Sneak peek of our next Pour + Explore Rosés & Aromatic Whites tasting produced by the Sonoma County Vintners and me on Thursday, April 17, 5:30-7:30pm at Balletto Vineyards, along with 35 other all-star wineries!
Enjoy this fun discussion with the superstar winemaking duo Anthony Beckman & Andre Swart of Balletto Vineyards and the world-class grapes used to make the Rose, Pinot Gris & Gewurztraminer that the winery will be pouring at this fabulous event focused on Aromatic Whites & Rose Delights!
Get your TICKETS now! $65.00 per person, plus tax and a small service fee. See you there, Chris & SCV
Join Sonoma County Vintners and Sawyer Somm for this exclusive wine tasting event at Balletto Vineyards, featuring a special selection of Rosés & Aromatic Whites from over 30 wineries across Sonoma County! The evening festivities will be hosted in The Reserve Room, surrounded by estate vineyards, gorgeous views of the Backyard Gardens and stunning West County sunsets.
Celebrate springtime with a walk-around tasting of a curated selection of wines from each vintner, and enjoy light bites of cheeses and charcuterie. TICKETS available now!
Featured Sonoma County producers include Balletto Vineyards, Banshee Wines, Benziger Family Winery, Bricoleur Vineyards, Chalk Hill Estate, Chenoweth Vineyards, Comstock Wines, DaVero Farms & Winery, Davis Bynum, Dry Creek Vineyard, Ferrari-Carano, Foley Sonoma, GC Lurton Vineyards, Hamel Family Wines, Imagery Estate Winery, Inman Family Wines, Knights Bridge Winery, Kokomo Wines, Lasseter Family Winery, Laurel Glen Vineyard, MacLaren, Marimar Estate Vineyards & Winery, Mascarin Family Wines, Meadowcroft Wines, Medlock Ames, Rodney Strong Vineyards, Roth Estate, Senses Wines, Solo Nostro, The Setting Wines, Three Sticks Wines, Valette Wines, Zialena and more!
The American Fine Wine Competition is both pleased and honored to invite you to submit your rosé wines to THE Rosé Competition 2025. This will be the 12th edition of this noted wine competition,taking place in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on May 31, 2025.Our esteemed judges from across the country include a balance of sommeliers, chefs, wine writers, retailers and educators.
REGISTER HERE! The fee is $70.00 per wine entered. Registered wines will be accepted through May 20, 2025. Both International and domestic rosé wines are invited to participate. This includes sparkling, dry, and sweet wine categories.
We require four bottles of each wine entered, two for the competition, one to promote your wine at our annual “Fifty Shades of Pink” fundraising event (date and location will be announced soon), and one signed bottle for our charity auction. Thank you and we look forward to sharing your wines. ~Shari & Chris
Join Gravenstein Grill for an early evening celebrating all the incredible aromatic white & rose wines produced in Sonoma County! We’ll have wines being poured by over 20 guest wineries, including Balletto Vineyards, Anaba, Crux, Cochon, Banshee, Davis Family, Muscardini Cellars, Radio-Coteau, Red Car Wine, Sea Wolf, Marimar, Porter Creek, Raft, Inman Family, Quivira, Chenoweth Wines, Kobler Estate, Benziger Winery, Imagery Winery, Rodney Strong & More!
This event is Thursday May 25th, 5-7pm, outdoors on the garden patio. TICKETS are $35 if ordered online, $45 at the door, and includes tastings with all the wineries!
To accompany these world class wines there will be passed appetizers by Chefs Bob Simontacchi & Makana Colunga. This is the first of the Summer wine series at Gravenstein Grill – and it is not to be missed!
Enjoy theGravenstein GrillSummer Wine Series, with Sawyer Somm on the patio and enjoy wine tastings with 15+ top Rosé & Aromatic White Wine producers Thursday July 21, 5:30-7pm! Talk to winemakers and growers while enjoying paired hors d’oeuvres from Chefs Bob Simontacchi & Makana Colunga.
Guest wineries include: Acumen, Paradise Ridge, Acorn Winery,Flanagan Wine, Carol Shelton Winery, Radio Coteau, Red Car Wine, Talisman Wine, Trecini Winery, Marimar Estate, Balletto Vineyards, Bucher Wines, Vine Wrangler, Chenoweth Wines, Cornerstone Cellars, J. Cage Cellars, Kobler Estate Winery, Claypool Cellars, Crux Winery, Viszlay Vineyards & More!
TICKETS are $40 pre-order and $50 at the door, and includes tastings with ALL of the guest wineries as well as light seasonal appetizers.
With a nod to National Rosé Day on June 12th, read my varietal article from the April 2021 issue of Napa Valley Life! Here is a starter to lure you in, finish it up by following the READ MORE link to their site. . . Cheers! Christopher
Drink Pink
“Pink sunshine” and “freshness in a glass” are catchy phrases Robert Sinskey winemaker Jeff Virnig uses to describe the winery’s latest release of the 2020 Vin Gris of Pinot Noir, a complex pink wine with bright, fruity flavors, crisp acidity, and long dry finish. With a brilliant pale salmon hue, this signature style has become the benchmark for where classy pink wines have come over the past thirty years and one of the many reasons wine lovers flock to Napa Valley in the springtime to get their hands on these energetic young wines before they sell out.
The road to rosé’s popularity in Napa Valley did not happen overnight.
When Virnig started making rosé in1991, his goal was to create a fun, quaffable, food-friendly wine that added instant excitement to gatherings any time it was served. But at the time, the impression pink wines were making on American consumers was swayed by the sugary imports like Mateus and Lancers, which flooded the marketplace in the late 1960s. When Sutter Home Family Vineyards winemaker Bob Trinchero released their White Zinfandel in 1975, people went crazy for it, but it was still snubbed by serious wine drinkers.
As a result, the first
few vintages of the Robert Sinskey Vin Gris were sold to wine buyers and
sommeliers in New York City, who catered to world travelers that were
already familiar with the drier styles of rosé produced in France,
Italy, Spain and German. As the years passed, this learning curve gave
Virnig and other adventurous winemakers of Napa Valley time to develop
special techniques now being used to create various expressions of rosé
wines.
