GOING HERE ©

            The Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance holds the 34th Wine Fest Weekend, May 19-22. Details and Tickets and full information are available at pasowine.com. The weekend offers a variety of events within the overall structure. Saturday morning has a seminar on characteristics of  Paso Robles and sub-AVAs. Two winemaker dinners are available on Thursday night. There is a Reserve tasting Friday evening and the Grand Tasting in the park Saturday afternoon. Boxed lunches and food trucks are available and a picnic area provided. Wineries are offering various Festival related events and specials for ticket holding Festival Fans. One example of which is Friday night at Derby Wine Estates (.com) tasting room and patio. They will kick off this year's Wine Festival with an exclusive "Salt Lick BBQ" event! 

A Texas Brisket, Ribs and Salt Lick Sausage plate will be prepared for you, by the legendary Pit Master Scott Roberts, all the way from Driftwood Texas. The Derby Smokehouse will be preparing delicious side dishes to compliment this Authentic Texas BBQ!  Join the fun May 20th from 5:30-9:00pm. Pat and Matt of The Guitar Circus will be entertaining the crowd with their dueling guitar act. Tickets are $30 for general public, available on the web site above.

The Chardonnay Symposium (.com for details) will be held the weekend of May 12-14 in various locations in the beach towns near San Luis Obispo and surrounding wine growing sites. As the above mentioned CABs event, this event is also a SOMM Journal magazine involved event with a wide range of tastings, seminars and dining events. Many of the events involve sommeliers from around the country and versions of the varietal from many different Chardonnay centric areas.

June 13th is the date for the first American Albariño Summit. The event will take place at Brecon Estate (.com) in Paso Robles. This unique event features both an Albariño tasting and optional educational seminar. At least twenty Central Coast wineries will be pouring their current offerings at the tasting.  The seminar is from 5 to 6pm and the tasting will be 5:30 to 7:30.

The panel includes Albariño experts talking about the origin and history of the grape, viticulture and a sommelier to enlighten us on food pairings. Seminar tastings include a comparison of  Spanish, Portuguese and California versions of the wine. The main tasting will include live flamenco guitar and food pairings reminiscent of NW Spain. Tickets for both are $50 or tasting only at $35 and purchased via eventbrite.com.