Faced with stagnant sales of low-priced wine and a glut of overseas competitors, grape growers in the Central Valley are ripping out their vines and replacing them with more profitable crops such as almonds.

 

Sacramento will play host to a wine competition that depends on amateur wine lovers instead of professionals to pick its winners. The Consumer Wine Awards, previously held at the Lodi Grape Festival grounds, is coming to a to-be-determined local venue on April 11.

The seventh annual competition will be hosted in a partnership with the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau, with winning wines to sampled on June 6 at Grape Escape, the popular food and wine tasting event traditionally held at Cesar Chavez Plaza. While Grape Escape focused on wines from the greater Sacramento region, its partnership with the Consumer Wine Awards means wines from a greater swath of the state, and even international offerings, will be poured. A category of wines specific to the Sacramento area will also be featured.

The Consumer Wine Awards are something of the antithesis to theCalifornia State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, which gathers wine professionals from around the country to serve as judges. The Consumer Wine Awards, co-founded by Tim Hanni, a well known Master of Wine, gathers amateur wine lovers to select the best wines.

 

With December upon us, it’s time to get a jump on the next New Year’s resolutions.

 

Chauffeur-tour guide Phil Boland wheeled the Napa Valley Wine Trolley into the parking lot next to the Oxbow Public Market, braked to a halt and shut ’er down.

 

Former University of Kentucky basketball star Tayshaun Prince is honored in the first of a wine bottle series that will benefit the Kentucky Agriculture Department’s child nutrition program.

 
 
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