Pinot Days

Coming up is the ~FOURTH ANNUAL PINOT DAYS FESTIVAL~. More than 180 of the world's top pinot noir producers will participate this year in the finest comprehensive tasting of the hottest grape around, pinot noir! Every region of California and Oregon will be represented over the course of the festival week, with five days total of tasting events.

Please note tablehopper readers get 10% off on tickets to all Pinot Days events—just enter the special discount code "tablehopper."

The main event is the Grand Festival on Sunday, June 29th. It will once again provide a complimentary and exclusive trade tasting from 11am–1pm, with the public portion running from 1pm–5pm, $65.

Trade: click here to sign up (entrance is complimentary).

The day of the Grand Festival, there is also a Sunday Seminar Series, offering specific opportunities to appreciate wines of particular styles, or from particular regions or vineyards. Each Series consists of three unique, topical tastings: Appellation, Vineyard and Misto. The "Appellation Tasting" is a tasting of pinots from a specific appellation or region. The "Vineyard Tasting" is a tasting of pinots from a specific vineyard. The "Misto Tasting" is mix of pinot-related topics, ranging from an alcohol level study to a clonal study to a study of the effects of the various barrel types—you choose.

A ticket to the Sunday Seminar Series includes the Grand Festival. Sunday Seminar Series ticket holders may enter the Grand Festival at 11am with members of the Trade, and taste for one hour before heading to your particular seminar series. Seminars are two hours in length, so you may re-enter the Grand Festival at 2pm to enjoy three more hours of tasting pinot and meeting winemakers. $90 per person.

Here are some additional Pinot Days events:

Pinot Tasting and Pairing
Tuesday, June 24th, 6pm–8pm, $25 (includes tasting and small bites)
Ottimista Enoteca-Café: 1838 Union St. at Octavia, 415-674-8400

Ottimista Enoteca-Café is hosting six pinot producers who will pour their finest to Ottimista customers interested in tasting and celebrating pinot noir, as paired with pinot-centric foods. Meet the winemakers and hear their stories.

Winemakers Dinners
Thursday, June 26th, 6pm–10pm, $150, at Jack Falstaff and Isa

Here you get a chance to taste six producers' wines with passed appetizers in a "festival" format before sitting down to a four-course meal, each course paired with two pinots. In short, the night is about fourteen of the best pinot producers' wines and delicious food. You will dine with the winemakers... Click here for more information.

[Please note: while they call these "Table Hop Dinners," tablehopper is in no way affiliated with these two dinner events!]

Focus Tastings
Saturday, June 28th, $80, Fort Mason Golden Gate Room
~Best of Santa Lucia and Santa Rita Hills, 1pm–3pm
~Best of Sonoma Coast, Anderson Valley and Santa Rita Hills, 4pm–6pm
~Best of Russian River Valley and Santa Maria Valley, 7pm–9pm

While you sit at your table, sixteen wines will be poured (four wines in each of four flights), the best of the regions, and you taste (blind) and talk while sixteen winemakhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifers will sit among attendees and share insight into their wines. Click here for more information.

Kosta Browne Producer Spotlight Tasting
Wednesday, June 25th, 6pm–10pm, $150, Fort Mason Golden Gate Room

You will spend two hours learning how the winery came into existence, what makes Kosta Browne pinot so unique, and what the plans are for the future, all while tasting sixteen nearly impossible-to-find and coveted Kosta Browne pinots (in four flights) with featured guest Michael Browne, the winemaker and co-owner of Kosta Browne. Click here for more information.

There are also some additional events, plus tastings at retail stores—be sure to check the main site for further details.

Best of the Bay Area Party
Pinot Days
Wed., June 25–29, 2008

Fort Mason (Buchanan St. and Marina Blvd.) and various locations
San Francisco, CA

website

order tickets

tablehopper readers get 10% off all events—just enter the code "tablehopper"