Copia is continues its celebration of Italy this weekend with the Italian Garden Saturday and an Italian street festival Sunday.

The Italian Garden, a "Journey from Garden to Table" is Saturday from 3 to 4:30 p.m. It includes garden harvest walk with tastes and wine pairing.

Join Colby Eierman, director of gardens, and Geoff Palla, head gardener, give growing tips and a tasting paired with wine. The non-member cost is $35.

Copia is holding Festa Italiana, an Italian street fair Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The event is included with admission to Copia but food and wine tickets are sold separately.

Go to www.copia.org or call 259-1600 for details.

55 Degrees fights Mandalay Bay

The popular wine storage facility 55 Degrees in Napa Valley, is in court with the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas over its name -- one now shared with 55 Degrees Wine + Design in the hotel.

Neil and Karen Adoroty founded their 55 Degrees in 1999 and trademarked the name that year.

The Adorotys originally took a laissez-faire attitude, but the hotel is trying to keep them from using the name outside Napa, and many 55 Degrees customers have approached the Napa couple about franchises.

CIA features music

and more on the terrace

The Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America is celebrating the waning days of summer with "Terrace Nights" each Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Guests can enjoy the Luna Quartet and light grilled fare such as barbecued oysters, shrimp skewers, duck tenders and hors d'oeuvres, American microbrews, specialty cocktails and wines by the glass at lunch and dinner.

The full restaurant menu is also available.

For more details, lunch and dinner reservations, call 967-1010.

Classes at Napa Valley Cooking School

The Napa Valley Cooking School, part of Napa Valley College, has two arms. One is a rigorous program for potential chefs. The other is a series of tasty-sounding classes for food lovers.

The classes are taught by college chef-instructors as well as local chefs and other experts. They include instructors from the CIA, which can't give consumer classes. The CIA does offer one-hour demos.

You can find the information online at www.napavalley.edu.

Pick up some

holiday memorabilia

Sayle Moser, the former owner of Lounge 1351 in St. Helena, is moving and selling the holiday glassware and memorabilia she's collected for years.

She's having a sale this weekend from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 393 La Fata in St. Helena, behind Central Valley Builders Supply.

Cooking classes with Julie

Certified culinary professional Julie Logue-Riordan is offering cooking classes at Churchill Manor in Napa.

The upcoming classes include: "Cutting Edge: Knife Skills," Saturday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. A light meal made from the cut vegetables and wine will be served. The cost is $55. "Stocks for Sauces and Soups," Tuesday, featuring four classic stocks: meat, chicken, vegetable and fish. Each class will include a variety of recipes, which students will enjoy with a glass of wine and bread. The cost is $85.

Go to www.cookingwithjulie.com for details or call 227-5036 to reserve a space. Charles Krug Winery hosts 'Tasting on the Lawn'

Charles Krug Winery welcomes wine, food and music lovers to the final outdoor tasting of the season.

The Peter Mondavi family's "Tasting on the Lawn" series concludes Saturday with a lineup of ultra-premium wines, including reserves and limited releases, paired with seasonal appetizers and accompanied by live music on the shaded grounds of the winery.

Tickets for the event, which runs from 2 to 5 p.m., are available by calling 888-275-5784. The cost is $30.

The Web site is www.charleskrug.com.

Acorn Soupe's

'Tree of Life'

Acorn Soupe's "Tree of Life" fundraiser is Saturday, at Spottswoode Estate on the western edge of St. Helena.

David Reynolds, whose auctioneering style blends classic British cadence with distinctive American patois, will dispense wines and getaways.

It will also feature a sumptuous meal complete with fine Napa wines.

Doors open at 5 p.m. and seating is limited to 200. The cost is $150 per person. For details, visit www.acornsoupe.org or call 254-7284.

A bit of wine tasting

I get invited to taste a lot of wine, so I rarely go out tasting like a tourist. However, last week I did. A friend new to the area asked me to show her around, and we had a great time.

Our first winery stop was Chateau Montelena, a bit of an homage to the winery's role in the famed Paris Tasting 30 years ago.

Though Montelena won the Paris tasting for chardonnay, which remains a classic, the winery's real specialty is cabernet sauvignon.

It makes wine the old fashioned way, which I mean as a compliment, producing an elegant wine that shows best with a bit of age and has the backbone to complement serious food.

A tasting is $25 including some older wines and the excellent riesling, which you won't find elsewhere, as well as rare zinfandel and petite sirah.

We then went to Sterling.

On weekends, Sterling offers a glass of wine as you get off the tram, then another on the patio overlooking the valley.

Then it's up to the tasting room, where you get the first wine -- a pinot gris this time, then sit to taste others.

There are also reserve tastings available at additional cost; the basic entrance fee is $15 during the week, $20 on weekends. There's a $5 discount before 12:30 p.m.

Sterling makes some Cellar Club Wines sold only at the winery, too, including an excellent ros new this year, and one of the best California viogniers I've tasted.

Sterling is best known for its merlots, and Miles from Sideways obviously never drank any of the 1999 Three Palms merlot. It's a profound wine, certainly one of the valley's best. It was part of a reserve tasting served in a separate room.

Local residents get an additional 5 percent off case prices as part of the Napa Valley Vintners' Napa Neighbor program but no free tasting or tram ride.

E-mail news to paul@napalife.com