Lookout wine expert Laurie Love highlights top events happening around Santa Cruz County in the coming week, plus more listings from Lookout’s BOLO calendar.
Laurie Love
Laurie Love is a professional wine educator and writer based in Santa Cruz, where she has lived for 34 years. She shares her wine passion, knowledge and experience with Lookout readers as Lookout’s wine correspondent. Laurie specializes in French wine and the Santa Cruz Mountains American Viticultural Area (AVA), our local appellation that has been making world-class wines for more than 140 years.Laurie’s background is wide-reaching. She teaches wine classes at the Cabrillo College Wine Program and for Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Global. Laurie also wrote the course content for online wine education website,wine-ed.com, a companion to the Cabrillo College Wine Program. She teaches private wine classes and leads private tastings. For the past several years, she’s been a Santa Cruz Mountains AVA contributing writer for the Slow Wine Guide USA, featuring wineries that are sourcing from sustainable vineyards. In addition, she works locally in wine production with Bottle Jack Wines in Santa Cruz.Laurie holds several professional wine certifications: WSET Level 3 with Distinction, French Wine Scholar with Highest Honors (FWS), Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) and sommelier, in addition to earning three Cabrillo College wine certificates. She is currently a candidate for the Bourgogne master-level certification through the Wine Scholar Guild. You can follow her wine blog, laurieloveswine.wordpress.com, and on Instagram at @LaurieLoveOnWine.Laurie is thrilled to join the Lookout team and to share the bounty of our local wine region with Lookout readers.
Wine of the Week: Ser Winery 2022 Dry Orange Muscat
Made from 100% orange muscat grapes, a rarity in California, Laurie Love’s recommended pour this week makes an excellent aperitif or picnic wine. But it also pairs beautifully with mildly spicy Thai or Vietnamese dishes, seafood salad and hard Italian cheese.
Laurie Love on Wine: Cabrillo’s Perfect Pair and Surf City Wine Walk set for June debut
Lookout’s wine expert previews “The Perfect Pair,” an April 27 tasting event that’s a collaboration of Cabrillo College’s culinary arts department with Santa Cruz Mountains wines, looks ahead to a new Westside tasting event and highlights wine calendar must-adds.
Laurie Love on Wine: Locals at World of Pinot Noir, Pebble Beach Food & Wine preview and ‘Eden’ premiere
Lookout wine expert Laurie Love returns with a look at Santa Cruz Mountains wineries’ splash at a pinot-centric Santa Barbara event, gets a sneak peek at next month’s Pebble Beach Food & Wine and highlights a variety of events featuring local wines and winemakers.
Laurie Love on Wine: New film spotlights Mount Eden Vineyards, Wine of the Week returns and events galore
In her biweekly column, Lookout wine expert Laurie Love previews “Eden,” Soquel filmmaker Chris McGilvray’s new work about a Santa Cruz Mountains standout, goes to Bottle Jack Winery for her wine pick of the week, and highlights a wealth of upcoming wine-related events locally and a bit farther flung.
Laurie Love on Wine: Locals hit it big at San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition
In her biweekly column, Lookout wine expert Laurie Love recaps a successful showing for Santa Cruz Mountains wines at a prestigious wine event up the Peninsula, notes big enrollment numbers for Cabrillo College’s wine programs and spotlights wine-centric events for Valentine’s Day and beyond.
Laurie Love on Wine: The trials, tribulations and inspiration of 2023 in the vineyard
In her biweekly column, Lookout wine expert Laurie Love talks to viticulturist Ken Swegles about the unusual 2023 growing season in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which was made challenging by a variety of factors but yielded what Swegles calls “one of the best vintages, one for the books.”
Laurie Love on Wine: Kissed By An Angel’s new tasting room, recycling bill’s impact, accolades and events
Lookout wine expert Laurie Love returns with word on a new spot to sample Kissed By An Angel Wines, a new semester of wine classes at Cabrillo, what a new recycling bill means for consumers and winemakers, plus love for local vintages and upcoming Santa Cruz County wine events.
Laurie Love on Wine: Aptos Wine Wander highlights, a Westside wine cubby & end-of-year fun
In Part 1 of her biweekly column, Lookout wine expert Laurie Love relays what she tasted and saw at the recent Aptos Wine Wander, spotlights Margins Wine’s new Westside digs and recommends some events as we head toward New Year’s Eve.
Laurie Love on Wine: An extra-special New Year’s Eve Wine of the Week + all things bubbles
In Part 2 of her biweekly column, Lookout wine expert Laurie Love recommends a very special of bubbly for holiday celebrations as her Wine of the Week, and covers the basics of Champagne in her Wine 101 lesson.

