LAKE COUNTY – The Lake County Winery Association (LCWA), founded in 2007, is working closely with the county of Lake, the Lake County Winegrape Commission and other county businesses and organizations to increase Lake County tourism by promoting our award-winning, relatively undiscovered and breathtaking wine region.

After considerable design review, LCWA has a new, contemporary and classy look which features Mt. Konocti, Clear Lake and Lake County wine. Simple yet stylish, this new logo will complement the Lake County Winegrape Commission logo and the County of Lake logo.

It will appear in full, vibrant color, two color, or black and white. Look forward to seeing the new LCWA logo on a variety of promotional materials including those in production for the upcoming LCWA Wine Adventure Weekend scheduled for July 25 and 26.

Tickets for this event may be purchased online at www.lakecountywineries.org and will include a logo wine glass, winery adventure pass and tasting brochure.

This two-day, $30 event features 20+ Lake County wineries pouring their best wines paired with tasty food samples. Barrel tastings, music, raffle prizes add to the weekend festivities.

We invite everyone to attend the fifth annual Lake County Wine Adventure weekend. We also promote responsible hospitality and encourage designated drivers.

In addition to all the fun and adventure, the LCWA and the Lake County Marketing and Economic Development Department are working collaboratively to develop an in-county winery and tasting room directional signage system to promote tourism. This project is a joint effort to assist Lake County visitors with finding their way in our local wine region.

These types of winery directional signs are relatively common in other major wine regions throughout California and beyond. After consulting with several wine industry groups in other counties, we now have a project ready to implement.

Since most of these signs will be placed at intersections of key travel routes, representatives of Caltrans have been consulted. Additionally the Lake County Board of Supervisors has been informed of this project and, on Jan. 22, 2008, signed Resolution No. 2008-16 in support of the directional “way finding” signage program.

Our next steps are to construct and produce the signs and obtain authorization from property owners to install them at key locations throughout the county.

We hope that our community will support this project; it is important to the winery and tasting rooms of Lake County and the county’s tourism program.

Look forward to seeing more on the Lake County Directional "Way Finding" sign program in the near future.

Monica Rosenthal is executive director of the Lake County Wineries Association.