Holiday Wine Tasting
With Thanksgiving it’s important to do your homework on which bottle of wine you might need. The first stop on our local wineries tour was the Nevada City Winery, which was hosting their annual bottle your own wine party. Winemaker Mark Foster made a Syrah and Cabernet Sauivgnon and folks got the chance to walk through all the steps of filling, corking and labeling their bottles. Thanks Sapo Guapo Gourmet Cookies for the delicious samples of gourmet cookies made Nevada City Winery Rough and Ready Wine.
Next up we stopped into Sierra Starr Vineyard downtown Grass Valley Tasting Room for their holiday food and wine pairings event. The menu included seasonal favorites of turkey, triple cream brie cheese, cranberries and pumpkin pie with Sierra Starr wine varieties of champagne, Rose of Zinfandel, Old Clone Zinfandel, Cosmic Reserve Chardonnay and a dessert wine. It was a great opportunity to try a traditional Thanksgiving item with an unexpected wine, we were pleasantly surprised. Their tasting room is located at 124 W. Main Street, mark your calendars for their Ugly Sweater Contest on Friday, December 12th (during Cornish Christmas).
Avangurardia Wine focuses on Italian varities and their tasting room loves to help educate folks on their non traditional wine blends. The downtown Grass Valley tasting room is open Wednesday-Sunday, 12-5 at 209 West Main Street if you want to pop in and do a tasting, we enjoyed the Cristallo, Due Fiori and Ampio. Avanguardia owner Marilyn Chrisman recommends stopping by during Cornish Christmas to try their traditional Italian mulled wine.
And our final pit stop was to Lucchesi Vineyards Tasting room, at 128 Mill Street, in Grass Valley offers wine tasting, wine by the glass, live music and fun holiday merchandise. Owner Linda Clough recommended checking out the Turkey Trio, a bottle of Zinfandel, Masque and Pinot Gringo. For more information on other local wineries and tasting rooms in the area, click here. With so many wine tasting options in Nevada City and Grass Valley you’ve got plenty of options to help you choose the right bottle for your holiday meal or Christmas party, cheers! If you made it this far, feel free to leave a comment on your suggestion on a local wine to try.
© 2014 InnSide Nevada City, © photos by Erin Thiem
We are very lucky to have so many local wineries. It is fun to get a chance to talk to the wine makers and hear their approach to wine making.
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Wish we were up there to take advantage of this event before the holidays!