Good question. While Passport to Dry Creek Valley is sold out this weekend, there’s still time to get in on the lottery for next year (or check out Craiglist for last-minute tickets for this year). And yours truly thinks Passport to Dry Creek Valley is the single best wine event weekend in Wine Country (unless you have $5k to blow on two tickets for Napa Valley Auction weekend).

For $110 per person, Passport holders get two days worth of wine, glorious wine, and food, glorious food. A significant portion of the ticket fees are kicked back to the wineries to put out a spread, and I do mean SPREAD. Chefs enlisted by the wineries comprise a virtual Who’s Who of Wine Country cuisine.

Now for readers who are new to Wine Country, Dry Creek Valley is celebrated as the world’s finest region for Zinfandel. Many Europeans who came to California for the Gold Rush in the middle of the 19^th century settled in Sonoma County afterwards and brought with them Zinfandel vines. Many of those vines planted in the late 1800s still thrive in Dry Creek Valley and produce big, extracted and luscious Old Vine zinfandels.

Dry Creek also produces its fair share of top notch Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Chardonnay and other warm weather varietals.