If you like California Pinot Noir, or if you’re interested in learning more about it, you should join me at one of my favorite wine events. The Pinot on The River Festival is now in its third year of providing an intimate and low key way to enjoy some of the best Pinot Noirs from Sonoma 
county and around the state.
Held at the Vintners Inn between Santa Rosa and Healdsburg (a new venue for the event), the festival begins this Friday with wine dinners at several Russian River Valley wineries. Saturday is filled with seminars and tastings, 
including vertical tastings, blind tastings, and detailed classes on specific California Pinot Noir appellations. Saturday evening, participants enjoy a Gala dinner at John Ash & Co., the restaurant at the Vintner’s Inn.
Sunday begins with yet more seminars on wider ranging topics such as food and wine pairing, wine storage, home winemaking, and small production wines. The highlight of the day, however, is the walk-around Grand Tasting, where for four hours you can sample a wide variety of Pinot Noirs and chat with the winemakers and winery owners in a relaxed setting.
If you’re interested in the wines that are poured at the event, you can check out my coverage from 2005 and from 2004.
Pinot on The River Festival
Friday Oct. 27th – Sunday Oct. 29th 2006
Vintner’s Inn
4350 Barnes Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
There are still a few tickets available for the full weekend experience ($625) but they are going fast. Thursday October 26th is the last day to purchase tickets for the Sunday tasting ($59). If you want to attend, time is running out. Tickets must be purchased online.
The last couple of years the weather has been absolutely beautiful for the tasting, which meant walking around in shirtsleeves, but it can be chilly, so if you’re going, make sure to bring something to keep you warm if the fog sets in. Dress for the event is casual, and my usual tips for public tastings apply: wear dark clothes, come with a full stomach, and spit if you really want to enjoy the tasting.
See you there!
Full disclosure: The Pinot Festival is a paying advertiser on Vinography.
