Rhone Rangers Tasting: March 22, San Francisco

I love watching the green buds burst forth on the trees this time of year, hard on the heels of the cherry blossoms. Yes, it's California, and the groundhog doesn't agree with me, but the barest hint of any season gets me excited, but especially Spring. And with Spring in San Francisco comes lots of wine tasting events, and a few really good ones.

The Annual Rhone Rangers Tasting in San Francisco is certainly one of the Spring highlights for wine lovers in the Bay Area. Held at Fort Mason, like all the other big tastings, Rhone Rangers offers the change for wine lovers to taste through a vast field of Syrah, Grenache, Viognier, and many other varietals and blends that fall under the general banner of Rhone-style wines.

I adore these wines, they're a great break after tasting hundreds of Cabernets in Napa, and this is always a great tasting event. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially those that might be stuck in a Cabernet rut (or a Merlot, Chardonnay, or Sauvignon Blanc rut for that matter). There's a lot more out there in the wine world, and this tasting will provide a heck of an education to anyone looking to explore alternatives to such varieties.

And of course, for those who are crazy for Rhone-style wines, then there's a whole weekend of activities, from a winemaker and library wine dinner on Saturday, as well as several wine seminars on Saturday and Sunday morning. Complete details can be found on the event web site.

Rhone Rangers Grand Tasting
Sunday, March 22th
2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Fort Mason Festival Pavilion
Buchanan Street and Marina Blvd
San Francisco, CA

Tickets to the grand tasting are $65 in advance, and should be purchased online.

And remember my tips for optimum enjoyment at public tastings: wear dark, comfortable clothes; get a good night's sleep; come with food in your belly; drink lots of water; and SPIT !

Posted by: Alder on March 5, 2009 12:01 AM: Tweet; Share this post elsewhere: Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit; Filed under: Wine Activities

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Comments (7)

Dylan wrote:

03.05.09 at 5:32 PM

I'm equally as excited for Spring. I just got back from a trip in New Orleans to visit an old friend of mine before he makes a move to Dallas. He told me it was rather unseasonable weather, but the 77 degree temperatures and vegetation got me all the more excited for the season coming around the corner.

Uzi wrote:

03.05.09 at 7:33 PM

You got me all excited at "green buds burst forth", I can't wait for the the most important Bud break, the ones on vines. It's too cold for that, still. Alas, the Rhone Rangers should be fun indeed.

scott wrote:

03.06.09 at 12:57 PM

A couple days celebrating Rhone varietals - sounds wonderful. I continue to encourage my fellow Texans to experience the amazing stuffings of these wines (especially Santa Barbara syrah my current fave) but alas this is a land of reluctant wine experimenters. Maybe some day the Rhone Rangers could make a swing this way - it's high time for some Texas Rangers that pack stained teeth over a six shooter!

Steve Edmunds wrote:

03.06.09 at 8:34 PM

One of the things I really liike about the Rhone Ranger tasting is that they provide spit cups! Let's face it, with 971 wines to taste, give or take a few (dozen), you ain't gonna survive if you don't spit. And getting to the dump buckets can be a major challenge, but if you grab one of the big red plastic spit cups, you can empty it at your leisure, and come through the marathon tasting this is, calm, cool, and collected!

Farley wrote:

03.07.09 at 10:37 AM

Alder, Great job with the two wins! And Rosenblum will be pouring at Rhone Rangers thanks to my refusal to take no for an answer...

I was also hoping to hear if you got my e-mail about the East Bay Passport event--another fun wine tasting experience.

Cheers,
Farley

Brandy Scoggan wrote:

03.07.09 at 10:19 PM

For anyone attending the grand tasting, I highly recommend stopping by the Jada and Calcareous booths. They are two of my favorite Central Coast wineries and have some fantastic Rhone Blends. Calcareous will probably be presenting some wines from their Twisted Sister label (which are fabulous) and my favorite Jada wine is called "Mirror." Jada's owner is a cardiac surgeon from the East Coast and has a pretty interesting background story. To my knowledge Jada only does Rhone blends. They are definitely worth checking out!

Weston wrote:

03.08.09 at 10:37 PM

Going to A Rhone Tasting this Tuesday put on my a wine sale rep here in Vancouver called "The Rhone Gang" thought for a second it was the same Rhone tasting as yours. But alas it is not