It’s time for wine

The Morgan Hill Downtown Association is busy gearing up for its annual Wine Week, a series of wine-related events occurring in the downtown area on evenings leading up to the Morgan Hill Wine Stroll on April 25. Since the main event began in 2009, the Wine Stroll has been an opportunity for local businesses to attract new visitors and for wine lovers to taste wines from local wineries, all in the downtown area of Morgan Hill.
This year in addition to the winemaker dinners, pairing classes and other wine happenings leading up to the main event, the Downtown Association is teaming up with Wineries of Santa Clara Valley to host the “Award Winning Wine Region” Celebration on April 24. The event, which will be held at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center, will allow attendees to taste premium wines from 12 local wineries in one central location coupled with food from seven local restaurants. Organizers hope this event will educate area wine lovers about award-winning wines in their own backyards.
“The event was created to celebrate the great showing that the region had at this year’s San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition,” said John Mckay of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association. “Depending on who’s counting, approximately 90 awards were received by the local wineries, which included Best in Class and Double Gold… we hope to make this a regular part of the Wine Week, which has been increasing in popularity.”
This will be the first time since Wine Stroll and Wine Week events began that the Downtown Association will work directly with the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley to help promote the area’s award-winning wineries. Events during Wine Stroll and Wine Week allow people in the area to experience new wineries and wines, but also to support a place of business they might not have known about or been to before.
Wine Week will also include other great events such as a winemaker dinner at Odeum Restaurant with Jason-Stephens Winery, an event focused on “Dessert, Wine, and Opera” with Castillo’s Hillside Shire at Betto’s Bistro, and a wine tasting event at Morgan Hill Wine Shop and Cigar Company. Participating restaurants downtown will also feature no corkage on local wines during Wine Week.
Log on to MorganHillDowntown.org for tickets and a full list of Wine Stroll and Wine
Week events.
Alicia Cuadra-Cutler is a certified sommelier and certified specialist of wine. Follow her on Twitter @AliciaSeesWine.