Following its impressive first year Festival del Sole will return to Napa Valley July 13-22.

The 10-day lifestyle festival features daily concerts followed by meals prepared by celebrity chefs and enhanced by the region’s finest wines.

Info, www.festivaldelsole.com.

Graduation meals at cooking school

Napa Valley College’s cooking school is holding its traditional graduation exercises April 16 to May 4, and you get to grade them.

The students will serve an eight-course tasting luncheon menu paired with Napa Valley wines — for only $30 per person.

There’s one seating  at 11:45 a.m. They take reservations for parties of up to six people at 967-2901.

   

Hospice fundraiser at Castello di Amorosa

Hospice of Napa Valley will be one of the first groups to hold a fundraiser at Castello di Amorosa, Daryl Sattui’s castle in Calistoga, on June 23.

Tickets are $350 and are available at 258-9080.

   

Napa Valley Writers’ Conference

The Napa Valley Writers’ Conference for poets and fiction writers will be held July 29 through Aug. 3 at the Upper Valley campus of Napa Valley College.

Info, www.napawritersconf.org or 967-2900 x1611.

The conference is a program of NVC.

   

Rosé producers move Pink Out! to spring

Rosé Avengers and Producers is moving its Pink Out! rosé tasting from July to May to coincide with the release of the 2006 rosé vintage.

The 2007 San Francisco show will feature 45 roses at Butterfly on the Embarcadero May 21.

The trade portion is 4:30-6 p.m. with the $25 consumer tasting, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Consumer tickets are $25 online at www.rapwine.com.

   

Kendall-Jackson marks 25th anniversary

Jess Jackson is celebrating his 25th year making wine. The 1982 vintage Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve chardonnay was made in a modest metal barn that served as a winery in Lakeport in Lake County.

   

Karen MacNeil wins Wine Literary Award

Author Karen MacNeil has been named the 2007 Wine Literary Award winner. She will receive her award at a gala tasting and banquet April 27.

Info, www.wineapprecation.com.

   

Wine Marketing and Sales

The new textbook “Wine Marketing and Sales: Success Strategies for a Saturated Market” from the Wine Appreciation Guild offers winery owners and brand managers tools to help grab mindshare when thousands of new brands vie for shrinking shelf space.

It was written by Paul Wagner, Liz Thach and Janeen Olsen.

The book is available at www.wineappreciation.com or (800) 231-9463.

E-mail news to paul@napalife.com.