around but there was less wine and food to sample, so don’t come late to avoid the initial crowds, just accept that there are many other people like yourself that love California’s wine, enjoy the party atmosphere and you won’t miss the best selection.  If you are in Sacramento around this time of year to attend the event, it is one that should not be missed if you are looking for a quick glimpse of California Wine Culture on a grand scale.

Price: $65 per person which includes commemorative glass, wine tasting, food and microbrews.
San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition Tasting Event:

The Chronicle Competition is one of the largest in the world with 3800 wines submitted for judging from all over the United States.  Each year the competition hosts a tasting of the award winning wines shortly after the judging is complete taking place on February 24th at Fort Mason in San Francisco in 2007. Fort Mason is located on the bay about half way between Fisherman’s Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Parking can be interesting, so try to get there early if you can. 

Although the day of the event started out damp and a little cool, by the time the event began the skies were just trying to clear.  We got to the pier area a half hour before the event was scheduled to start but the doors were open and we were able to start our tasting a little bit early. The inside of the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion building is a large warehouse that was decorated with balloons and a party atmosphere. The wineries were set up in alphabetical order on long tables that ran the length of the building. There were hundreds of wineries from across the country in attendance and each winery brought several different wines, making it difficult to even know where to begin.  This is a tasting event where you will really want to have a plan before you get there.

We picked our attack plan and started identifying the wineries that represented what we were interested in trying.  The crowds started out reasonably small which allowed us a chance to talk to the winery representatives at pretty good depth and get their take on the wines they were pouring.  By 2:30 the crowds had picked up considerably and this was no longer possible.  This gave us an opportunity to try some of the wonderful foods prepared by two local culinary schools and gourmet food suppliers.  The food selection was quite good; shrimp pasta, lamb and couscous, Basque sausage with cheese bread, truffles; and then there was the bread and cheese but this doesn’t come close to describing the extensive selection.  We had great fun picking out food and wine to pair it with.  If there was a down side it was the limited number of tables.  We were lucky enough to find one, but most were not so lucky creating a interesting juggling act when trying to eat and not spill your wine.  Continued ...