Meeting News - October 6, 2008 - (Page 22) California Incentives Edited by William Ng william.ng@nielsen.com La Dolce Vino CA’s wine regions beckon incentive groups for tastings, dinners, and therapies wine list, exclusive tastings, and its natural minAs oenophiles know, Californian wines have long eral spa, first opened in the 1840s. Incentive been at the top of sommeliers’ tasting lists around groups can choose from an extensive list of spethe world. Upscale travelers, also, have been forg- cial experiences in local wineries that the Fairing luxury trails in the wine regions of Sonoma, mont can cater and manage, including a cave Paso Robles, and Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara dinner at Benziger, Sonoma’s first biodynamic for some time. These Californian wine regions are winery; a dinner in the vineyards of Chateau St. ripe for incentive groups that can indulge in wine Jean, which can accommodate up to 300 people spa “vinotherapies,”exclusive on-site tastings, and on the main lawn; and a dinner and tasting at the even a Tuscan feast and a movie under the Sono- Sebastiani vineyard, which can fit up to 160 man stars. guests in its antique, hand-carved barrel room. The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa is Cited as the best country wine retreat in Caliwell known to luxury travelers for its extensive fornia by Food & Wine magazine, Kenwood Hotel and Spa in Sonoma is The Benzinger family winery hosts private dinners. widely considered as one of the best vinotherapy spas in the U.S., offering grape-seed extract massages with custom-made products and other restorative treatments, along with a 29-room inn replete with Californian wines and gourmet dining. The entire inn is bookable for incentive groups, and sommelier Lionel Guy can arrange private on-site reserve tastings with vintners from wineries like Blackstone, St. Francis, and Kunde. By Gretchen Kelly Vineyards, trains, and Tuscan picnics One of Napa’s most famous vintners is the movie director Francis Ford Coppola. Along with The Godfather trilogy and the Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now, he also has made a mean merlot. Coppola’s Rubicon Estates in Napa (one of the oldest in 22 MeetingNews October 6, 2008 the Valley) offers incentive groups a variety of special tastings and tours, including the “Library Vertical Tastings.” Designed to provide an indepth exploration of a specific Rubicon Estate wine, the tour offers guests a personalized jaunt based on their interests. The four options are “History of the Estate,”“Sensory Exercise,”“Vineyard Seminar” (seasonal), and “Aging and Cellaring.” Afterward, guests are invited for a seated tasting, which includes a three-year vertical of their chosen wines. Wines are accompanied by a selection of artisan cheeses. Incentive groups can have a murder along with their wine on the Napa Valley Wine Train’s “Murder Mystery Event.” Designed by the California-based Incentives to Intrigue, the fourcourse dinner aboard the vintage train (with vintage wines) concludes with a reenactment of an actual 1915 San Francisco murder, which guests get to watch and solve. The Wine Train runs a three-hour trip through Napa Valley and can accommodate up to 56 people in a variety of vintage and scenic dome cars. Paso Robles is fast becoming one of the most visited Californian wine regions. “It’s Napa the way it was 20 years ago,” said Gina DeGirolomo, cinematographer and proprietor of Cinema evino.com. Her company organizes gourmetquality Tuscan cuisine picnics and outdoor movie screenings at local wineries like Meridian, Cass, and Wild Horse. Incentive groups get private tastings of reserve vintages and individual hampers of gourmet Tuscan food (“a gourmet table in a basket” is how DeGirolomo describes it), plus a light comedy or a wine-related film screened in the actual vineyard. During cooler months, the screening can be done in wineries with large barrel rooms. Wine and personal finance is an unlikely combination but one that mixes in Sonoma at the Carriger Estate Winery. Tax and finance expert Bonnie Lee, who advises many of the local wineries, offers personal finance and corporate tax seminars, along with tastings of reserve-quality vintages for incentive groups. A sure case of a spoonful of sugar (or sauvignon) helps the medicine go down. www.meetingnews.com http://www.cinemaevino.com http://www.cinemaevino.com http://www.meetingnews.com
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