The key to An Excellent Monday?  Attending The San Francisco Slow Wine Tasting.  Immerse yourself in a wine tasting experience featuring genuine Italian wineries in downtown San Francisco.  On Monday, February 4, Slow Food Italy comes to San Francisco and presents a walkaround tasting with over 55 producers representing 15 Italian wine regions.

The San Francisco Slow Wine Tasting will be held at Terra Gallery (511 Harrison Street) between 5:30 pm and 8:00 pm.  Tickets are $50 per person and can be purchased here.  Whether your experience with Italian wines has been primarily Soave and Chianti, or you have an extensive wine cellar of Italian wines, you’re sure to enjoy this adventure.

If you have to work on Monday, February 4, reward yourself by savoring Amarone, Barbaresco, Barolo, Brunello, and Cerasuolo that night.  One of the wines that evening will be the 2008 Cordero di Montezemolo Monfalletto Barolo, recently recommended by the San Francisco Chronicle in an article about the 2008 Barolos.  This is your chance to try the Aglianico, Arneis, Barbera, Dolcetto, Frascati, Friulano, Lugana, Montepulciano, Moscato, Pigato, Sagrantino, Sangiovese, Verdicchio, and Vernaccia varietals all under one roof without having to leave the Bay Area. 

Venice, in the Veneto region of Italy

Italophiles should know that the San Francisco Slow Wine Tasting includes wineries from all over Italy, including the regions of Abruzzo e Molise, Basilicata, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Piemonte, Puglia, Sicilia, Toscana, Umbria, and Veneto.  Food will also be available for purchase during the event.

Everyone who buys a ticket to the Slow Wine Tasting will also receive a complimentary copy of The Slow Wine Guide, 2^nd edition.  One year after its English language debut, Slow Wine is premiering this new and updated edition at a series of tasting forums in San Francisco, New York City, and Miami.

The Guide adopts a new approach to wine criticism and looks at a variety of factors to evaluate wineries in their entirety.  It takes into consideration the wine quality, typicity and adherence to terroir, value for money, environmental sensitivity and ecologically sustainable viticultural practices.

Three symbols are used in The Slow Wine Guide to evaluate each winery:

• The Snail, the Slow Food Symbol, signals a cellar that has distinguished itself through its interpretation of sensorial, territorial, environmental, and personal values in harmony with the Slow Food Philosophy
• The Bottle, allocated to cellars that show a consistently high quality throughout their range of wines
• The Coin, an indicator of great value

So, come revel in Italian wine on February 4^th between 5:30 pm and 8:00 pm at the San Francisco Slow Wine Tasting and walk away with a new Italian Winery guidebook.  As a reminder, tickets are $50 per person and can be purchased here.

Slow Food International is a global grassroots organization that envisions a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it, and good for the planet.  A non-profit member-supported association, Slow Food was founded in Italy in 1989.  A portion of proceeds from the San Francisco Slow Wine event will be donated to the San Francisco Chapter of Slow Food.