L.A. WINELINE A WINEMAKER REMEMBERED.

Byline: - Larry Lipson

He won't be forgotten.

Michael Bonaccorsi, former Spago, Beverly Hills, sommelier and budding Central Coast winemaker who died earlier this year, now has a scholarship foundation set up in his name.

As a fund-raiser for the foundation, Spago and the Hitching Post (Santa Barbara area) restaurants together with Wally's, the Westside's premier wine merchant, are holding a barbecue, wine tasting and auction from noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 8 in Wally's parking lot at 2107 Westwood Blvd., West Los Angeles. Tickets are $75.

Some 30 Central Coast wineries will participate, including such well- known labels as Alban, Andrew Murray, Au Bon Climat, Beckmen, Brander, Calera, Claiborne & Churchill, Presidio, Qupe, Sanford, Talley and Turley.

Information and reservations: [phone].

CHAMPAGNE WISHES: Do you belong to a local wine club?

If yes, and you and your fellow clubbers want to know more about champagne - the real stuff that is, from France - the office of Champagne, USA, will happily provide your group with free champagne club kits.

Just order them via www.champagne.us.

Also, specific questions about champagne can be directed to www.champagnehotline.com.

GRADE-A CHUCK: Well, well.

Who'd have thought that Two Buck Chuck would actually be in the finals of a major wine competition?

Trader Joe's Charles Shaw 2002 shiraz (selling for $1.99 a bottle) earned double gold honors at New York's International Eastern Wine Competition last week, according to Associated Press.

The Shaw shiraz (aka syrah) was one of 53 finalists from a field of 2,300 wine entries.

The actual ``best red'' winner turned out to be a $50 wine from Alexander Valley Vineyards, its 2000 Cyrus bottling.

BARGAINS IN RED AND WHITE: My bargain of the week is a double whammy, with white wine lovers able to pick up a nifty deal at the same place that has a super, low-priced red.

The white is the 2000 Napa Cellars chardonnay, really nice with a bit of age on it, with lasting fruit complexity on the palate, the juice from a major Napa winery and the bottling a second label of another Napa name that recently sold for twice as much at the winery.

The red is the much-lauded winner of the Best of Competition award, also the red wine victor at the recent L.A. County Fair competition, the 2002 Hahn syrah, a lovely, fruit forward wine.

Both are priced at $8.99 each.

Hurry, they're currently on sale at Wally's, 2107 Westwood Blvd., West Los Angeles. Information: [phone].

SIPS & NIBBLES: Fanciers of Tuscany's Castello di Gabbiano wines who intend to visit Italy this summer will be pleased to know that a restaurant called Il Cavaliere has opened there with young Tuscan chef Mario Stabile in charge of the kitchen. Information: www.gabbiano.com. ... New Wine Institute chairman is James H. Niven of Paragon Vineyard Co. in San Luis Obispo. He takes office July 1. ... Paraduxx, the novel and alluring zinfandel-cabernet sauvignon red wine blend by Napa's Duckhorn, is here to stay. Duckhorn is building a new winery especially for Paraduxx that will be completed in the fall of next year. For more information visit www.paraduxx.com. ... For your July 4 barbecue meal, consider riesling, viognier and/or pinot grigio as white wine accompaniments and shiraz/syrah as the red choice, winepocketlist.com tells us. (I would also definitely add red zinfandel for barbecued meats as a syrah alternative.)

Larry Lipson, [phone]

larry.lipson(at)dailynews.com