Wine Weekend Extravaganza!

If you're a wine lover in the San Francisco Bay area this weekend, you're in luck - there's tons of fun events going on. It seems like every winery is having a release party, holiday event, or just offering good deals. Check out this link for a from a site called Local Wine Events for a complete list. Here are some that I'm excited about (although will probably only make it to one, sadly).

Tonight, Pleasant Hill Wine Merchants (in Pleasant Hill) will be having it's third annual Big Cab tasting, and for $30 you can try some cult wines from Caymus, Silver Oak, Grassi, Nickel & Nickel, Hartwell, Pina, Stuhlmuller, Baldacci, Mi Sueno and Miner Family Vineyards.

Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV will be in town signing his book at Books Inc. in the Marina at noon, then heading over to Fort Mason for a tasting event. Tickets are $30, and you have to bring a bottle of wine and a plate of food to match. Details here. (I was checking out the Fort Mason website for details about the event and noticed there's an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting there the same day. Oh the irony!)

East Bay vinter Periscope Cellars is having a futures release party at its tasting room in Emerville on Saturday, and knocking 40% off its wines.

Ridge Vineyards, the famed maker of cult cab Monte Bello, is starting its winter wine series on Saturday in Healdsburg, and for $10, you can taste wines from the "Sonoma Zinfandels" Gift Pack: 2006 Geyserville, 2003 Zinfandel Del Carlo and 2002 Home Ranch 1.5L.

VIE Winery is having a fall release party on Sunday, Dec. 7 in San Francisco. VIE's Les Amours (The Loves) Syrah received a 90 point score from Robert Parker (if you care about that sort of thing). I like VIE because one of the wine makers is Bryan Kane, who is also the guy behind Lake County's Sol Rouge. I met Bryan at ZAPfest earlier this year, and his wines really stood out among the tens, if not hundred, that I tasted. Plus he's a small winemaker and I like to support small production wineries. You can read my review of Sol Rouge's 2006 Lake County Cab here.

If you get to check any of these out, let me know!