Champagne began to bubble in the bottom of Bay Area residents’ wine glasses shortly after gathering at Hayward’s City Hall rotunda on Saturday. They were greeted with live jazz music and handed a map, which provided them directions to 13 different wine tasting stations located along B Street.

The “Passeio do Vinho, Hayward’s Walk of Wine,” was hosted on July 27 as Hayward’s first annual wine tasting event in support of Hayward Friends of Animals, a nonprofit organization that partners with the Hayward Animal shelter to help reduce the city’s animal population.

The money raised for this event will go towards the foundation’s spay and neuter program as well as to help care for the animals in Hayward.

“The animal shelter does a lot of outreach and a lot of really good things for the community and Hayward Friends of Animals does as well,” said Stacey Bristow, Hayward’s Neighborhood Partnership Manager. “It’s an organization of great need that has a lot of volunteers and we just felt that they were one of the groups that needed to be supported.”

The city of Hayward also wanted to expose customers to some of the local businesses in downtown Hayward such as The Cobbler’s Shoe Repair, Doc’s Wine Shop which sells European wine, the Bookstore New Revelations, the fashion store Nina’s Bode, Vintage Alley Salon and Boutique and more.

“This event is a first for Hayward, which is really needed in the community and I think it’s a great way for local businesses and wineries to promote their product,” Emily Martins, a volunteer from Westover Vineyards said while sharing her appreciation for the event. “A lot of the customers attending the event haven’t even heard of Westover Vineyards and we’re only located right over in Castro Valley, so it is a great exposure for us too.”

The event was funded through tickets sold online, as well as on site, and the collaboration with DOC’s wine shop located on Foothill Boulevard. The walk exceeded its goal of 200 tickets sold prior to the date it was hosted. Ramona Thomas, the city’s project coordinator describes the outcome of the sales as “beyond amazing.”

“It’s a good sense of community and it builds a sense of community,” said Martins. “I’ve talked to some of the shop owners before, but knowing that they’re all here today during this special event is even more important because it means they care and they want Hayward to thrive and businesses to be productive.”

The event also featured trained wine pourers by professional sommelier, an expert on wine,and the owner of DOC’s Wine Shop, Darren Guilaume.

“He can tell you about the process it takes to make it and knows what kind of wines go with different types of foods,” said Thomas.

The city of Hayward has high hopes for the event and hopes to make it an annual festivity.

“We want to be more creative and bring more exciting events to the people here to the city of Hayward,” said Thomas. “And also, for people that don’t live in Hayward so that they will want to come to Hayward. The city has a lot to offer and we want people to know that.”