Melody Fuller, Founder And Executive Director Of The Oakland Wine Festival, Proves That The Vines Of Life Are Deeply Rooted At Home
By V. Sheree Williams
The first annual Oakland Wine Festival is one of the city’s highly anticipated events for wine enthusiasts this year.
On July 18, more than 30 of the world’s most renowned wineries and winemakers will join forces with 14 acclaimed Oakland-based chefs to host the first-ever Oakland Wine Festival 10 a.m. – midnight at Mills College.
Some of the most celebrated names in the wine industry: Rombauer Winery, Silverado Vineyards, Pride Mountain Winery, and Opus One to name a few will set the table with three of Oakland’s top female chefs Tanya Holland of Brown Sugar Kitchen; Elizabeth Sassen of Homestead Restaurant, and Reign Free at the winemaker luncheon and dinner.
The day-long event will kick off with “Winemakers Panels” and “Wine Seminars” followed by a “Winemaker Master Class” in the morning. The afternoon features an “Intimate Winemaker Luncheon” followed by an “Elegant Baby Grand Tasting” and “Exquisite Winemaker Dinner.”
Tickets are currently on sale at: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/oakland-wine-festival-tickets-16004437704.
Roots of the Vine
Oakland’s urban wine revolution has been taking root for a couple of decades, but it is finally coming of age. No one knows better than Melody Fuller the brainchild behind the Oakland Wine Festival, a high-profile wine and food event that boosts of some of the most celebrated names in the wine industry.
“The Oakland Wine Festival came out of me being really, really engrossed and focused on the wine industry; learning about it, reading about it, taking classes, writing about it and just being fully engaged in it,” says Melody, an Oakland native, who is passionate for wine and a visionary. “What I wanted for my city and the wine industry is to come together in a real meaningful way.”
Melody developed a taste for good food and wine at an early age. The bubbles of champagne, experiencing her first sips of the bubbly along with her siblings, celebrating every success the family experienced and growing up in a family of “phenomenal cooks” could have set her on her current trajectory.
“I didn’t think Champagne was drinking,” says Melody, whose parents were both owned retail stores and celebrated every good business day and grand opening with champagne and the kids joined in on the celebration. “I guess you could say we were French in that sense. We didn’t know that we weren’t supposed to drink because our parents were very open-minded.”
Adding to the party was a love of food.
“My grandparents on both sides were phenomenal chefs and cooks,” says Melody. “Both sets of my grandparents and my mom and dad did things that are highlighted now, such as using fresh, home-grown sourced ingredients from gardens, getting their own fresh fish from the Delta and other fish sources in the Bay Area. They always paid a lot of attention to the spices and the herbs that they used.”
However, Melody’s true wine experience began while attending Mills College, Oakland’s women’s college, and by her travels around the world.
Yet, no matter where she dined and drank in the world her best memories of food and wine all returned to her own backyard.
“My own backyard, which is why the Oakland Wine Festival has so much meaning to me,” says Melody, about her beloved city that has been ranked among the top cities to visit in the U.S. by Lonely Planet and the New York Times. “While I have been blessed … to travel the world, some of my experiences have been in my own backyard, in Oakland.”
“I really realized in hindsight that I was being trained and prepped to have [a] palate and the appetite for delicious, well-prepared, and fine foods,” Melody says. “And now, we’ll add to that wine.”
A percentage of the proceeds from the wine festival will benefit Children’s Hospital Oakland’s Family House; St. Mary’s College High School’s Cameron Fuller-Holloway Memorial Fun Fund; and Alternative Family Services.
The Oakland Wine Festival is 10 a.m. – 12 a.m. on July 18 at Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland. Tickets range from individual event tickets starting at $55 up to an all day package for $525. You can purchase your tickets at: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/oakland-wine-festival-tickets-16004437704. For more information, visit OaklandWineFestival.com.
Originally A Preview of the Oakland Wine Festival with Founder Melody Fuller by Sheree Williams, publisher and editor of Cuisine Noir Magazine, Girls That Roam’s most recent media partner.
To book your trip to Oakland contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at Travel Advisors of Los Gatos at 408-354-6531at or .
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