If you purchase two tickets to the Santa Rita Palooza, a wine tasting featuring six premiere winemakers of the Santa Rita Hills region with pairings by Angeleno’s West, you can get a free ticket to the Grand Tasting of Pinot Days.

Santa Rita Palooza Features:

• Clos Pepe Winemaker, Wes Hagen
• Pali Winemaker, Aaron Walker
• Hitching Post Winemaker, Gray Hartley
• Sandler Winemaker, Ed Kurtzman
• Zotovich Family Vineyards Winemaker, Ryan Zotovich
• Arcadian Winemaker, Joe Davis

All you have to do is forward your ticket confirmation to Lisa Rigisich via the email address in the image above. Her recommended email subject? I AM A SANTA RITA TWO SEATER – PLEASE EMAIL ME ONE GRAND FESTIVAL COMP!

Looking to purchase a Grand Tasting ticket for a friend? Use our very own Pinot Days coupon code for a 10% discount: HIPSTERSC12

WHO: Second Glass WHAT: A Pair of Tickets to the Second Glass Los Angeles Wine Riot Tasting Event: 250 Wines from all over the world, crash course wine seminars, wandering experts, a DJ, themed photobooth, food pairings, a mobile app to track your tasting notes & more… ($100 Value) WHEN: March 26th, 1:00-5:00PM WHERE: Santa Monica Place 315 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90401

Website: http://www.secondglass.com

Luke put together a food and wine pairing wrapped around the theme of “Occasion Wines.” Many of us have wines that are traditional for certain occasions, so Luke kept those moments in mind when creating this flight.

Champagne

First, Champagne seemed apt for toasting the start of a new year and to kick off the tasting event. NV Laurent Perrier Brut L-P stepped up to the plate. Crisp green pear and citrus zest on the nose with just a touch of toast made this wine a nice fit for whitefish caviar on crème fraiche atop steamed then chilled fingerling potatoes.

Beaujolais Nouveau

For wine lovers around the world, a humorous annual occasion is the third Thursday of every November. On that day the new vintage of Beaujolais Nouveau pulls a Santa Claus and shows up in every town around the world. While most Nouveaus are rarely taken seriously, Kermit Lynch has a 2010 that should be respected. The wine is light and fruity, but grips with good acidity and body. This wine was paired regionally with Persillé du Beaujolais bleu cheese and Luke’s Port, red onion & heirloom Arkansas Black applesauce.

Amarone

Coppa shared the plate with the bleu cheese to serve as the evening’s third pairing for the celebrated Italian wine, Amarone. The cured ham with the Arkansas Black applesauce made a complementary sweet and salty combo for the 2006 Cesari Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. Traditionally, a blend of Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara varietals, grapes for Amarone spend several months drying on racks after harvest. This concentrates the remaining juices and increases the skin contact of each grape lending to softer tannins and richness in color. This depth of character is present in the 2006 Cesari, making it a suitable addition to formalities like meeting the parents.

Mead

Another famed and oft overlooked wine made its way into the tasting but seemed more fitting for an occasion where one might have slain a dragon. NV Rabbit’s Foot Dry Mead was paired with crème fraiche and blackberries topped with drops of kirsch and sprinkled with brown sugar. The kirsch added just enough bitterness to make the sherry-like mead seem sweeter, while the crème fraiche accentuated its nuttier flavor components.

Late Harvest Dessert Wine

Ending a great meal or occasion often means breaking out a good bottle of dessert wine. To complete this flight, Luke paired the 2006 Rosenhof Welschriesling Beerenauslese with a bite of gorgonzola dulce and fresh whole honeycomb. Second only to Trockenbeerenauslese, this qualification of wine for Germany and Austria is amongst the most sought after wines of each good harvest. Affected by noble rot, the fruit used in Beerenauslese is hand-harvested, grape-by-grape creating a lengthy and laborious harvest. A wine this hard to make usually costs a mint, but not the Rosenhof at around $20.

It’s almost that time of year again, Los Angeles. Hold on to your gallon hats, because the Rhone Rangers are coming to town. They’re holding a tasting Sunday, August 8th 2010, at Pier 59 Studios West with representatives from many of their 40+ member wineries.

We hope you’ll stop by these wineries’ tasting tables:

• Vines on the Marycrest

We’re just going to put this out there: Victor is the man. There aren’t many men about which you could say he started pursuing his dreams at a nunnery. The name Vines on the Marycrest comes from the hill in Culver City where he originally planted his vines, Marycrest Manor, in 2002. Yes, the nuns did call the police. Once he proved that he wasn’t growing the devil’s weed, his vines were able to stay in the ground until the higher-ups eventually requested that he move them. We’ll just assume that the Vatican didn’t want the competition. Fast forward to 2004 when Victor and his family including the vines have relocated to Paso Robles and started anew. Each wine is named after a song, sealed by screwcap and intended for your immediate enjoyment.

• Michael~David

The inter-hipster communication pathway was abuzz with the news that Michael~David would be at the Rhone Rangers tasting this year. When we finally get up to Lodi, we can say with certainty that we’ll be visiting their tasting room. Between the Incognito, Earthquake, Windmill Estates & Sin series, the hits just keep coming. Find our review of the 2005 Petite Petit here.

• Justin

If you said that going over to James Beach for a 6 oz pour of Justin Isosceles or stealth drinking a bottle of Justin Sauvignon Blanc from a Nalgene were some of our favorite things to do – Well, you’d be absolutely right.

• Zaca Mesa

A long time favorite of the Hipster clan; these guys do Rhone right! From their whites: Roussanne, Marsanne, and Viognier, red blends: Z Cuvee and Z Three, to their great Syrahs; they are a fantastic example of California Rhone style wines. Additionally, their tasting room and winery are certainly something special, especially if you fancy a game of chess or ‘truck sampling.’ (Please see our photo album.) If you make the trek to Zaca Station Rd, don’t expect to come away empty-handed. We still have a flight of the ’03, ’04 and ’05 Syrah sitting in the cellar for one hell of a vertical tasting.

• Clavo

We found Clavo at Rhone Rangers last year. If you’re lucky, Neil Roberts, the nail himself, will pouring this year as well. His fusion of new world grapes and old world style was enough to inspire a multiple hour detour to his tasting room on the way back from what was supposed to be a short jaunt to San Francisco and back. Go get nailed and find yourself a Reckless Moment. Pun intended.