Press Clips

Davis Enterprise: Capay Organic farm selected to host farm-to-table dinner. Capay Organic’s farm has been chosen as a dinner site for the prestigious farm-to-table dinner organization Outstanding in the Field. The farm is also known for its Community Supported Agriculture business, Farm Fresh To You, which delivers fresh, organic produce to subscribers’ doorsteps.The dinner will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 24. Tickets go on sale through the Outstanding in the Field website, http://outstandinginthefield.com/events/north-american-tour,at 9 a.m. Tuesday. Chef Oliver Ridgeway of Grange Restaurant in Sacramento will be the event chef.Outstanding in the Field describes itself as a “roving culinary adventure” with more than 80 dinners throughout the country on its schedule for 2012. …[Read More]
Smart Meetings: Eat, Meet and Bike in Yolo County.Tucked between Napa Valley and Sacramento, Calif., Yolo County quietly fuels many passions of Californians and those beyond. Its rich soils led farmers to produce the organic vegetables that launched a food revolution in the San Francisco Bay Area beginning in the 1970s. The University of California Davis is one of the top research universities in the world and is particularly known for producing top winemakers through its advanced programs that range from agricultural and environmental education to viticulture and enology (that’s the study of wine). The city of Davis is also home to the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame and the Robert Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, which focuses on major dance, music and theater programming.Meet and stay in Davis at the Best Western Plus Palm Court downtown and walk to cafes, restaurants and shops or the Hyatt Place UC Davis next to the campus. The top meeting venues are The Odd Fellows Hall,Veterans Memorial Center and the facilities at the UC Davis campus. …[Read More]
Davis Enterprise: Visitors Bureau looks to promote county in new ways. When events like the Livestrong Challenge descend upon Yolo County, it isn’t just a time to showcase some of the best athletes in the region. To the Yolo County Visitors Bureau, it’s also a time to showcase the region itself.The Visitors Bureau — tasked with the job of attracting such events to the area by promoting Yolo County — held its monthly board meeting Thursday at the Holiday Inn Express in Woodland. About two-dozen hoteliers, business owners and city representatives gathered to discuss how to maximize exposure to the area when big events like the Livestrong bike ride come around.The Livestrong Challenge comes to town June 23-24 for the second straight year to put on a 100-mile bike ride through the area. The Visitors Bureau hopes to promote local businesses to those participating in the event, as well as spectators and those who come to support the athletes.Last year, the event saw almost 1,500 riders pass through Davis. The Visitors Bureau is shooting for 2,000 this year. …[Read More]
Sacramento Bee: Todd Taylor’s Been a Steady Old Sugar Mill Presence.The Old Sugar Mill looms from the flatlands of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta like one more grim Californiapenal colony to startle unsuspecting motorists as they wind their way through some quiet, remote and sparsely settled stretch of the state.

Todd Taylor has been a steady presence since the summer of 2006. That’s when his eponymous winery outgrew the three-car garage of his Rancho Murieta residence, and he moved into a somewhat larger space at the Old Sugar Mill.

