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BIG BREAKING NEWS!!!

Great news for Cellars of Sonoma!

California Legislature Approves Second Tasting Room Bill

The California State Legislature has approved legislation by Assemblymember Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Wine, to enable wineries to offer consumers wine by the glass or bottle in a second tasting room while expanding public review in the winery licensure process.

Sponsored by the Wine Institute, Assembly Bill 1470 passed the Assembly 63-0, following a Senate vote of 40-0 for approval. It awaits the governor's signature or veto.

"This is the right bill at the right time to aid one of California's signature industries feeling the pains of our recession," Evans said in a press release. "Fewer tourists are visiting wine country in this era of staycations. This bill helps bring wine to the people by authorizing wineries to conduct new kinds of direct sales to their consumers."

"Wineries are situating their duplicate tasting rooms in locales like San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Cannery Row in Monterey, Clarksburg in the Delta, and the town of Sonoma, sometimes partnering with one another to provide a broader consumer experience," Wine Institute president and CEO Bobby Koch said in the release. "Assemblymember Evans' legislation is great for wineries and their customers."

AB 1470 has three main components:

• Establishing consistency in how wineries (02 licensees) may sell their wines at locations operating under duplicate licenses as allowed under existing law for their master license.

• Conforming the issuance of duplicate licenses to a 30-day public review period. Such review is not currently part of the issuance process.

• Encouraging responsible wine consumption among wine bar customers by allowing them to take home unfinished bottles of wine, as is currently permitted at restaurants and wineries. The bill applies this "brown bag" privilege to wine bars operating under a standard beer and wine bar (type 42) license or a duplicate winery (type 02) license.

Have you purchased your tickets today for rare opportunity to tour the old Girst Vineyard on top of Bradford Mountain, while tasting their wines and enjoying a delicious BBQ amongst the vines, ripe for harvest! this is a special opportunity at this time of year! go to www.cellarsofsonoma.com or call 707-578-1826 to purchase your tickets today!

Need to fill our event by tomorrow! if you have not purchased your tickets yet do so asap! go to our website www.cellarsofsonoma.com to purchase your tickets or call 707-578-1826. Ticket sales conclude tomorrow, hope you all get yours today or tomorrow so we can see you next weekend! The vineyards are absolutely beautiful right now, big clusters of grapes, the smell of harvest and crush is in the air! come join us!! CHEERS!

Cellars of Sonoma made news regarding our new relationship with Heidi Peterson Barrett in NapaLife, a publication regarding all things happening in Napa Valley. Check it out! big news in the Napa area!

http://www.napalife.com/1166.htm


Heidi Barrett tasting room ─ in Santa Rosa!

Famed Napa Valley winemaker Heidi Peterson Barrett is adding her La Sirena (The Mermaid) wines to the new Cellars of Sonoma collective tasting room in Santa Rosa’s hot Railroad Square area.

Her wines join those of Ty Caton, DuNah Vineyard & Winery, Gann Family Cellars, T.R. Elliot, Krutz Family Cellars, Bonneau Wines, James Family Cellars & Bradford Mountain.

Barrett grew up in a winemaking family in the Napa Valley, and after graduating from UC Davis, she was hired as a winemaker Buehler Vineyards at 25.

Five years later, she began consulting for other wineries and soon created wines of “cult” status. Her powerful yet elegant Cabernets include the famous proprietary blend “Maya,” which received perfect 100-point scores in two consecutive vintages (’92 and ’93) from Robert Parker, as well as Screaming Eagle, her most celebrated project. The 1992 and 1997 vintages got another set of perfect 100’s from Parker.

Heidi is now concentrating on La Sirena.

Cellars is at 133 Fourth St., Santa Rosa. Call 578-1826.

I thought it fitting on the eve of our event out at the Gann Family Vineyard Estate, to showcase Michael Gann and Gann Family Cellars right here in Wine 2.0.

The Story!

Gann Family Cellars is the result of a long-held dream of ours. As a California native, Michael's family has a long history in Northern California that began in 1871 when Isaac W. Gann moved here, from the east, to purchase 154 acres of agricultural property. Six generations later, we have the privilege of continuing this family tradition with our Gann Family Vineyard.

Our story begins in 1984, at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where we met. While we were dating, we were introduced to the emerging wine country of the Central Coast. From there, our wine interest grew significantly, especially when we moved to the Bay Area after graduating in 1986. Here we had the chance to regularly visit the wine country of Napa and Sonoma counties and learn more about wine from Gretchen's brother, who had recently graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Enology. Our entertaining, whether family or friends, centered around wonderful food, wine and conversations about making our own wine "some day".

In 1995, while attending graduate business school at Saint Mary's, Michael had the opportunity to study the wine industry. The project provided an opportunity to analyze the underlying economics, compare different business models, as well as build a comprehensive business plan for our dream...while at the same time, completing a class assignment. He finished his MBA with a sense that all of the puzzle pieces were starting to come together: a growing passion for wine, a brother-in-law who could help us get the dream rolling, and the tools of how to smartly invest in our dream.

Over the next several years, we continued our individual careers, kept our dream on the back-burner and brought two daughters into our lives, Elizabeth and Natalie. It wasn't until late 2001 that we began seriously researching vineyard properties. After patiently evaluating 80 different properties in Napa and Sonoma, we finally found our perfect vineyard in Healdsburg. With the purchase of this estate, it was now time to give up the corporate life and start a new chapter.

However, this is really only the beginning -- phase one of many. We now have dreams of building our own winery facility and tasting room, a destination where those who enjoy wine can meet to share stories and sample our dream. We also have dreams of passing stewardship of our beautiful vineyard to future Gann generations, with the hope that they will enjoy this life with the same passion that we do.

We are so excited to be able to showcase the Gann Family wines! the Gann family is a wonderful family and they make incredible wines! to purchase their wines go to www.cellarsofsonoma.com take a look at the information on our wine club for the wine club discount on all the wines we showcase! CHEERS!

We had a quick broadcast tonight featuring James Family Cellars wine! AWESOME! cannot wait to share them with everyone! our most recently abc approved vintner! come check out their beautiful Rose! and and incredible Pinot Noir! Another rock star in the Cellars of Sonoma lineup!

Reminding everyone today is TV Tuesday at 5:30 pacific time! tune in to the live video webcast and see whats on the program today!

Special broadcast tomorrow live on location at Bonneau Wines, again 5:30 pm pacific time. To participate live in chat you must register an account, otherwise just tune in and enjoy the webcast.


http://www.cellarsofsonoma.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=86