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UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Wine Studio is hosting a wine tasting event featuring wines from Brassfield Estate Winery, and artist reception with a collection of paintings and prints by Steve Koelling on Friday, Sept. 2, and Saturday, Sept. 3.
The show will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday.
Winemaker Matt Hughes will join them at the evening receptions.
The $15 ($12/per person for studio club members) wine sampler and appetizers designed by Chef Mark Linback will showcase the 2015 Sauvignon Blanc with fresh pears and Manchego cheese on crostini with toasted slivered almonds, 2014 Gewürztraminer with orange zested shortbread cookie, 2013 Eruption with heirloom tomato, mozzarella and basil pesto on skewers, and the 2013 Petite Sirah with chocolate bacon bark.
Brassfield Estate Winery is located in the High Valley AVA of Lake County with vineyard blocks ranging from 1,800 feet on the valley floor to nearly 3000 feet elevation up on the surrounding volcanic ridges.
The varying microclimates, soils and temperature changes among the vineyard sites provide remarkable growing conditions for well over a dozen varietals. The estate property is remote, and as such, sustainability is not optional, it’s critical.
Their farming and operational practices to cultivate, thrive and repeat without depleting the natural resources are diligently applied. All water used in the winegrowing and winemaking processes is recaptured and recycled.
As part of their stewardship of the land, Brassfield has partnered with the California Waterfowl Association, providing a flyway and refuge for thousands of ducks and other waterfowl.
The featured 2015 Sauvignon Blanc was fermented with native yeast partly in neutral French oak barrels and partly in stainless steel tank. It is a vibrant fresh stone fruit style that has a complex aromatic profile and layered mouth feel.
The 2014 Gewürztraminer is a dry white wine, grown from clones that are certified Alsatian. Also showing complex aromatics, this wine is a medium to full bodied lush wine with a long finish.
At the 2015 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, Brassfield Estate’s entry of their proprietary red blend Eruption took the Best of Class award, 98 points at the California State Fair, and at the San Francisco International Wine Competition it received a Gold medal. Their 2013 Petite Sirah received 94 points at the Critics Challenge and 95 points from www.Tastings.com .
The featured artist for September is Steve Koelling. Born in Dover, Delaware in 1965, Koelling began his artistic endeavors at a very early age, drawing and painting whenever the opportunity presented itself. He gives most of his credit, for starting and staying with it, to his mother for her constant encouragement and support, and always making him feel as if each creation was a new masterpiece.
Although his experience with the art courses available to him during his Junior High School and High School years was nothing short of disappointing, he never relinquished his passion to continue the practice, feeling that the skills would come naturally with time along with his desire to improve upon his techniques with each piece of work.
In the early 1980s, Koelling began painting Holiday Windows for local businesses in Solano County.
Within a short five year span, his work gained him recognition and praise from several prominent business owners, and established him as one of the area’s premier artists.
He continues to display his original works on the windows of several repeat customers who hire him every Christmas Season.
By 1994, he decided to try manipulating his talents and personal experience with oil and acrylic paints on canvas, which eventually led to painting indoor murals. To date he has painted more than 300 canvas pieces and well over 500 murals. His work can be found in a myriad of public and private locations in Northern California, as well as South Lake Tahoe and Reno, Nevada.
He describes his style as an “open field,” painting everything from abstracts, to portraits, to detailed landscape scenes, and even traditional anime and animation-style art pieces. He prides himself on the fact that his style is very difficult to distinguish from one piece to the next.
When told he has amazing talent, Koelling will always refer back to his childhood when his mother’s encouragement simply made him want to “stick with it,” as well as the current support he receives from his inner circle, claiming “anyone could do what I do if they had the same kind of support.”
A frequent guest in Lake County, he currently resides and works in Vacaville, where he produces an average of four to five original acrylics a month.
Lake County Wine Studio is a gallery for display and sale of art and a tasting room, wine bar and retail shop for the fine wines of Lake County. Artists’ shows are held on a monthly basis with art and wine receptions held the first Friday and subsequent Saturday of each month.
The gallery is located at 9505 Main St. in Upper Lake. The hours of business September through May are Thursday to Monday from 1 to 7 p.m., and Friday from 1 to 8 p.m.
The Koelling art exhibit will be on display for the full month of September.
For more information call Lake County Wine Studio at 707-275-8030 or 707-293-8752.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As the school year is just now beginning, Tony Pierucci, the curator of the Lake County Museums, said this is the perfect time to once again remind parents, teachers and school administrators that the Historic Courthouse Museum in Lakeport and the Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse Museum offer free museum tours to all Lake County school districts – private schools included.
Thanks to the support of the Lower Lake Historical School Preservation Committee and the Friends of the Museum, Pierucci said the museum is able to pay for the buses to and from the museum, allowing for more students than ever before to enjoy the unique objects and stories of Lake County’s past.
He encourages parents to tell teachers that they want their children to go to the museum.
Pierucci asked teachers to contact the museum if they would like to schedule a tour for classes and museum staff will help create a meaningful and unique learning experience for students.
The number for the Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse Museum is 707-995-3565; call the Historic Courthouse Museum at 707-263-4555.
