Sign-in table for the Artesa Pick-up party event.

Early this year, Clint and I joined Artesa’s wine club after our visit to their spectacular winery in Napa’s Carneros region. I’ll wholeheartedly admit it was an impulse move – under the influence of the gorgeous views from their tasting room, the generous discounts they give to wine club members and the overall solid performance-to-price ratio across a great spectrum of varietals.

The hostess who poured our wines did note that Artesa had a great wine club that tries to involve its members in some great events. At the time, I had smiled politely and dismissed this as a sales tactic. Well, Clint and I were pleasantly surprised a couple of weeks ago when we attended one of their Pick-up parties which was at the Left Bank Restaurant at Santana Row.

When we arrived on the Tuesday after work, there was already a line up of members signing up to get in. The concept behind a pick-up party is simple, instead of getting the wines shipped, Artesa holds these parties all over California so members can “pick-up” their wine shipment.

We were planning to just swing by, check it out, pick up our wine and leave. This did not happen. After we got our wine tastings and some appetizers, as fate would have it, we joined a table where we met a great couple, Lee and Stacey, and spent the entire evening chatting about wine, the video game industry and Adobe.

It was a fabulous evening and we are looking forward to many more Artesa wine events.

The only problem…our wine club memberships are growing and its hard to let go of any of them for various reasons which I won’t go into in this post.

Left Bank at Santana Row. The entire side patio was reserved for the wine club event. For the evening, Left Bank waived the corkage fee.

Line up for the Artesa event.

Cute bistro seating.

Colorful curtains and murals add to the whimsy of the event.
Wine glasses ready for some yummy tastings.

Generous appetizers to pair with the wines.

I thought these were pears but it turned out these appetizers were potatos stuffed with cheese (I think).

Great evening of conversation, wine and food. I am embarrassed to say we were quite the troopers and stayed much longer than most.

For those that are interested in more information on Artesa, you can visit their website at www.artesawinery.com or shoot them an email club “at” artesawinery.com.

Clint and I are already signed up for the Emeryville Pick-up Party at Charles Chocolates and looking forward to rumours of a weekend event in Carmel.

Loni Kao Stark

Loni is a self-professed foodie, adventure travel seeker and aspiring artist. It's been said her laugh can be heard from San Jose all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. She's been known to dance and spin across Napa and the Baja. The former Ms. Global Petite runner-up is host of WineTube TV, SSC Presents and The Artist Diaries. In a former life she was simply: "sushiweakness." More »

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