Hunter Hill Vineyard & Winery, a participant in SCMWA’s Passport program
It’s the final day — day 12 of Santa Cruz Restaurant Examiner/Santa Cruz Foodie’s “12 Days of Christmas Giveaway.” Today’s prize is very valuable: the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association (SCMWA) has generously donated TWO passports (a $90 value)! See end of article for how to enter today’s contest.
If you’re unfamiliar with SCMWA’s Passport program, here are the details: SCMWA hosts this event four times a year — the third Saturday of January, April, July, and November. About 50 wineries participate, and most wineries are open from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. The next Passport Day is January 19, 2013.
Passport is an opportunity to meet the winemakers of the area, from Half Moon Bay to Gilroy and in between. You can see where and how wine is produced, and — at selected wineries — try new releases and special barrel samples. Passports cost $45 and that includes one visit (with waived tasting fee) to each of the participating wineries. When you visit a winery, the passport gets stamped. It doesn’t expire on a certain date, so you can take your time to visit all of them over the course of a few months, a year, or longer. You can choose to do this during Passport weekends, or any other time. For example, instead of a Passport day, you can just visit a winery on another day it’s open, and have the Passport stamped in exchange for a waived tasting fee.
If you want to buy a passport as a holiday gift or a gift to yourself, you can do so online. Passports are also available to purchase at any participating winery on Passport Day, while supplies last.
The 50-plus wineries range from Ahlgren to Zayante, and each is unique. “The trail is half the experience! There are many attributes to the wide variety of this Premier Mountain appellation,” says SCMWA Operations Manager Shannon Flynn. “The intimate feel you get from these wineries is unlike other regions.” Wine historian Charles Sullivan says, “Grape for grape, bottle for bottle, the Santa Cruz Mountains district is the finest winegrowing area in the Western hemisphere.”
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THE CONTEST:
Reminder — during the entire “12 Days of Christmas” promotion, each person can only win one prize.
DAY 12 PRIZE – The winner will receive two Passports from SCMWA.
To enter, email your name to tfatemiwalker@yahoo.com and include the words “Santa Cruz wine.”
Or post a comment to this article on my Facebook page, and include the phrase “Santa Cruz wine.”
Either way, the entry deadline is Mon. Dec. 24 at 5 p.m.
The drawing will take place that evening; the winner will be notified via email.