Wining with the Santa Barbara Vintners' Association...

Some of my favorite wines in the world come from Santa Barbara County. So you can imagine my delight when I received the notification that the Santa Barbara County Vintners' Association annual celebration of spring, the Vintners' Festival was scheduled for April 21st at a new venue called The Carranza on Zaca Station Road.

We drove up Saturday morning. It was cool and foggy along the coast, but when we emerged from the Gaviota tunnel, we knew we were in for a scorcher. After a hearty breakfast at Mother Hubbard's in Buellton, we headed to The Carranza. It was already almost 90 degrees when we arrived at noon. We were happy to get in early with the media, and immediately discovered there were significant problems with the venue.

Miscellaneous wining...ZAP & Family Winemakers & some random thoughts...

In January, JD and I went north for ZAP - the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers 4-day event. Well, we didn't go for four days, we went for the Grand Tasting. It was immense - over 200 wineries all pouring Zinfandel from all over the world.

Some wineries, like Ian Blackburn's Beekeeper Cellars, poured one wine; others poured anywhere from 3 to 9 wines - all Zins! We were grateful to have been included as media, so that we were able to enter the tasting at 10 a.m., and we still tasted only a fraction of the wines by the time we left at 3:30 p.m. There were writers who reported within 24 - 48 hours that they had tasted hundreds of wines. By my reckoning, we tasted the fruits of around 40 wineries, so maybe we tasted 80 - 100 wines.

It was fascinating to taste the regional differences among all those Zins. I discovered that if I'm going to just sip a Zin, I want Zin from Paso Robles or Lodi, but if I'm going to pair it with food, I want a Zin from Dry Creek. I also realized - well, I knew this already - that I would rather taste fewer wines and have a bit more quality time with the winemakers to get the inside story about their passion and process.

Cooking for Love...rocked!

Just a quick note as I am too tired to think clearly at the moment...

I was proud to be the Event Sommelier for Cooking for Love, a spectacular event to benefit Break the Cycle. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you to all the wineries who participated!

It was an extraordinary evening, and I am honored to say that I have been asked to return next year in the same capacity. 

Much Wining to take place...

Want a chance to meeting the Goddess and JD?

October 9th - Cooking for Love - a huge charity event to benefit Break the Cycle! I'm the Event Sommelier and have assembled almost a dozen wineries to go with the tasty offerings from all of the great restaurants in Los Angeles! Come and taste Shai Cellars, Martian Vineyards, Patel Winery, Chamisal, Roadhouse Winery, The Naked Grape, Bedford Winery, Collier Falls, plus great silent auction items donated by Tablas Creek, Dark Star Cellars and Brian Benson! It'll be great!
Here's more info:

Cooking for Love - Savor the Season
Sunday, October 9, 2011
5:30 PM VIP early admission, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM General Admission
Global Cuisine by Gary Arabia at The Lot Studios
1041 N. Formosa Ave - West Hollywood, CA
Now in its seventh year, Break the Cycle's Cooking for Love has become one of the most talked about and well-attended events in town. In fact, BizBash Magazine regularly names us one of the top ten food and wine events in Southern California.