Paso Robles Wine Festival

Paso Robles Wine Festival

Summer is a wine-drinking marathon in California, and up and down the coast, each weekend brings pleasant opportunities to imbibe outside. The diversity of events reflects the state's varied wine-growing regions. Those on hotel grounds come with a room night package -- a smart way to go.

Because it's a relatively slow time at wineries, winemakers tend to have some downtime before harvest to get out and pour their wares. And that's half the fun, meeting the folks behind the wine labels. Seminars and panels add an educational element, but the best way to learn more about wine is to try more. Here are 10 upcoming events, from Paso Robles to Newport Beach to downtown L.A.'s Union Station, at which to do just that. These are organized by date, with the events that are upcoming -- starting this weekend with No. 10 -- listed first. Turn the page.

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jgarbee

Mandolin Wine

Mother's Day is on Sunday. Yes, this Sunday. No need to get into a Googling gift search frenzy, as we have already compiled a handy last-minute Mother's Day gift list. Only here, you won't find the typical clichés like roses or chocolate, but gifts mom can drink. Heaven knows she deserves a strong one after putting up with all of your high school antics.

And not just any old point-and-click wine shipped overnight or picked up at the last minute on the way to brunch -- mom will know, she always knows. But really great wine, beer and spirits thoughtfully chosen with your mom's personality in mind. A floral gin for the gardener, a trolley car-inspired beer for the traveler. The Myers-Briggs of mom and alcohol pairings, if you will. Get our 10 picks, in no particular order, after the jump.

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Flickr user prayitno

A Feral Chardonnay?

We've long been keen on winemaker Greg La Follette's Pinot Noir style, his bagpipe back story and the Friday night Bingo shirts he sports at wine tasting events. He's also weathered the wine business long enough that he doesn't worry about telling the whole wine truth, and nothing but the truth (so help his marketing department). Consider the label description on a recently released 2010 Sangiacomo Vineyard Chardonnay from his namesake winery: "Intriguing, almost feral aromas over bright, crisp structure."

"Wild, animal, funky, bloody, the smell of the bear cage at the zoo -- all of it," said Richard Betts when we asked him to clarify the definition (Betts is one of 120 or so Master Sommeliers in the U.S.; he also happens to be a winemaker and distiller). "Feral implies the presence of things that some technocrat winemakers call faults but romantic wine lovers often find full of allure," he continues. "I'll be amongst the lovers." [Note: Betts is speaking generally about the word feral; he did not taste La Follette's wine.]

But this is Chardonnay, not a wine like Pinot Noir that we often think of as having occasional foraged funk tendencies.

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Flickr/will ockenden

glasses of red wine

What magic potion may improve the health of those on a high-fat diet and slow down the aging process? It's nothing new -- it's that same stuff Louis Pasteur called "the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages." Even the Bible recommended using a little of it "for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities."

We are talking, of course, about red wine. It has been touted for its health benefits for centuries, but recent research by Harvard Medical School may have pinned down exactly how its active ingredient, resveratrol, functions in the body to aid health.

The findings, published in the May issue of Cell Metabolism, tested the effects of resveratrol on mice, CBS News reports. According to David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School, resveratrol works by acting on the SIRT1 gene (the so-called "longevity gene"), a gene that is believed to control the function and longevity of cells. Sinclair and his colleagues found that resveratrol, given at moderate doses, targets SIRT1 directly. But at higher doses it hits other genes.

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Kathy A. McDonald

Inside Everson Royce

Opened last Saturday, Old Town Pasadena's Everson Royce is not quite a sequel to Silverlake Wine. Think character spinoff. Two out of three Silverlake Wine owners are involved; approximately 25% of the same small-production wine brands are stocked. Potential customers are greeted immediately at the door. Everything else is different, from the look to the wine-tasting schedule and the amount of spirits for sale. Once the inventory is complete, says owner Randy Clement, there will be eight times the amount of hard stuff on hand.

