Got that urge to hang out at the famous Greystone Mansion and sip fine wines?

This coming Sunday, May 3rd, it's your turn to join the Beverly Hills Bar Association Barristers at their 21st Annual Vintage Bouquet wine event.

Your ticket includes an afternoon of unlimited wine tasting with a commemorative wine glass, sampling of gourmet hors d'oeuvres, live band, an incredible live and silent auction! Come meet some of the winery owners who will be pouring at the event!

Participating Wineries: Carneros della Notte Winery, Cass Winery, Cielo Malibu Estate Wineyards, Cobblestone Vineyards, Guy Reidel Wines, Jaffe Estate Wine, Kosta Browne Winery, Lewelling Vineyard, LIOCO, Martinelli Winery, Peju, Pride Mountain Vineyards, Quady Winery, Realm Cellars, Wally’s Wine & Spirits, Wind Gap Wines.

Participating Restaurants: The Bistro at Chamberlain West Hollywood, blue on blue at Avalon Hotel Beverly Hills, Cafe La Boheme, Dandy Don's HomeMade Ice Cream, Gonpachi, Hail Mary's Boutique Catering, The Hall Brasserie, Hansen's Cakes, Il Fornaio , Lawry's Catering, One Sunset, RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen, STK and Tanzore Restaurant.

To purchase tickets, contact Mike Keeler at (818) – 610-0300 or www.bhba.org/vb

Proud of me? Not a single Lawyer joke.

 The Wine Geeks ( Kyle and Tristen of WINEX.com and the Wine Exchange of Orange Country, California) have just returned from 10 days in France and Italy with the Cellar Rat (our own Steve Jarvis) who video documented their travels to First Growth chateaus in Bordeaux and to the massive wine expo VINItaly in Verona, Italy.

They got to drink fabo wines, eat incredible meals, (I'd pass on the donkey tar-tar personally) AND all I got was a lousy t-shirt! Well okay, two of them. Sheesh.

Stay tuned for "Wine Geeks in Paradise."

If this photo doesn't add credence to the Global warming theory what does? It's getting hotter and Canadians are suffering!

(Sun Media) Canadians bought 2.3 billion litres of beer, 210.8 million litres of hard liquor, and 425.3 million litres of wine, totalling $18.8 billion worth of alcoholic beverages during the year ending March 31, 2008. This is a jump of 4.3% from the year before.

While beer is the favourite alcoholic beverage, wine is gaining momentum with a 4.9% volume increase over the year before. The popularity of red wines is what is driving the sales to $5.4 billion in wine sales across Canada. Of the $5.4 billion sold in wine, Ontario purchased $1.8 billion in wine. ( By Sharon Lem)

Canadians just aren't used to this warmer weather. Think I'll drive up there and look around for some property. Wonder what a liquor license costs?

Alright all you Sunflower State wine snobs: this legislation is for you. Hopefully you'll enjoy the big bouquet, and its notes of dusty paper and ink, and the lingering finish, with just a hint of cloying bureaucracy.

COOL! WINERY TOOLS!

Something deep in the skulls of many men (and an occasional woman) drives them to seek out tools. Personally I have a garage full. Okay, I don't use them all that often, but just the knowing I have a particular tool gives me comfort. (A chainsaw just sitting there, let's you know you could down that kooky neighbor's tree any time you wanted.)

Tim Allen's show, Home Improvement, addressed this quirky syndrome and if it's good enough for a prime time TV show, it's got to be important. I mean, check out this RED shovel. It's that cool or what? Now I'm really just an amateur when it comes to collecting tools. There are guys that have their kid's college funds hanging the garage wall. Not that that's bad. Let them get a job where they need a particular tool and Dad has got them covered. Having a tool that your neighbor Bob doesn't have can give you a sense of superiority that's a wonder to experience. With a beer in hand, you pull out the tool and Bob's eye's go agog! "Where'd you get that??!" Oh that feels good. Google winery tools and see what you're missing. That dandy red shovel's from Union Jack. (And if you're a winery owner, they've got a dandy NEW punch down tool to make that job a little easier.) Also owning an anvil, as I do, assures you that a certain roadrunner will be your friend. Beep. Beep - The Wine Thief

PS - If you buy a tool from Union Jack, let them know you saw it here. If they get ten sales, I get a free shovel! Oh god please, please, please....

SOBON ESTATE ZINFINDAL 2007

$8.99 (A Stunning value!)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that Sobon has hit the occasional Zin ‘home run’ over the years and that the 2007 Zin vintage has shown itself to be one of the best we have tasted in our experience (a good quarter century). Ergo the 2007 version of Sobon stood every chance of being a real star. As it turned out, as soon as we tasted Sobon’s 2007 Old Vines bottling at the ZAP show in January, we were pretty sure it was going to be on the front page when it came out, but waited to taste it again all by itself a couple of weeks later.This blend of 97% Zinfandel with a 3% Petite Syrah kicker (that’s how they spell it) is a textbook rendition of eastern foothills (Shenandoah Valley) Zinfandel. Spicy, briery, peppery notes are laced through an explosive core of black cherry/boysenberry fruit. Fresh flavors, ripe tannins and lots of gregarious yet savory Zinny character, all for a sensational price, this is the kind of wine that got people attracted to the varietal in the first place. The term ‘old vines’ can be nebulous, but in this case the youngest vines from the five separate estate parcels that went into this wine were planted in 1951. All of these estate parcels are hillside with soils ranging from granite to schist and all are farmed organically. The wine is aged in predominantly neutral barrels (10% are new). Careful farming and Mother Nature certainly combined for a whale of a result here and the fact that the family has owned the vineyards for a long time certainly helped with the pricing. Take advantage of this ‘perfect storm’ Zinfandel deal while you can. Stunning value.

This one's a buy by the case quick! $9 bucks! A perfect summer red.

Buy now from Winex