Good things come in small packages - or in this case - bottles.

Fifteen small wineries from around the state will converge on the Bay Area this weekend for the Oregon Coast Gourmet Festival at the Pony Village Mall.

The event is Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. The cost is $5 and the proceeds benefit Star of Hope.

Tim Thomas of Cone 9 at Pony Village Mall, one of the event organizers, says he will once again have the chocolate fountain going, as well as having samples of Taylor Sausage.

Other food vendors at the event include Misty Meadows Jams of Bandon, Mamma Mia Italian Restaurant and Dick's Produce.

At least one winery - the unusually named Hip Chicks Do Wine - is coming from Portland for the event. Most of the others are from the Southern Oregon region.

Pat Spangler, of the award-winning Spangler Vineyards in Roseburg, will have some of his best wines being poured at the event.

Pat himself, can't be here. He was selected to be a judge at this weekend's prestigious Northwest Wine Summit at Mount Hood.

But among the Spangler wines that will be poured at the event is the 2005 Cabernet Franc. The 2004 edition won a platinum award at the Best of the Best in the Great Northwest competition put on by Wine Press Northwest.

The wine, which had to win a gold medal at a previous competition to be eligible to compete, was one of five in Oregon to earn a platinum award.

“We made 169 cases,” Spangler said. “We sold out in five months. The 2005, we made 350 cases and introduced it on Feb. 1 and we only have 100 cases of it left. It will sell out, too.”

Spangler said he intends to send out the '05 Cabernet Franc, as well as Viognier, the popular Late Harvest Chardonnay, an '05 Merlot, and the '04 Reserve Cabernet.

The 2005 Cabernet Franc has already won gold medals at the Greatest of the Grape and Newport Wine and Seafood festivals. It was also awarded a silver in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine competition.

Spangler started making wine 17 years ago, in Chicago of all places. He had been making beer while in college in Ohio and after school, he bought a property in Chicago that had hundreds of 15-year-old vines. He used his basement as his wine cellar.

“I bought the house and I'd been making beer, so I decided, let's make wine,” he said. “I've got the vines. I didn't know what I was doing the first few years. So I started making wine as a hobby.”

His hobby grew, as he studied more about wine.

After a short stop in Northern California, he bought a small winery between Roseburg and Winston. The former La Garza Cellars became Spangler Vineyards in 2004.

“We had been looking up here all along,” Spangler said. “When you come up here to Southern Oregon, it's such a beautiful place. Nothing in the U.S. can touch it.”

After a year of rehabbing the vineyard, Spangler and his wife Loree have really ramped up production.

“We made 800 cases in 2004, 1,600 in 2005 and 3,200 last year,” Spangler said. “We can hardly make enough to keep up with the demand right now.”

Spangler says Southern Oregon is the perfect place to grow Cabernet Franc grapes.

“You have the heat to get it ripe,” he said. “And the cool evenings to keep the acidity in balance.”

He said the Cabernet Franc is becoming one of the vineyard's calling cards.

“It's something a little different than most people are used to,” he said.

With only 100 cases left, it's not likely to last into the summer, especially if he picks up another award or two at the big spring wine competitions.

The Spanglers have also been selected to participate in a Winemakers Dinner at the Steamboat Inn in Steamboat on May 12. Spangler Vineyard wines will be paired with food offerings from renowned chefs Capriel and John Pence, of PBS fame.