Passionate about PinotThe 8th annual Pinot Noir Summit takes place on Saturday, February 27th. The public is invited to taste 40 of the top Pinot Noirs from over 280 submitted. The attendees will taste over $2,000 worth of wine and pit their palates against those of the judges. Ultima Burgundy glasses are provided. This is an opportunity for all to meet and talk with winemakers and discover what makes this grape into extraordinary wine.

Workshops and seminars are part of this all-day event in Marin County. The Grand Tasting begins at 6 pm, wines will be paired with hors d’oeuvres and the winners will be announced at 8pm at the Awards Ceremony. Only 250 tickets will be sold for this event. The Pinot Noir Summit has sold out in previous years. Remaining tickets for the 8th annual Summit are available at www.pinotnoirsummit.com.

The Pinot Summit allows the attendees to taste the wines blind and compare their personal findings to those of the panel’s at The Final Showdown.

The Pinot Noir Shootout is the only competition in which the judges’ conclusions are put to the test by an unbiased panel of wine lovers. The Pinot Noir Shootout continues to explore and assess the reactions and preferences of women versus men, in regards to Pinot Noir. Descriptors and scores of the female and male panelists will be denoted, as well as the reactions of the Pinot Noir Summit attendees, in an attempt to discover whether women and men prefer different wine styles.

A portion of each ticket purchased to the Summit will be donated to Palm Drive Health Care Foundation in support of Palm Drive Hospital. Palm Drive Hospital, located in Sebastopol, is in the heart of some of the best Pinot Noir in the world – the Russian River and the Sonoma Coast.

Monica Turner
Contributor to Stark Insider for tech, the arts and All Things West Coast for over 10 years.