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NEWSMAKERS Faces& Forums Varietal-Based Marketing by Local Wineries Pinot on the River draws hundreds to Healdsburg O Scott Schuette shares Pinot Noir from Clouds Rest, an estate vineyard on the Sonoma Coast. Alyson Noland serves as visitor programs and events manager at Sierra Madre Vineyard. ne way to promote high-end wines is for wineries to get together and have locals and tourists taste through wines made from a specific grape. Varietalspecific tastings attract wine drinkers who may be more sophisticated���and therefore more apt to remember their favorites and buy them in the future. This is also an opportunity to provide personal invitations to visit your tasting room. Pinot On The River took place Oct. 21 on the plaza in downtown Healdsburg, Calif., and hundreds of locals and tourists filled the square for the entire morning and afternoon. Pinots from more than 100 wineries were available to taste, as was food from Veronica Baeza (left) helps her friend, winemaker Stacia Williams, promote Caridean Vineyards, the name for which Williams chose because it is Scottish Gaelic for ���friends.��� artisan vendors. A quick survey of winery owners, winemakers and marketing folks suggested that it is a worthwhile way to show your best and gain new customers. VIP guests had the option to attend a pre-tasting seminar exploring the Pinot Noir lineup of Sebastopol, Calif.-based Littorai Wines. The seminar, ���Terroir vs Blending: One Winegrower���s Insights,��� was presented by Littorai owner and winemaker Ted Lemon and moderated by Greg Walter from Pinot�� eport. R kate Participants tasted through six single-vineyard lavin 2010 Pinots from Littorai, each of them representing Anderson Valley, the Sonoma Coast Margi Truter, who works in sales for Littorai Wines, greets patrons in Healdsburg Square. or the Russian River Valley. ���Wines & Vines 42 W in es & V i ne s JANUARY 20 13 David Cumming, director of retail sales, pours Pinot Noir from Schug Carneros Estate Winery.