Smoky skies didn't manage to keep away visitors looking to enjoy some homemade wine on Saturday. Photo by Ross Christensen.

KELSEYVILLE – On Saturday the Kelseyville Business Association and Clear Lake Performing Arts (CLPA) hosted the sixth annual Lake County Home Wine Maker’s Festival.

The event allowed home winemakers a forum to show off their hobby, and local wineries a place to give tastings of their products.

The festival is the largest annual fundraiser for CLPA, which promotes music education, community concerts and student scholarships in Lake County.

It was a well-attended event with people from all areas of Northern California including Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, Yuba, Colusa and other counties.

Wine tasting took place along Kelseyville's Main Street Saturday afternoon. Photo by Ross Christensen.

Thanks were given to North Coast Sen. Pat Wiggins and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for making this Lake County’s first technically legal home winemaking festival. (For more about Wiggin's legislation, see http://lakeconews.com/content/view/4494/764/.)

The festival was open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. In addition to the offerings from home brewers, small wineries and some of the larger local wineries, there was food, live music, and arts and crafts available.

There was a silent auction and several raffles held throughout the event, along with ribbons awarded to the brewers. Local businesses were open including Focused On Wine, Rosa D’Oro, and Wildhurst tasting rooms.

Providing tastings were:

Laujor Vineyard

DiMario

Eastside Winery

Cesar Toxqui Cellars

Pretaris

D’Agostino

Nowhere Near Loreto

Mount St. Helena

Mother Mountain Wines

Muritage

Tulip Hill

Glory Hole

Honeycutt Vineyard

Steele Wines

F Street Ale Works

Shannon Ridge

Tres Amigos

Berenger

Paul Smith

Langtry/Guenoc

Cobb Mt. Brewing Co.

Ployez

Screeching Peacock

Bell Hill

Koenig Family Cellars

Dusinberre

If you would like to learn more about the Clear Lake Performing Arts, you can visit them online at www.clearlakeperformingarts.org or contact them at Clear Lake Performing Arts, P.O. Box 974, Lakeport, CA 95453.

Ross A. Christensen writes about food and wine for Lake County News.

A piece of winemaking gadgetry on display at the event. Photo by Ross Christensen.

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Former years
written by helenemw, July 01, 2008

Former year's home winemaker festivals seemed much more intimate when some booths and seating areas were also in the middle of the street. As we all age, it's more and more necessary to have a place to sit for a few minutes while visiting all the vendors. We have started skipping events that we used to enjoy for just this reason.

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