It is our article on Page 1 of the current issue titled “Mountain Mandarins: A Sweet Treat,” running ahead of the 18th Annual Mountain Mandarin Festival in Auburn this weekend. The article promotes the dozens of Mandarin farmers in the region, some of them here for generations, and their marquee crop. It also discloses the newly discovered health benefits of Mandarins.

The article is published on the front page of the Bee’s “Food & Wine Section” (page D1), providing additional exposure for our magazine and our advertisers and helping to draw more visitors to the foothills. This tourism promotion comes at no cost to taxpayers — unlike media familiarization or FAM tours, for example, — merely building on the ongoing collaboration of the two publications. The relationship will continue with each issue.

The article by editor/publisher Jeff Pelline, a long-time award-winning journalist at the San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere, is here. An interactive map of the Mandarin Orchards is published online as well. The award-winning photography from Sierra FoodWineArt is being republished in the Bee too, providing added exposure for local photographers.

While Editor at CNET in San Francisco, Jeff’s newsroom won a prestigious National Magazine Award in New York City, joining the ranks of national publications such as the Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic and The New York Times magazine, among others. It was among the first National Magazine Awards for an Internet media outlet.

The Bee is the largest circulation newspaper and website in Northern California, apart from the San Francisco Chronicle. It is California’s fifth largest newspaper and the nation’s 25th largest.

This marks the continued growth of Sierra FoodWineArt magazine under the ownership of Shannon Pelline, Jeff’s spouse, whose background includes helping to manage growing businesses in the Bay Area.

Sierra FoodWineArt just agreed to a new three-year deal to publish the official Placer County Welcome Guide, and the Nevada County Board of Supervisors unanimously selected us to maintain the county’s flagship tourism website GoNevadaCounty.com for the coming fiscal year. We received our signed contract late last week.

We collaborate with a wide range of organizations including the Sacramento Bee. Others include the Placer County Visitor’s Bureau, Placer Valley Tourism, PlacerGROWN, Sierra Vintners, Nevada County Arts and the Joint Chambers of Nevada County, among others.

Our free quarterly magazine now circulates 14,000-20,000 copies each quarter to the foothills (Auburn, Grass Valley and Nevada City), as well as Reno, Truckee/Tahoe, Folsom/Rocklin/Roseville/Granite Bay, Sacramento, Marysville, Yuba City, Chico and Paradise. We also have some targeted distribution in the Bay Area and are planning to increase circulation in the Bay Area and add Monterey/Carmel next year. We are locally owned and operated.

Thanks to all our readers and advertisers for their support, helping to make us a “go to” publication for drawing visitors to our region and promoting food, wine, art, fall foliage and tourism events such as the Mandarin Festival, Cornish Christmas and Victorian Christmas. All our content is updated quarterly, packaged with relevant photos and editorial. It is posted online and archived on our companion website SierraCulture.com, also promoted by The Bee.

(photo credit: Wayde Carroll)

“Last night, my wife Lisa, Lisa Mann and I along with a couple other Placer County Wineries and El Dorado and Lodi wineries poured our wine for a California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC) reception on the West steps of the Capitol.

“We put a Villa Fiorente basket together and included your magazine. The attached picture is me presenting Governor Brown the basket and as you can see, it included the Sierra FoodWineArt magazine.”

Employing the distinctive techniques she’s christened as “transformative art,” her imaginative visual renderings on behalf of businesses has resulted in netting her another new credit: having her artwork of Nevada City’s Chamber of Commerce selected by SureWest Communications to be featured on the cover of one of their regional editions, shipping to homes and businesses this week.

Similarly, Redfern’s dreamy style was recognized by the publisher who took over Sierra Food Wine Art in 2009 which highlights entertainment offerings regionally in Sacramento, the Sierra foothills, Lake Tahoe, and Reno.

As the featured cover artist for the magazine under the leadership of publisher Jeff Pelline, Redfern’s “transformative art” showcases a regional business each issue, often leveraging the prevalence of lovely old historic buildings in the Sierra.

A veteran journalist of 30 years previously with the San Francisco Chronicle and a founding editor of CNET, Pelline recalled, “As soon as I saw one of Lisa’s paintings at a local restaurant, I immediately knew her style was ‘the look’ we’d been seeking to give our magazine distinctive cachet as well as a competitive branding edge.”

Redfern has been the featured cover artist on four quarterly issues to date for the magazine.

You can read an exact digital copy of the magazine here.

Despite the recession, many of our vintners are expanding, showing their bullishness about the future. “Baby boomers have enjoyed wine for decades and now millennials are showing an affinity for wine,” says Wine Institute President Bob Koch. California wineries shipped nearly 200 million cases to the U.S. wine market last year— up over the previous year despite the recession.

In the foothills, wineries are opening new tasting rooms to capture the demand. Last summer, Naggiar opened a $1.5 million tasting room at its vineyards. Since then, Sierra Starr, Smith and Avanguardia have popped the cork on tasting rooms in downtown Grass Valley, renovating historic buidings.

Now four wineries—Bent Metal, Montoliva, Pilot Peak and Solune—have teamed up to open the Grass Valley Wine Co. in a handsomely renovated downtown building. We profile the new venture, and the wineries, in this issue.

Summer and fall also are the time to enjoy the wealth of outdoor activities for food, wine and art in the region. We offer features on patio dining, picnicking, farmers markets and outdoor performing arts events—from the foothills to Tahoe/Truckee.

We also profile a favorite Sierra getaway—the Rainbow Lodge in Soda Springs. And we write about some “firsts”—the first Italian Festival in Grass Valley and the first day spa at a hotel in Grass Valley.

We will republish the articles on our new website SierraCulture.com, along with a blog, videos and an extensive events calendar.

Enjoy the warm weather season. As always, you can reach us at info@sierrafoodwineart.com or (530) 263-1843.

—Jeff and Shannon Pelline

(photo credit: Elizabeth Carmel)