Taste New Zealand Wines in San Francisco next Saturday

Anyone here from San Francisco? Here's a chance to taste New Zealand wines. If you do go, I'd love to read your feedback here.
Cheers,
Sue

New Zealand’s “Wine by the Bay”
The InterContinental San Francisco
Saturday, August 22, 2009 12 Noon – 4 PM

Come discover New Zealand wines at “New Zealand’s Wine by the Bay”. KGO radio’s Gene Burns will be broadcasting his “Dining Around” show, LIVE from the event. Delight in over 200 wines from 40+ wineries while sampling delicacies from some of San Francisco’s most wonderful restaurants. All proceeds benefit the San Francisco Food Bank and the Doug Wisor scholarship.
http://www.winebythebay.com/

The late Doug Wisor was an American who was winemaker at Craggy Range in Hawkes Bay when he tragically died in a kite surfing accident. The scholarship was created in his memory to bring a young American winemaker to New Zealand annually to intern for a vintage. For any aspiring winemakers out there, the application information and other information about the scholarship can be found at
http://www.usnzee.org/scholarships.php

I wish that this was going on here in Portland instead. It is my understanding that next spring there will be showcase tasting in both Seattle and Portland from the New Zealand Winegrowers. I did get to go to their trade tasting in May in Vancouver, BC. They did a seminar showing the differences in Sauvignon Blancs by region. They had them grouped by Awatere, Wairau, and other valleys for Marlborough. Then they had some from Hawkes Bay, Martinborough, Central Otago, and Waipara. It was quite interesting to taste the differences.

Awww, I'm booked next Saturday or I would certainly go. Would love to hear from those who do make it.

John

Sue, I remember what I think was the first Bay Area tasting of wines from your approximate turf.

It was in the early 70s in a warehouse in Oakland CA. I was there. They were all Kaiser Stuhl wines.

Darn - would love to attend if it wasn't on the other side of the country. Any idea which producers will be there?

Darn - would love to attend if it wasn't on the other side of the country. Any idea which producers will be there?

No, finding it quite hard to work out who will be there. Haven't found a website with the details. Probably the brands that have agencies in the US, I guess.