UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Lake County Wine Studio is hosting a wine release party and artist show event with Ceago Vinegarden and painter, Michelle Price, on Friday, May 3, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday, May 4, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Saturday event will include an optional progressive four-course winemaker dinner series at the Tallman Hotel following the appetizer course at the studio.

Owner Jim Fetzer and winemaker Barney Fetzer will be at the studio and Tallman Hotel for the receptions and the special Saturday dinner event.

The $12.50 ($10/per person for studio club members) wine sampler and appetizers presented at the Studio will showcase the 2010 Reserve Chardonnay with a Ceago bruschetta recipe; 2010 Syrah with marinated smoked mushrooms and specialty cheeses, the 2010 Malbec with a roasted eggplant appetizer by Cache Creek Catering and the 2010 Muscat with a rosemary and orange zest mini cupcake.

Ceago Vinegarden is an organic and biodynamic vineyard and premium boutique winery sited on a breathtaking 163 acre estate on the northeastern shore of Clear Lake, nestled between Nice and Lucerne.

The estate also is the home of the Ceago Del Lago farm where vegetables, fruits, herbs, walnuts and fragrant lavender are grown, sheep graze contentedly at their job of vegetation control and a large flock of hens produce fresh eggs.

At Ceago, Jim Fetzer has taken everything learned from his dad and forty years in the wine business to a new level of farming. Fetzer developed the Ceago Del Lago property in 2001 as an agro-eco tourism project to share biodynamic farming practices and the resulting wine and foods with the public. Each autumn, the vineyards are hand-harvested and the fruit is carried to the winery where it begins the journey from fermentation to delicious wine.

Guest chef at the Saturday dinner at the Tallman will be Nicolas Petti, head of the culinary program at Mendocino College, Ukiah. Petti will feature Ceago Estate grown greens and vegetables in the dinner dishes, as well as Ceago Olive Oil, Upper Lake red Livermore walnuts and Shannon Ranch lamb.

Reservations for the Saturday tasting at the Studio and dinner at the Tallman are $75 plus tax and may be obtained by calling the Tallman Hotel at 707-275-2244, Extension 0. A link to the full menu can be found at www.TallmanHotel.com/winemaker-dinner .

The artist for May is Michelle Price. Price was born in Lyon, France, lived in New York for several years and then moved to the Bay Area in the early 1970s, where she studied Beaux Arts and obtained a degree in cosmetology, massage therapy and health education. She later graduated from the International Tour Management Institute of San Francisco.

In 2000, Price relocated to Lake County where she became inspired to return to art and developed her own style of expressionism in glass art and acrylic and oil paintings.

Some of her paintings have been influenced by her many years of Latin dancing and specializing in ChaCha, Rumba, Meringue, and the Argentine Tango, which Price taught a few years ago with the Reach Out Program. Her artist name, Michou, is her signature on all of her artistic creations.

Price has served on the Arts Council Board of Lakeport and has shown some of her works at the Main Street Gallery and Bell Hill tasting room in Lakeport, Featherbed Railroad B&B in Nice and the Alpine Café in Lucerne. Some of her finished and in progress artwork can be viewed on her facebook page, Michelle Price Art Creations.

Lake County Wine Studio is a gallery for display of arts and a tasting room, wine bar and retail shop for the fine wines of Lake County. Artist’s shows are held on a monthly basis with art and wine receptions held the first Friday and subsequent Saturday of each month.

The gallery is located at 9505 Main St. in Upper Lake. It is open Monday, 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.; and Friday, 1 p.. to 8 p.m.

The art show will be on display for the full month of April.

For more information call Lake County Wine Studio at 707-275-8030 or 707-293-8752.