Up until that time, he’d made his living selling industrial packaging. In the early 1980s he and his buddies began to brew beer, and at one point he toyed with the notion of becoming a commercial brewer. As he and his pals matured, however, their beverage of choice shifted from beer to wine, so Taylor switched from taking an occasional class in brewing at the University of California, Davis, to an occasional class in winemaking. …[Read More]
Davis Enterprise: LiveStrong to Challenge Davis in June. It had such a good time last summer, it will be back for more Davis-style hospitality on June 23-24 next year.The Livestrong Challenge is a three-part celebration in which a dozen athletic events — mostly revolving around cycling and the sport’s superstar, Lance Armstrong —  are designed to raise funds and awareness for the fight against cancer. “We’ll have a lot of the same things we had last year, but the route is a little different this time around — more downtown, more flat,” Davis Public Relations Manager Bob Bowen told The Enterprise on Tuesday, just after the Livestrong organizers made the announcement. Davis joins Philadelphia (Aug. 18-19) and Austin, Texas (Sept. 21) as the American sites for Armstrong’s campaign against cancer. …[Read More]
Woodland Daily Democrat: Yolo Visitors Bureau Assisting Food Bank. The Yolo County Visitors Bureau is teaming up with the Food Bank of Yolo County for a Holiday Food Drive. All through the month of December, the YCVB Visitor Center in downtown Davis will double as a drop-off station for donations of packaged food.The YCVB will deliver the donations to the Food Bank, which will distribute the goods to deserving, needy people throughout the county. People with packaged food to spare are encouraged to donate at the Visitors Center, located at 604 Second St., Davis. Visitor Center hours are weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. …[Read More
Davis Enterprise: Korean journalists learn about Yolo tourism options: A group of 16 newspaper journalists from Korea recently made a visit to the Yolo County Visitors Bureau offices in downtown Davis. The stop was part of a tour of Northern California organized by Brain Pack, an education consulting firm in Seoul, Korea.The purpose of the visit was to educate the journalists about the various activities tourists can enjoy in Davis and throughout the county.The guests included Lee Yonsun, editor in chief of the Yongin Citizen Newspaper; Park Sunyoung, editor in chief of the Gyeong-San News; Park Eun Hee, education and culture editor for the Joongdo Daily; and Youn Yong Hoon, editor in chief of the Kuro Times.The group met for nearly two hours with Alan Humason, executive director of the YCVB, and Adrianne Bataska, the agency’s new sales director. ...[Read More
Sacramento Bee: Mike Dunne's Wine of the Week: 2008 Dunnigan Hills Tempranillo from Crew Wine Company. On paper, tempranillo should be one of California's more popular varietal wines. As the backbone of Spain's glorious Rioja wines, it has reliability, tradition and nobility going for it.Little of that history and prestige has traveled well across the Atlantic and across the United States to the vineyards of California, however. Wine enthusiasts are aware of tempranillo, but few get excited about it."It's amazing how many people know the name," says Lane Giguiere."At tastings, tempranillo is the most popular wine on our table, but that froth hasn't developed in the market," adds her husband, John Giguiere.No winemaking couple in California has more faith in tempranillo. But its day will come, they are convinced. If and when it does, much of the credit should go to the Giguieres.They've embraced tempranillo for two decades, first at their winery R.H. Phillips and now at their winery Crew Wine Co., both in the Dunnigan Hills of northern Yolo County. ...[Read More]
Sacramento Bee: Highway 16 may or may not be the most scenic way to get to Lake County from Sacramento, but it’s a route we hadn’t taken in years and we wanted to see what’s been developing along the road in the interim.Highway 16 passes through northern Yolo County and such small and quiet farming settlements as Esparto, Brooks, Guinda and Rumsey. The land rolls gently, its parched hills brightened here and there with stands of safflower and sunflower; herds of cattle; fields of corn, walnut orchards, truck farms and vineyards.These gentle rural views change abruptly at Brooks, site of the monstrous and modern Cache Creek Casino Resort, whose gambling chambers are supplemented with an amphitheater, golf course, hotel and spa.It’s so big and distracting that motorists are apt to miss entirely Capay Valley Vineyards, its immediate neighbor on the northwest side. …[Read More]
Davis Enterprise: The Yolo County Visitors Bureau launched its revamped and updated website — www.yolocvb.org – on Monday, completing a four-month project. The new site provides broad and detailed visitor information about Davis, Woodland, Winters, and Yolo County in a fresh, engaging way with many new features, a news release said.Interactivity is a hallmark of the new website, providing extensive information about hotels and inns, meeting facilities with resources for event and meeting planners, and activities from visiting art galleries and historical sites to farm tours and winery tasting rooms. …[Read More]
Press Democrat: Bogle Vineyards’ 2010 California Sauvignon Blanc is highlighted as the Wine of the Week.

Mown grass. That’s just one of the descriptors used for our wine-of-the-week winner – the Bogle 2010 California Sauvignon Blanc. Others include tropical, boxwood and crisp.

This sauvignon blanc, with a $9 price tag, is a great wine for the last hurrah of summer because it won’t break the bank and it’s tasty. Yes, the mown grass flavor works. …[Read More]
Stroll Through History returns to Woodland: Visitors to Woodland’s annual Stroll Through History on Saturday, Sept. 10, will travel to a bygone era through tours of vintage homes, walking tours of historic neighborhoods and landmarks, an antiques fair, an antique vehicles show and an old-time baseball game. ..[Read More]
Lodi News - What’s the attraction: After spending four years at a university in mid-Missouri, I am well-versed in the charms of a college town. Davis is the first city I’ve visited in California that has that youthful feel. For people who like to shop, there are plenty of vintage, art, book and boutique stores in Downtown Davis. But if you want to try something new, like an ostrich burger, or see the city while riding a bicycle, check out these suggestions…[Read More]
Sac Bee – Great Bike Rides: Out past Winters, plenty of bucolic flats with enough climbing to make you hurt. Want to burn 3,000 calories? Looking to travel by bike from the crowds and cars and traffic signals to a place that belongs in a travel brochure for Belgium or the north of France? Who wouldn’t? But it gets better ….[Read More]