It’s time to pop the cork! Taste of the Vine will be a sparkling affair this year. On Sunday, October 27, you’ll want to don your spiffiest cocktail attire and come out to The Boathouse at Frederica Golf Club on St. Simons Island to join this splendid celebration that benefits Coastal Coalition for Children. This annual event will take place from 6:00-8:30 p.m. so you can enjoy watching the sun set over the lake. There will be wine tasting and heavy hors d’oeuvres to please the palate. Local trio “3 of Us” will provide live music to add to the festive atmosphere. There will also be a silent auction with local, national, and international prizes, and a 50/50 raffle. New this year will be a live auction of some premium experiences and items you won’t want to miss!
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Frederica Boathouse
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Monica Rojas
Boat ride
While last year’s event sold out and the venue changed to the Clubhouse to accommodate a larger crowd, this year, ticket sales are strictly limited and the event will not move from The Boathouse. That means you should be sure to get your tickets early to ensure you have seats
Eliot VanOtteren
Sea Island Sommelier Ryan McLoughlin
and are part of the fun! Event Co-Chairs Michael Kaufman and Ken Jacobsen invite you to become a top sponsor to enjoy an exclusive special treat: a dockside tasting event featuring sparkling wines from the Schramsberg vineyards followed by a cruise around the lake on one of Frederica’s beautiful vintage boats. The always charming Ryan McLoughlin, head sommelier at Sea Island, will be curating and leading the tasting. This would be a wonderful way for a local business to entertain top clients or reward valued employees. The tasting and cruise is offered exclusively to top sponsors (Chardonnay Level and above).
Don’t despair if you aren’t a sponsor, however, Schramsberg will be providing all the wine for the
main event and you’ll have plenty to taste! Schramsberg has quite an impressive history and reputation for wine-making. German immigrant Jacob Schram first made his home and started a winery on Diamond Mountain in the 19th century. Over one hundred years later, in 1965, Jack and Jamie Davies discovered the run-down winery on the mountainside above St. Helena. By all accounts, after being abandoned for years, the 19th century Victorian mansion presided over the tangled remains of once stately gardens and underground cellars. The Davies welcomed a
Schramsberg Vineyards
challenge and decided to bring Schramsberg back to life. They also set the lofty goal: to produce “America’s most prestigious, select and admired sparkling wine; chosen for special guests, special gifts, pampering one’s self and expressing one’s taste in unique products.” Through the decades, this spirit of innovation earned Schramsberg and the Davies worldwide praise and recognition. Schramsberg’s sparkling wines have been served at official State functions by every U.S. Presidential administration since Nixon.
Schramsberg sparkling wines are produced from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes grown in a broad array of cool-climate North Coast vineyards located in Napa, Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties. The winemakers draw from more than 66 specific vineyard sites to create over 250 base wines annually. These wines are then artfully blended to create Schramsberg’s 12-14 distinctive sparkling wines each year.
Schramsberg wines
Preserving century-old traditions, most of Schramsberg’s viticultural and winemaking practices are carried out by hand: grapes are hand harvested, the wines are handcrafted, the bottles are stacked and riddled by hand in their underground caves. The J. Schram, Schramsberg’s top Chardonnay offering, is even hand labeled. Unique among California sparkling wine houses, Schramsberg Vineyards ferments 25% of its juice in oak barrels to produce a richer, more luscious style. Schramsberg has also developed a library of reserve base wines that are barrel aged for up to 10 years. These wines provide additional refinement and complexity to the finished products. Schramsberg’s sparklers are made using méthode traditionelle, the labor-intensive and costly process whereby wine undergoes a secondary fermentation inside the bottle, creating bubbles. This occurs after a base wine is made using steel tanks or oak barrels to perform a primary fermentation. All Champagne—a term reserved for sparkling wines produced in the Champagne region of France—and most high-quality sparkling wines is made using méthode traditionelle.
Julie Andrew
2018 Taste of the Vine
While you sip the bubbles and clink glasses with friends, it’s also important to remember the purpose of the party: supporting the programs of Coastal Coalition for Children, a local 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the well-being of babies and children in our community. By teaching parents and custodial grandparents better parenting skills, their mission is to “create safe and nurturing homes” for the youngest and most vulnerable members of our community. Keeping children with their biological families and out of the foster care system is one of Coastal Coalition for Children’s primary goals and achievements. The Healthy Families home visitation program strives to provide a foundation for life-long healthy development by focusing on mother-child bonding, positive parenting, children’s social, emotional, and physical development, school readiness, and family self-sufficiency. The Grandparent Connection program supports grandparents who are raising their grandchildren and those children in their care. Coastal Coalition for Children support includes teaching “Parenting the Second Time Around” classes, providing summer day camp, tutoring, and therapy, as well as helping grandparents navigate procedural issues like establishing legal kinship. Coastal Coalition for Children currently has 25 employees and has expanded services to operate Healthy Families in Glynn, McIntosh, Brantley, Chatham and Liberty and the Grandparent Connection in Glynn and McIntosh.
Please join Coastal Coalition for Children at what promises to be an evening to remember at The Boathouse at Frederica by becoming a sponsor (Who wouldn’t like a boat ride with bubbly?!) or purchasing tickets to the event. Tickets for the event are $125 per person. For more information about sponsorships, or to purchase tickets, please visit cc4children.org. Sip, sparkle, support!
