LAKE COUNTY — A brand new organization of wineries that aims to promote Lake County as a wine region paired with the county to host hotel representatives Tuesday and Wednesday.
The tour led Bay Area hotel executives through area tasting rooms in the hope that hotels will turn around and promote Lake County as a destination to guests.
“They”re tremendously positive. They see it as a really great alternative to other areas they are traditionally sending guests to,” Matt Hughes said, president of the nine-month-old Lake County Winery Association (LCWA).
The group is separate from the long-established Lake County Winegrape Commission, but the two organizations plan to work together on wine promotion and numerous winery events.
Hughes said the Bay Area views Lake County as a more “approachable and casual” version of wine country, where tastings are around $5 rather than $20, and lines non-existent.
“The golden ticket for us is we like to say it”s wine country with altitude, because we have a lot of high elevation vineyards,” Hughes said.
The tour was sponsored by the association and the county.
LCWA came together out of collaboration between several winery owners, but didn”t form until 2007 because the county “never had the critical mass to get it started.”
Today there are 23 wineries in the county. A little over a year ago, there were just 14 and six years ago only four wineries.
Hughes said the group will run the Wine Adventure this summer, and join with the Winegrape Commission on other events to bring a focus on the consumer.
The group is currently developing ideas on how to expand the Winegrape Commission”s events, such as the High Altitude Viticultural Symposium.
“Those events have kind of been trade events ? we”d like to open it up to consumers as well,” Hughes said.
There is “a lot of crossover between the two organizations in membership,” he added.
The organization is open not only to winery owners, but businesses wishing to promote Lake County”s wine region.
“Right now the Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon are associate members. We”d love to see a lot of businesses and restaurants join that are interested in seeing the wine industry grow here.”
Members pay a one-time fee to join and annual dues loosely based on winery production levels.
In conjunction with the county, the organization just produced a winery map to include new wineries that have been established in the last few years. It was distributed to the North California Concierge Association members this week to include on hotel Web sites.
The eight guests included representatives from Le Meridien, Palace Hotel, Monterey Hyatt Regency, Yountville Inn, Grand Hyatt and the Hyatt Regency. They visited Shannon Ridge, Ceago Vinegardens, Wildhurst, Rosa D”Oro Winery, Six Sigma and Langtry Estate and Vineyards. A new Web site for the organization will be up and running shortly. For more information on the group, visit www.lakecountywineries.org.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
