An interesting festival is coming up next weekend in Guerneville: the Big West Wine Fest, a two-day natural wine tasting back for its second year at twice the size. “About 100 winemakers will be pouring throughout the weekend, alongside cider producers, food vendors and plenty of live music,” the Press Democrat reports. A grand tasting for the natty set! The whole thing goes down in a magical redwood grove at Solar Punk Farms on Armstrong Woods Road just outside town, which describes itself as a “queer-run regenerative hub in Guerneville” and a “climate hub focused on bioregional regeneration.” Most of the wineries showing up are local — Idlewild, Ruth Lewandowski, Horse & Plow, Hobo Wine Company, Monte Rio Cellars, Goat Rock Cider and Two Shepherds are some of the names I recognize — but the PD notes that there will also be some Bay brands in the house, like Laughing Gems from Richmond and Virgo Magic Wines in Berkeley. Here’s more info from the event invite: “Join us for year two of Sonoma County’s Favorite Natural Wine Festival: two days of revelry under the redwoods, a pageant of poppies, a vinous carnival for the ages. Big West celebrates the mainstay makers and the fresh faces, the big and the small, the farmers and the land, the people and wines that make up Sonoma County’s vibrant world of natural wine. And it’s TWO DAYS! This year features an all-star lineup of local producers pouring their vin du pays, local talent to serenade you as you sip, plus a stellar roster of vendors: offering everything from pierogies to plant-dyed painter pants. Check the roster for the lineups by day!” Also on tap: free ice cream from Alec’s in Petaluma; a “barn-raising, soul-nourishing” food hall; an interactive merch station where you can screen-print your own stuff; and a supervised camp for kids, so you can get tipsy without losing your children or overexposing them to the throes of natty-wine revelry. Tickets are $80 per day or $140 for the full weekend. “Bring your own water bottle & spit cup and consider packing a sun hat, sunscreen and a picnic blanket,” say the wild West County peeps organizing this thing. And one of them tells the PD that noobs are more than welcome: “Even if someone doesn’t know anything about wine, we hold a space for them here.” Another adds: “Wine can be very divisive by class and education, and we’ve taken a lot of care to create an event that feels welcoming. We want this event to challenge what people think about when they think of wine culture.” (Source: Eventbrite & Big West Wine Fest & Big West Wine Fest via Instagram & Press Democrat & Solar Punk Farms)
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