Family Winemakers of California "Tasting 2009"
Coming to Southern California

New Consumer and Trade California Wine Tasting
Held in Del Mar on March 15

Sacramento, CA (January 21, 2009) -Family Winemakers of California, an Association of California Table Wine Producers, has selected Del Mar Fairgrounds to host its first tasting in Southern California that is open to the public. The tasting will be held in the Activity Center on the Del Mar Fairgrounds on Sunday, March 15. It will continue Family Winemakers' mission to expand the ability of small wine producers to compete in the marketplace, said Veronica Barclay, Co-Proprietor of Barclay & Browning Wines and Chair of the Family Winemakers Tasting Committee.

"We believe that Del Mar is the perfect setting for our inaugural consumer event in Southern California, as it is in a premier location between San Diego and Orange County," said Barclay. "This will give wine lovers and wine buying trade in the region the unprecedented opportunity to sample wines from 200 of California's small, family-owned wineries."

The five-hour, one-day event will be held in the Activity Center at the Del Mar Fairgrounds on Sunday, March 15. It will feature 200 wineries pouring a wide variety of wines and will be open to trade and consumers. It will be open to trade only from 1:00-3:00pm, and will then continue from 3:00-6:00pm for trade and consumers. Tickets for consumers are $40 in advance and $50 at the door. For information about the tasting, ticket sales, and trade registration, please visit www.familywinemakers.org.

For additional information about Tasting 2009, feel free to contact tasting@familywinemakers.org or call 415-705-0646. No one under 21, including infants, will be admitted to the tasting.

ABOUT FAMILY WINEMAKERS OF CALIFORNIA
Family Winemakers of California was established in 1991 in response to a need for public policy legislation for the small wine producers of California. The Association has become a strong force in the wine industry, lobbying for wine producer rights, and has an active membership of over 650 California wineries. Family Winemakers draws its membership from all the wine producing areas of the state, with the largest concentration coming from Napa and Sonoma Counties.

Family Winemakers trade tastings, held in recent years in Pasadena, are well known in the industry for the quantity and quality of the participating wineries. The tastings give members of the trade the opportunity to get to know wines from wineries that are too small to have a sales force. The Del Mar event marks the first expansion of the San Francisco-based tasting since 2000, when the Association's first Southern California tasting was held in Los Angeles for the wine trade only.

Family Winemakers will follow the Del Mar event with its annual trade only tasting in Pasadena on Tuesday, March 17.