Public Wine Tastings

A review of large-scale public wine tasting events in California.

When we think of wine tasting, most of us imagine visiting individual wineries where, increasingly, a fee is charged. Many feel obligated to make a purchase to compensate for the server's time and effort. And so the typical wine tasting experience often turns out to be an expensive, if delightful, proposition.

There are other alternatives, however. And many wine lovers don't even know about them. These are the massive public wine festivals offered in San Francisco, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Temecula.

Some festivals, such as the Paso Robles Hospice du Rhône

festival, held each year in May, offers the largest assemblage of international Rhône styled wines in the world. For $50 you can taste the full spectrum of California Zinfandel at the annual Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP)

festival in San Francisco each January.

The Santa Barbara Vintners' Association

offers a public tasting each April that showcases the wines of all their member wineries in a beautiful park setting by the sea.

Perhaps the most attractive public wine tasting event in California is the annual Family Winemakers of California Annual Tasting for trade and public. This event is held in San Francisco each August. It's the largest public wine tasting event in North America, with over 400 wineries participating. And don't think these are all little mom 'n pop startups. All privately owned wineries in California are allowed to participate. That includes most of the wineries we know. For $40 you can taste over a thousand wines! If you have the time and inclination.