San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Passport to Dry Creek Valley ‘has gotten better with age’
Like fine wine, the Passport to Dry Creek Valley weekend event has aged gracefully since it debuted 30 years ago.
Only a few hundred tickets were sold for the first event in 1990. This year, with the 30th anniversary celebration scheduled for April 27-28, organizers expect at least 5,000 participants and more than 40 wineries.
“It definitely has gotten better with age,” said Dave Stare, one of those credited with starting the event.
Stare, 79, certainly has a unique perspective on Passport. When he founded Dry Creek Vineyard in 1972, it was the first new winery established in the Dry Creek Valley after Prohibition. The following decade, Stare and neighbors such as Jay Fritz from Fritz Underground Winery and Yvonne Kreck from Mill Creek Winery created an organization (which later became the Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley) to raise awareness about the area as an alternative destination to Napa and Sonoma.
To do this, Stare borrowed an idea from something he had experienced in the world of sailing. At the time, he was on the board of the Nautical Heritage Society, and every year, a tall ship known as The Californian would sail from Dana Point up the coast and stop in ports along the way. Fans could print out a passport-like document and get it stamped every time they visited the ship in a different port.
He thought: Why not do something like that here?
“The whole passport idea started with something that wasn’t even wine,” Stare said. “I knew how much people loved it with the ship, and I figured people might enjoy it just the same here, only with wine.”
Stare was right, though it took a few years for his vision to mature. Turnout was low for the first Passport event in 1990, but the following year, the group recruited nearly 20 wineries — including Ferrari-Carano, Mazzocco and Quivira — and tourists came out in droves. By the third year, the word was out: Passport was for serious wine people, and it was well worth the trip.
The event has been growing ever since, and now comprises three full days — Friday through Sunday.
Over the years, all participating wineries now have added food and themes to their individual parties. Some even bring in live entertainment from local artists to create the perfect ambiance.
Geyserville’s Pedroncelli Winery, one of the wineries to participate in all 30 Passport events, is one such place.
Fittingly, Julie Pedroncelli, one of the winery owners, said