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LAKE COUNTY – On Saturday and Sunday, June 7 and 8, the Lake County Marketing and Economic Development Program exhibited at the 11th annual Sunset Celebration Weekend, an event presented by Sunset Magazine, a monthly travel and lifestyle magazine focused on living in the West.
The event was held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days at the publication's headquarters facility and test garden in Menlo Park.
The Lake County Marketing and Economic Development Program hosted a booth that promoted Lake County as a nearby travel destination to event goers with an inviting booth display that included professional backdrops with eye-catching photographs of Lake County scenery and activities and literature racks with key visitor materials that showcased all there is to see, do, and experience in Lake County – from farm trails and water activities to upcoming events and places to stay, as well as an emphasis on Lake County's growing wine industry.
Lake County's success at the event was due in large part to partnership with both the Lake County Winery Association and the Lake County Winegrape Commission.
Throughout the weekend, representatives from the Lake County Winery Association poured Lake County wines for event goers to sample. All Lake County wines poured at the event were donated by local wineries, and the proceeds from the tasting fees collected by Sunset are donated to the Children's Health Council.
The Lake County Winegrape Commission generously donated an impressive prize package for a raffle drawing, and many who visited the Lake County booth entered to win. The package included a limousine tour to five Lake County wineries, overnight lodging, and a stylish picnic basket set.
Sunset Celebration Weekend was designed to provide the Bay Area public in general, and Sunset Magazine readers in particular, an opportunity to see the pages of Sunset Magazine come alive – with exhibitors focused on travel, home, garden, food, wine, and even an "eco" area focused on products and ideas for sustainable living.
Major sponsors included Chrysler, Kraft, Mondavi, Safeway, and Weber, among others. Event goers sampled and tasted, asked questions, watched demonstrations, and participated in all sorts of hands-on activities – from garden projects to lei-making.
Many travel destinations exhibited at the event. The California Travel and Tourism Commission hosted a booth, and Lake County was one of many California travel destinations exhibiting at the event – from Humboldt County, Sacramento, and Monterey County to Morro Bay, Pismo Beach and Santa Maria.
Lake County was featured as a travel destination in the May 2007 issue of Sunset Magazine, and several event goers who stopped by the Lake County booth remembered having seen the feature article.
Although final attendance figures are not yet available for this year's event, figures given for the prior year were approximately 20,000 attendees over two days.
The Lake County Marketing Program is a division of the County Administrative Office and promotes tourism to and commerce in Lake County. For more information, contact the Lake County Marketing and Economic Development Program at 263-2580.
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In this post, Visconti will be in charge of Langtry Estate and Guenoc wine brand sales across the Midwest from Illinois to Texas as far west as Colorado.
Based in Michigan, Visconti has more than 25 years of experience in wine sales.
Before joining Langtry, Visconti was the Michigan state manager for Fosters Wine Estates (formerly Beringer Blass). There he was in charge of sales in the state of Michigan for Fosters’ various wine brands, including Beringer, Lindemans, Wolf Blass, Penfolds, Rosemount, Stag's Leap and Chateau St. Jean.
Previous to working with Fosters, Visconti was the Midwest regional sales manager for Southcorp Wines for nearly 10 years. Bob also has worked at the distributor tier as sales manager for General Wine and Liquor and J. Lewis Cooper Co.
He holds a degree in business from Central Michigan University, and he is the founder and former president of the Detroit Wine Organization, a nonprofit committed to wine education.
“Bob’s many years of experience in wine sales covering all of these states will provide much needed focus and better partnerships with our distributors in the Midwest to Central division as Langtry Estate and Vineyards continues to grow,” said Langtry’s president Tim Matz.
Langtry Estate and Vineyards has extensive vineyard holdings in Lake County as well as holdings in Napa and is the largest winegrower in the region. The picturesque estate consists of 21,000 acres and straddles Lake and Napa counties. Langtry Estate and Guenoc wines are distributed nationally. Additional information on the winery is available at www.langtryestate.com or by calling (707) 987-2385.
Langtry Estate & Vineyards is located at 21000 Butts Canyon Road, Middletown.
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On Sunday, June 1, the Tallman Hotel is celebrating its second birthday.
Owners Lynn and Bernie Butcher opened the reconstructed, historic hotel on June 1, 2006.
As part of this month's celebration, the hotel is offering past guests a special room upgrade offer, which is only available by calling the Hotel at 866-708-5253 or locally at 707-275-2244.
Also this month, Blue Wing Monday Blues continues every Monday from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. next door at the Butchers' Blue Wing Saloon and Cafe.
On Sundays, the Blue Wing hosts brunch in the garden with live music on the veranda by local artists.
The Blue Wing is hosting a “Meet the Winemaker Series,” with free wine tasting in the saloon and dinner paired with featured wines on the first Thursday of every month.
On Thursday, June 5, meet winemaker Greg Graziano of Graziano Wines and wwner Jim and MJ Scott of Naughty Boy Vineyards in Potter Valley.
The series will continue in July with at Tulip Hill Winery down the road in Nice.
Events will continue through the summer, with the Blue Wing Blues Festival returning Aug. 6 through 9.
Co-sponsored by Ceago Vinegarden, the festival features four evenings of wonderful blues music plus barbecue dinner in the garden of the hotel from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. each evening.
Featured artists include Charlie Musselwhite, Bettie Mae Fikes, the Ford Blues Band and, on Saturday night, Maria Muldaur and the Red Hot Bluesiana Band.
For more information contact the Blue Wing Saloon and Cafe at 707-275-2233 or visit them online at www.bluewingsaloon.com/.
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Specifically, SB 1149 extends the sunset date – from Jan. 1, 2009 to Jan. 1, 2013 – for the Rural Telecommunication Infrastructure Grant Program (RTIG).
The RTIG is funded by an existing surcharge on telephone services (both residential and cellular). Without the Wiggins bill, the program will expire at the first of next year.
The RTIG was implemented in 2001 in order to ensure that all Californians – including those who are low-income and/or live in rural unserved areas – have access to telephone services. The program helps to subsidize the cost of providing telephone services to areas where none currently exist.
Many rural and low-income communities without even basic telecommunication services will continue to be deprived without an extension of the RTIG. Unserved areas on the North Coast have no access to cellular service, access to pay phones, or call boxes in populated tourist destinations such as Bodega Bay, Portuguese Beach, Sea Ranch, etc.
During peak seasons, such locations draw large crowds, and some people have drowned due to the inability of witnesses to call 911 for emergency responders. Furthermore, there are no call boxes, pay phones, or cell service coverage in many of California’s state parks and beaches.
In her testimony Tueday afternoon, Wiggins said that “this program provides a total of $10 million dollars per year, funded by the ratepayer-supported California High Cost Fund B program, to subsidize telephone service to remote, rural, and underserved communities.”
She added: “This program is particularly important in my district where many people don’t have basic telephone service, let alone cell phone service, and they need to call in an emergency situation.”
Now that SB 1149 has been approved by the Senate, the bill next heads to the Assembly for consideration.
Wiggins represents California’s 2nd Senate District, which includes portions or all of six counties: Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma.
For more information on SB 1149 or other legislation authored by Wiggins, please visit her Web site: http://dist02.casen.govoffice.com/.
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