On Saturday, October 30th, the Calaveras Winegrape Alliance, Calaveras Visitors Bureau, and Angels Camp Museum hosted the first of its kind, "Bubbles Bash & Halloween Costume Contest". This fundraising program directly supported the Calaveras Winegrape Alliance Relief Fund due to lost event income caused by the pandemic.
Eight Calaveras County wineries shared their sparkling wines including Aloria Vineyards, Black Sheep Winery, Ironstone Vineyards, Prospect 772, Stevenot Winery, Tanner Vineyards, Val du Vino, and Vina Moda Winery. Today, a total of 14 Calaveras Wineries offer sparkling wines. It has been a lot of fun seeing the evolvement of the sparkling wine category over the past ten years in our wine region. Winemaker Steve Millier has been making wine in Calaveras County since the early 1980s with the opening of Milliaire Winery and as Director of Winemaking at Ironstone Vineyards. About 12 years ago, the Black Sheep and Milliaire teams began serving sparking at their tasting rooms. The raspberry sparkling shared at the Bubbles Bash is a non-vintage varietal and is a creation that the family made using real raspberries which makes all the difference in the overall taste and appearance of the sparkling wine. This sparkling wine was featured on the Food Network program “Cupcake Wars” when Karen Henderson owned Lila and Sage Catering and won the competition. This sparkling wine is still being used to make the award-winning cupcakes today! A complete list of Calaveras County Sparkling Producers can be found HERE.
In addition to the Bubbles Bar, a hand-selected flight of red wines were presented in celebration of this year's grape harvest season. The lineup included Indian Rock Pinot Noir, Indian Rock Cabernet Sauvignon, Hovey Barbera, Black Sheep Zinfandel, and Newsome Harlow Zinfandel.
DJ Dave brought a fun dance party and some enjoyed the Soothsayer booth. Many guests donned creative costumes and participated in the Halloween Costume Contest. Prizes were awarded in three categories as follows:
#1 "Most Original Costume" went to Stacy for her handmade "Grapevine" Costume.
#2 "Scariest Costume" went to Bill for his very scary "Skeleton Mask and Suit" costume.
#3 "Funnies Costume" went to Martin for his "Whoopee Cushion" costume.
And an honorable mention was given to Bill for his very fun "Space Cowboy" costume!
A warm-hearted thanks to our event sponsors and the Gateway Hotel at the Square in Copperopolis for the prizes including hotel stays, dining, and golf certificates.
Comments