2013 Vintners’ Festival in Santa Cruz plus Street Faire with food and wine

Silver Mountain Winery at the 2012 Vintners’ Festival

The 24th annual Santa Cruz Mountains Vintners’ Festival, “Roots that Rock,” finishes up this weekend in Santa Cruz County with barrel tastings, new wine releases, and a downtown Santa Cruz Street Faire June 9 with local artisan foods from vendors including restaurants plus live entertainment. Read more about the Street Faire at the bottom of this article.

The Vintners’ Festival, hosted by SCMWA (the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association) began last weekend (June 1-2) with events in Santa Clara & San Mateo counties. The festival continues in Santa Cruz County from June 8-9, 2013. Participants may take part in barrel tastings, meet winemakers, and enjoy live music, art and good food. Attendees are also invited to stroll through many of the winery gardens, and to have a picnic in the beautiful surroundings.

Wineries participating in the Vintners’ Festival pour from noon-5:00 p.m. each of the weekend days. Tickets are $43 online or $50 at the door; each ticket includes a souvenir wine glass that is good for tasting at winery locations during both weekends of the 2013 Vintners’ Festival, plus admission & 10 tasting tickets for the Santa Cruz Street Faire. For more about the festival, call (831) 685-VINE (8463) or visit the SCMWA web site at scmwa.com. If you’re interested in visiting one or some of the wineries but don’t want to buy the “all-access pass,” you can choose to just pay tasting fees at individual wineries.

SANTA CRUZ STREET FAIRE

Location: Pacific Ave. between Locust & Walnut

Time/Date: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Sun. June 9

Price: $8 plus handling fee online or $8 at event for commemorative wine glass (tasting requires glass plus tickets at $1 each; tastings cost between 2 and 5 tickets)

More details:

At this event you’ll be able to taste wines that are not always available outside of the tasting room. The vintners of the Santa Cruz Mountains will be pouring their favorite wines including new releases, favorites and hard-to-find varietals. There will be a special Vintners’ Marketplace booth where you can buy bottles to take home.

Here’s the line-up:

Music & Entertainment

7th Wave

Amee Chapman

Cooper Street Band

Mitch’s Mob

Trippy Chicks Hoop Troupe

Wineries

Bargetto Winery

Beauregard Vineyards

Big Basin Vineyards

Burrell School Vineyards