The annual Vino de Sueños event, which benefits ranch, farm and vineyard workers throughout the Santa Ynez and Los Alamos valleys, will return to the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott in Buellton from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. this Saturday. Nov. 9.
The Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation sponsors the event, now in its 12th year, and People Helping People of the Santa Ynez Valley is the host.
General admission and VIP tickets are available by clicking here.
This year, the foundation contributed $10,000 to the event.
“We are so excited and proud to be able to increase our level of sponsorship for this amazing one-of-a-kind event,” said Jessica Gasca, president of the Santa Barabara Vintners Foundation board of directors. “Not only does the event benefit the hardworking people that support local viticulture, this ‘wine of dreams’ project honors the work they do — work that helps both vintners’ and workers’ dreams come true.”
Each lot of wine donated to the event by a winery gets labeled with an original work of art created by a local artist. The wineries that donated this year’s wines include Alma Rosa, Brander, Buttonwood, Dierberg, Foxen, Ken Brown, Kita, Lincourt, Longoria, Refugio Ranch, Riverbench and Stolpman.
The artists who contributed label art are Jim Farnum, John Iwerks, Peggy Brierton, Kevin Gleason, Renee Kelleher, Chris Chapman, Suzan Hamilton-Todd, Rebecca Gomez, Sharon Tate, Patricia Hedrick and Seyburn Zorthian.
All of the wines will be available for tasting during the event, and winemakers and artists will be on hand to meet guests. Appetizers, live music and a silent auction comprised of art, wine and lifestyle items will round out the afternoon.
Silent Auction Event Raises $30,000 for Clarissa Nagy
The “Crush Cancer” silent auction and winetasting held to benefit local winemaker Clarissa Nagy raised about $30,000, one of the organizers said.
The event, which took place Oct. 19 at the WineSneak in San Luis Obispo, featured a silent auction packed with wines donated from winemakers throughout the Central Coast as well as meals from area chefs and many lifestyle items, said Lisa Morgan, Nagy’s friend.
“I want to offer special thanks to Donna Nagy (Clarissa’s sister-in-law), Ash Mehta (owner of the WineSneak) and my son, James Piper, for all their help,” Morgan said.
Paso Robles Wine Country Rallies to Help Kincade Fire Victims
Following the devastating Kincade wildfire in Sonoma, participating wineries in Paso Robles are donating $1 per bottle of wine sold during November, the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance announced.
Consumers are encouraged to buy wine directly from wineries and businesses in Paso Robles to help support the wine industry’s partners and friends in Sonoma County.
Participating wineries and businesses are listed online.
Once the funds are collected, the PRWCA will send contributions to several charitable organizations based in Sonoma.
The PRWCA is in contact with peers in Sonoma about other ways to be of assistance. For additional information about fire relief efforts, contact Joel Peterson, executive director of the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, at jpeterson@pasowine.com.
Photographer George Rose Debuts Wildling Museum Show, Book
“Santa Barbara County & Beyond: Recent Photographic Landscapes” is the title of Santa Ynez Valley resident George Rose’s coming art show at Solvang’s Wildling Museum.
The show will open with a reception from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16 and will continue through March 16 in the museum’s Valley Oak Gallery. While the reception will be free, guests are asked to RSVP in advance by emailing Julie Mock at julie@wildlingmuseum.org or by calling 805.686.8315.
The Wildling is located at 1511-B Mission Drive in Solvang.
Featuring more than 20 landscape photographs, printed via color dye sublimation on aluminum and inkjet printing, the exhibition will showcase Rose’s images of the golden rolling hills of the Santa Ynez Valley and the landscapes of Morro Bay, Carrizo Plain, Sonoma County and several Santa Barbara County vineyards.
Rose, a lifelong professional photojournalist, in August released “Wine Country Santa Barbara County,” a large-format photography book. The limited-edition book documents every corner of California’s unique coastal wine landscape.
“My latest book is a celebration of Santa Barbara County, highlighting every wine appellation and ‘trail’ in colorful fashion,” Rose said.
Rose began his long career as a photographer more than 45 years ago. Throughout the years, he has traveled a long and winding road through the elite world of popular music, film, news, politics and sports.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Rose served for six years as a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. His independent assignments, focused primarily on the entertainment industry, have been published in USA Today, Time, Newsweek and Rolling Stone. The Los Angeles Times twice nominated Rose (in 1979 and 1980) for a Pulitzer Prize.
From 1982 to 1996, Rose worked from the sidelines of the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders games as a photographer for the National Football League. Thousands of Rose’s images have been published in NFL books, calendars, trading cards and game programs.
Rose co-owned and co-published the Mendocino Grapevine, an award-winning Northern California weekly newspaper based in Ukiah. It was during this period that he became friendly with the Fetzer family (owners of Fetzer Vineyards), planting the seeds of a future career in wine. For the past 25 years, Rose worked as a wine industry executive communications director at four successful wine companies: Fetzer Vineyards, Allied Domecq Wines USA, Kendall-Jackson and J Vineyards & Winery.
— Laurie Jervis blogs about wine at www.centralcoastwinepress.com, tweets at @lauriejervis and can be reached via winecountrywriter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are her own.