Located in a historic building between the Armory Center for the Arts and a multilevel parking garage, the Raymond Avenue store is more citified than the original Silver Lake location. Exposed air-conditioning ducts (painted navy blue), brick walls and steel shelving give the store a loftlike feel. Some details are eye-catching: Designer Ana Henton of MASS Architecture repurposed previous tenant Heritage Wine Shop's wine racks as decorative finishes to the bar and checkout desk.

What else is on tap at the brand-new wine, beer and spirits outlet?

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Anonymous

Pot + Wine

Roll up a towel, wedge it under the door, and put on a record -- Alice Coltrane or some pre-disco Bee Gees.  You may have to part the paisley curtains on your way in.  And find a comfy cushion to melt into.  Are we smoking weed?  Nah, we're drinking wine, man. According to a report in The Daily Beast late last week, it's the new thing.  

Michael Steinberger writes that marijuana-fermented wines are no longer a novelty but a full-blown trend, as more and more vintners throughout California's Central Coast and fertile northern valleys are combining two popular buzz-delivery systems in one bottle. Still sounds like a novelty to us, just a slightly less novel one -- now that The Daily Beast has blown up the spot like a straitlaced R.A. getting all vigilant on his rounds.

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Photo by David Khinda

Drew Barrymore perks up when we start talking about Baja's wine country -- a topic that seems to be on everyone's lips since Anthony Bourdain declared it the new Tuscany. "That sounds so cool!" she says excitedly on the other end of the phone. "All I do is sit around and research what food adventures I can go on, and that one sounds like a really good one."

Barrymore has always been a culinary thrill-seeker, downing piles of sushi with her famous godfather, Steven Spielberg, when she was 7. Get her talking about octopus, tacos or a patty melt and she practically coos. It's that love of food and the communal experience of eating and drinking that inform her latest venture: the launch of Barrymore Wines. It's a humble foray into the world of winemaking, currently producing just Pinot Grigio with a label that bears her family crest, done up by friend and famed street artist Shepard Fairey.

A self-proclaimed winemaking neophyte, Barrymore is taking it slow. Ultimately, she'd love to produce more varietals, and perhaps even open a wine bar somewhere in the city. For now, though, there's just the one bottle, and for her, that's all anyone needs to set the right mood.

Turn the page to read our interview:

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jgarbee

Stackable Wine

Last summer it was wine in pouches, this year a couple of former UC Irvine business students are betting their Stacked Wines soon will be stashed in your picnic basket.

Matt Zimmer is the idea guy behind the concept of stacking four individual stemless, Riedel-like interlocking plastic wine glasses (they amount to a 750 ml bottle). Formerly a mechanical engineer, Zimmer says he envisioned individually sealed glasses of wines after having a stale glass of wine from a bottle opened a few nights earlier. Funny, we have yet to have a bottle last that long.

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flickr user/lesbal123

Fundraiser Frites + Wine

Wally's Central Coast Wine & Food Celebration, a nonprofit wine and food tasting event that began eight years ago to support the Michael Bonaccorsi Scholarship Fund, has unexpectedly been cancelled this year.

"We just don't have a place to do the event," says the event's volunteer publicist, Jannis Swerman. "Wally's has always hosted [the event] but told us they can't this year."

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Anne Fishbein

Lou Amdur at LOU

When Squid Ink was born back in 2009, Lou Amdur, owner of the wine bar LOU, was one of the first experts we turned to. No matter the question -- be it of terroir or amphorae or why wine geeks use puzzling descriptors -- he never made us feel dumb for asking it. His answers took us near (Wine Expo on Santa Monica Boulevard and its excellent selection of grower Champagne) and far (the Campania region in the south of Italy) and we will never forget his rule of thumb when it comes to making Sangria: While apples, oranges and lemons belong in the fruity, Spanish-style punch, "Wine plus lime equals vomit."

Recently, it was announced that Amdur had sold his atmospherically lit, clubby 6-year-old establishment and was moving on. Does this mean the end of our rambling conversations with him? No, it does not. But as a way of closing this particular chapter, we decided it was time for an official exit interview. Though we touched on many topics, we began with the basics -- "Lou! You're selling your wine bar? WTF, dude?" Only we phrased it a little more politely. Turn the page.

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