My Affair with Mendocino and Winesong!

I know it has been awhile since you have seen me on here....did you miss me? Aww, you’re too kind...I missed you all as well. The reality is that August is a month chock full of 16 hour days getting ready to welcome 1900 first year students back on campus. For all the time I’ve been doing this I have yet to find a way to incorporate wine blogging into staff training. If you come with anything please share the wealth. But since I only get paid in wine or event tickets for this gig, I gotta have something on the side that pays the bills, typcally racked up from wine purchases. But August is almost over and that means I’m back, and just in time!

I have been fortunate enough to be able to cover many wine events in California since I began writing, such as Taste of Mendocino, Pinot Days, and Sonoma Wine Country Weekend, which I will be covering again next week. The newest event I will be covering for the first time is Winesong! held in Mendocino County. While Sonoma County wine is my first love, Mendocino wine is that hot little number I have on the side. She’s a bit younger and I have only told my closest friends about her. Come the 9th and 10th of September I’ll be cheating on Sonoma and taking a weekend trip to cover this multi-faceted event.

In the wine world, the Pinot Noir grape is a mysteriously seductive grape . It's fickleness and fragility is something that not just any Joe Winemaker is willing to work with. While many take the challenge, only the strong emerge as great producers of Pinot Noir. I believe it is because of the challenge involved that Pinot Noir is also widely celebrated. There is the International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon, Pinot Days in San Francisco, and even an international #PinotSmackdown, of which New Zealand took the crown this year.

On Day 1 of Winesong! we’ll have another chance to celebrate Pinot Noir with a barrel tasting from wineries all over the Anderson Valley. Many critics of California wine say that Pinot is better left to our friends in the terroir driven Pacific Northwest. And to be honest, before tasting through many of the Anderson Valley wines at Pinot Days, I would have agreed. Now, I invite all of you to put those preconceived notions about California Pinot aside and I think you’ll find many of the things you love about Northwest Pinot Noir happening right here in Anderson Valley.

The second day of Winesong! includes tasting from producers all over the world and a charity wine auction, something Sonoma and Napa counties also do.

If I have made you jealous about getting to attend this event, than I have done my job. You could either keep sitting there feeling bad about yourself or you could click here to get your tickets. WestToast will be there.....will you? Whether you can make it or not, be sure to follow me on Twitter @JesseRAndrews for live updates during the event.

Cheers!