US: Wineries court gay customers

(PressDemocrat) - Los Angeles couple Brian Chield and Bryan Hollingshead sat around a patio table Saturday sipping Rosso di Sonoma, a red blend from their host Petroni Vineyards, perched high over Sonoma Valley.

For a warm weekend in Wine Country, the scene was hardly groundbreaking. But the pair of tasters and the half-dozen other same-sex couples with them were part of a new brand of gathering in the gay and lesbian community built around wine.

On Saturday, the event was Gay Wine Weekend, featuring tours and tastings at 32 local wineries, dining, dancing and a charitable auction held today in Sonoma. Now in its third year, the three-day event is the signature gathering for Out in the Vineyard, a tour and event company founded by Sonoma business partners Mark Vogler and Gary Saperstein. It was expected to bring more than 600 people to the area.

While that doesn’t measure up to other wine events throughout the year that can draw thousands of tasters, the visitors this weekend included some who traveled across the country and wine aficionados, who — gasp — had never set foot in Sonoma County.

“We wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t for this event,” said Hollingshead, 52, who with Chield was on a five-day wine tasting trip along the coast.

In the clamor for the next “new” market in wine tourism, tasting room managers, innkeepers and industry promoters are turning increasingly to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender consumers for business.