“We enjoy giving general education tours through the museums, but we also look forward to working with each teacher to create special, hands-on activities that fit what they’re teaching at the time,” Pierucci said. “See you in the museum!”
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – In response to the deadly and destructive earthquake that rattled Italy last week, Mediacom Communications announced that it is offering its customers free international phone calls to Italy through Sept. 5, 2016.
“The entire Mediacom Family extends our deepest sympathies to the people of Italy impacted by this natural disaster,” said Rocco B. Commisso, Mediacom’s founder and CEO. “By offering free international calls, we hope to provide some small comfort to family and friends concerned about their loved ones overseas.”
The ability to make free international phone calls also extends to the Asian country of Myanmar. Mediacom customers are not required to take any action on their account.
The company will automatically waive fees for all calls to Italy and Myanmar made between Aug. 23, 2016, and Sept. 5, 2016.
Stuart Dybek was born in Chicago, where there are at least a couple of hundred hotels a poet might stroll past, looking up at the windows.
Here's a poem from his book, “Streets in Their Own Ink,” from Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
Curtains
Sometimes they are the only thing beautiful
about a hotel.
Like transients,
come winter they have a way of disappearing,
disguised as dirty light,
limp beside a puttied pane.
Then some April afternoon
a roomer jacks a window open,
a breeze intrudes,
resuscitates memory,
and suddenly they want to fly,
while men,
looking up from the street,
are deceived a moment
into thinking
a girl in an upper story
is waving.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. They do not accept unsolicited submissions. Poem copyright ©2004 by Stuart Dybek, “Curtains,” (Streets in Their Own Ink, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2004. Poem reprinted by permission of Stuart Dybek and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2016 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Library invites the public to kick off the NEA Big Read at the Lake County Lit-Fest on Oct. 1.
The event will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Little Theater at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St. in Lakeport.
This year's Big Read will focus on Jack London’s book, “The Call of the Wild” with an array of activities taking place during October.
The free Lit-Fest celebrates local authors and gives book lovers a chance purchase their work.
Speakers will take the stage every hour to discuss their own work, as well as Jack London and “The Call of the Wild.”
Many organizations in Lake County will be helping to celebrate reading during the program month including the Lake County Office of Education, Friends of Mendocino College, Friends of Mendocino College Library, Friends of the Lake County Library, Friends of the Middletown Library and Rotary Club of Lakeport
Local authors who have signed on for Lit-Fest include Joyce Anderson, Steve Bartholomew, Kit DeCanti, Sunny Franson, John Freedom, Robin C. Harris, Becky Madison, Loretta McCarthy, Heather R. McIntosh, Gene Paleno, K.C. Patrick, Denise Rushing, JoAnn Saccato and R.V. Schmidt.
The Lake County Library is a recipient of a grant of $5,500 to host the NEA Big Read in Lake County.
A program of the National Endowment for the Arts, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.
Lake County Library is one of 77 nonprofit organizations across the country to receive a grant to host an NEA Big Read project between September 2016 and June 2017.
Free copies of “The Call of the Wild,” in both English and Spanish will be available to the public at all Lake County Library branches beginning in mid-September.
For more information call 707-263-8817 or visit www.lakecountybigread.com to learn about the month-long NEA Big Read activities in Lake County.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Music fans are in for a treat on Labor Day evening, Monday, Sept. 5, as the swamp blues master Kenny Neal brings his “Family Band” to the Tallman Hotel veranda for the annual Blue Wing Labor Day Blues Fest.
“With the Lake County Fair over and guests gone home, a little quality music in a relaxing outdoor setting is a great way to end the Labor Day weekend,” said Blue Wing owner Bernie Butcher.
The venue is the tree-shaded garden between the Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Restaurant in Upper Lake.
Gates open at 5:30 p.m. and the show starts in the cool of the evening at 6:15 p.m.
The price of admission, $50 plus tax, includes the opening blues duo of Charles and Julia Oriel plus a gourmet barbecue dinner.
“Kenny Neal is a great guy as well as a fabulous musician and entertainer,” said Butcher. “We were lucky to have him here three years ago when he was living in the Bay Area and even luckier to fit into his travel schedule now that he’s moved back home to Baton Rouge.”
Neal and his siblings began playing classic southern blues when they were quite young, learning the basics from their father, Louisiana legend Raful Neal.
Over his career Neal has traveled the world and released some 18 CDs including his most recent release titled “Bloodlines.”
Neal will be appearing with a full six-piece band including three of his brothers – Darnell, Gralin and Frederick – plus A. G. Gillory and Eric Johnson.
Opening for Neal's band will be the accomplished blues duo Chicken and Dumpling composed of Charles (“Chicken”) and Julia (“Dumpling”) Oriel.
Both professors at the University of California, Davis, the Oriels play down-home, delta-style blues with great harmony and feeling.
Tickets for the Blue Wing Labor Day Blues Fest may be purchased by calling the Tallman Hotel at 707-275-2244, Extension, or online (with a service charge) at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/10th-annual-blue-wing-blues-festival-kenny-neal-his-family-band-tickets-22073178471 .
