Looking for some great California wine? Next weekend at the Family Winemakers of California Tasting in San Francisco you will find over 300 wineries offering tastes of their wines. This is the 22nd anniversary of the event so you may have been to one of these before.
The 2012 San Francisco Tasting will be busy – over 300 wineries from 20 different appellations will be pouring about 750 different wines (representing over 30 different varietals). There’s sure to be something to please everyone’s palate.
Next weekend, on Sunday September 9 between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. the Family Winemakers of California Tasting convenes at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Entrance tickets are $65 per person in advance but $75 per person at the door so you should purchase your tickets soon. You can go here to learn more about the event, see the complete list of participating wineries, and to purchase tickets.
Obviously, 300 wineries are a lot for any one person to try. So, don’t.
If you have the time, you could go here to review the entire list of participating wineries, identify the ones you know you like, recognize the ones your friends have recommended, and create a target list of wineries for your time at the event. If you don’t have the time for all that planning and sorting through 300 choices, you could decide to show up at Fort Mason on September 9 and just wing it.
Or, for a third option, you could consider some advice from us. We’ve listed below some of our favorite wineries in California that are scheduled to be at the Family Winemakers of California Tasting. These are the wineries we suggest you go stand in line at first. If you do, you will be exposed to some great wine from all over California, and a wide range of varietals covering everything from sparkling wines to whites to rosés to reds.
Wineries We Highly Recommend at the Family Winemakers of California Tasting
Audelssa Estate Winery (Glen Ellen)
Bennett Lane Winery (Calistoga)
Benovia (Santa Rosa)
Black Sears Vineyards (Angwin)
Cornerstone Cellars (Yountville)
Corté Riva Vineyards (Penngrove)
Dashe Cellars (Oakland)
Dierberg Estate Vineyard/Star Lane (Lompoc)
Dutton-Goldfield (Sebastopol)
Fritz Winery (Cloverdale)
Hendry (Napa)
Justin Vineyards and Winery (Paso Robles)
Kokomo Winery (Healdsburg)
La Jota Vineyard Co. (Angwin)
Lagier Meredith Vineyard (Napa)
Littorai Wines (Sebastopol)
Mauritson Family Winery (Healdsburg)
Merry Edwards Winery (Sebastopol)
Mi Sueño Winery (Napa)
Mounts Family Winery (Healdsburg)
Navarro Vineyards (Philo)
Paloma Vineyard (St. Helena)
Patz & Hall (Napa)
Pride Mountain Vineyards (St. Helena)
Rack & Riddle (Hopland)
Robert Biale Vineyards (Napa)
Rosa d’Oro Vineyards (Kelseyville)
Scheid Vineyards (Greenville)
Shannon Ridge Vineyards and Winery (Clearlake Oaks)
Siduri Wines and Novy Family (Santa Rosa)
Sojourn Cellars (Sonoma)
Stonestreet Winery (Healdsburg)
Tablas Creek Vineyard (Paso Robles)
Truchard Vineyards (Napa)
Vigilance Winery and Vineyards (Lower Lake)
The Family Winemakers of California association advocates for the rights and interests of its members to fully produce, market, and sell their products. In fulfilling its mission, the association has sponsored legislation and supported other strategies to open up domestic markets for direct-to-consumer wine sales. FWC also assists its members by organizing wine tastings throughout the state, such as the Tasting in San Francisco on September 9. To learn more about the organization, go here.