August 8: Winemakers’ Cookoff

Thirty of Paso’s best wineries will be cooking and pouring at this annual fundraising party that benefits the Paso Robles Rotary Club. Net proceeds from the Winemakers’ Cookoff go to the Rotary’s Harlow Ford Scholarship Foundation which awards $30,000 for education to deserving local high school students. The Cookoff has made roughly $230,000 in scholarships possible so far.

Even though it’s in its 11th year we’ve somehow never made it to a Winemakers’ Cookoff so this year will be our first. We’re thrilled at the roster of wineries taking part his year and particularly looking forward to what Clayhouse Wines, Chronic Cellars, Cass Winery, Eberle Winery, Halter Ranch Vineyard, Calcareous Vineyard (and oh, well, all of the 24 other participating wineries) will be pouring and dishing up.

Unlike a lot of wine events, participants in this one will be judged not just on their wines but on their food prep and pairing as well, so come thirsty and hungry! Tickets are still available and $75 gets you all your food and wine plus really good karma. Not drinking? Event organizers smartly offer designated driver tickets for $40.

Did we mention the live blues music and a chance to win a Hawaiian vacation?

August 21: Olive Festival

The 6th annual Olive Festival will be held from 10 am to 5 pm in downtown Paso Robles and while not technically a wine event, strictly speaking, where’s there’s wine there are usually olives and we’re looking forward to tasting some creative versions as well as classics and dipping into some of the olive oil that Paso is becoming known for. To keep the natives happy, wine and beer tasting will also be offered along with free olive oil ice cream.

August 22: Wine for Water  Benefit Event

Readers of this blog know that we’re huge fans of the not-for-profit group Wine for Water, its founder Ryan Boersma and its mission to creatively and effectively raise money to drill wells and install pumps to provide clean water to people living in the most needy corners of the globe. Here’s our original post about it.

We think August is not too early to start wracking up the tax write offs so come to the first ever Wine for Water Benefit Event from 4-6:30 in downtown Paso Robles. You’ll be treated to hors d’oeuvres and wine from Paso wineries including Booker Vineyard, Saxum Vineyards, L’Aventure, Torrin Vineyard, Jada Vineyard and Winery, Terry Hoage Vineyards and Jack Creek Cellars.

All proceeds go directly to Wine for Water’s efforts and each $40 ticket will help provide clean drinking water for at least 2 people for 20 years. That warm fuzzy feeling you get inside very time you turn on the tap are realize you’ve helped ease the planet’s water access problem? Priceless.  

The whole shebang is the brain child of an alarmingly tall man named Ryan Boersma who’s built like a rock climber (because that’s what he is) and has the heart of a true millennial philanthropist. See a problem. Feel a problem. Fix a problem.

Ryan saw the clean water problem (one billion people don’t have clean drinking water right this very minute) during trips to India, Kazakhstan and Guatemala. As bad at the water situation is there, its even worse in Ethiopia so that’s where Ryan started solving the problem, using his own money to install the first Wine for Water well in early 2009 (each well costs about $5,000, will serve the entire community and will last for years).

While Wine for Water is certainly not the only charity focused on the issue of access to clean water, it is one of the most innovative for a number of reasons that add up to more water and less waste. First, Ryan realized that he can raise more money by opening the Paso Wine Centre as a business, then donating all profits to Wine for Water vs. just trying to get direct tax-deductible donations to Wine for Water (which are still very much appreciated, by the way). Second, Ryan maximizes the effectiveness of every penny by partnering with an existing clean water action group in Africa which gives him access to pricey infrastructure stuff like vehicles so he doesn’t have to buy them himself. Third, all profits after operating costs (like staff salaries and rent for the Paso Wine Centre) go straight to Wine for Water. ALL PROFITS.

The Paso Wine Centre has been open just six weeks and is slowly but surely attracting customers with its loft-like feel, inviting leather chairs and couches and bank of fancy enomatic wine-dispensing machines made in Italy that look like something out of The Jetsons’ kitchen. The enomatic system sucks the air out of an opened wine bottle, thus extending it’s shelf life–up to three weeks–after it’s opened. Ryan’s enomatic center dispenses nearly 50 different wines (about a hundred more are available by the bottle), with a refreshing focus on young labels and young/upstarty wine makers (one is called Chronic).

Ryan’s goal, beyond keeping those leather sofas full and that enomatic system pumping, is for Wine for Water to install more than 100 wells in Ethiopia over the next 18 months, so start sipping! If you’re in Paso Robles on August 22 (and you should be because that’s the same weekend the annual and aweseme Olive Festival plus free concerts in the park and the city’s ), stop by the Downtown Park Ballroom (1232 Park Street) from 4-6:30 for a special fund raiser for Wine for Water. Forty (tax deductible) bucks gets you in the door where you’ll enjoy tastings of area wines from Booker, Saxum, L’Aventure, Torrin, Jada, Terry Hoage and others plus hors’devours and a really warm and fuzzy feeling inside (from helping such a worthy cause, not from the wine).