3rd Annual Santa Clarita WineFest!

It's that time of year again! Yep, it's the 3rd Annual Santa Clarita WineFest, happening on March 2, 2013; 2pm-6pm (Trade, media and VIPs: 1pm), at the Bridgeport Marketplace - 24061 Newhall Ranch Rd, Valencia, CA 91355, and the Goddess of Wine will be there with her team of sommeliers and wineaux to assist in the fun!

The Santa Clarita WineFest returns to the Bridgeport Marketplace on March 2, 2013. This marks the third annual event, which features wines, spirits, brews, a cigar tent, gourmet food trucks, lifestyle exhibitors, and music. Notables such as Cielo Malibu Estate Wineyards, Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Reyes Winery, and Roxo Port Cellars will be present, plus many more. (See www.santaclaritawinefest.com for complete participant list.)

Tickets are now available for purchase on santaclaritawinefest.com. Use discount code EveWine101 to get your tickets for only $40!

IMPORTANT NOTICE - SPV Wine Fest POSTPONED

The Sierra Pelona Valley Wine Festival has been postponed due to weather!

 

POSTPONEMENT OF SIERRA PELONA VALLEY WINE FESTIVAL DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER & HAZARDOUS TRAVELING CONDITIONS

Who: SIERRA PELONA VALLEY VINTNERS ASSOCIATION

What: First Annual Sierra Pelona Valley Wine Festival

When: Saturday, January 26, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Reyes Winery, 10262 Sierra Highway in Agua Dulce, CA 91390.
For directions, visit http://goo.gl/maps/nZG97

Postponement Date: April 20, 2013

Last night, the Sierra Pelona Valley Vintners Association announced the postponement of their 1st Annual Sierra Pelona Valley Wine Festival and Early Morning Vineyard Hike benefitting the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital that will now be held on Saturday, April 20, 2013.

Big news from the Sierra Pelona Valley AVA...

Sierra Pelona Valley Wine Festival Announces the Addition of an Early Morning Vineyard Hike Adventure

LOS ANGELES COUNTY (January 20, 2013) - Winemaker Robert Reyes will lead an early morning Festival Vineyard Hike into the Sierra Pelona Foothills, on Saturday January 26, 2013 beginning promptly at 8:00 a.m. until 10:00a.m. The hike will begin at Reyes Winery, where the festival is being held, which is located just 45 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.  Hikers will gather at Reyes Winery by 7:30am to begin an intermediate level hike that will ascend into the foothills to nearly 4,000 feet and across the scenic ridge overlooking the valley and vineyards.  Hikers will be able to learn about the vineyards and the amazing terroir that produces some of the area’s award winning wines. Hikers will also get to choose to hike the 2-hour advanced level trail or to take the 1.5-hour intermediate level route. 

East Coast Wining...

In November, the fabulous Eve Bushman invited a few of us to her home to taste wines from Maryland. Did you know there are over 400 wines being made in Maryland? Susan Southard, publisher of Welcome to Maryland Wine Country magazine, was in SoCal to visit family, and decided to mix business with pleasure by bringing along some wines for some California writers to taste. Eve hosted winemaker Shawn Shai Halahmy, Debra Bizek, Mary Bradway, winemaker and writer Russ Briley, and yours truly.
It turned out to be a very interesting evening which made me research the Maryland wine community. Thanks, Eve and Susan!

Starting off the New Year with Champagne...

January Bubblies!

Happy New Year! Yeah, I know we're already two weeks in, but this is the first post of 2013, so we're starting off with a bang. Or is that a pop? The Champagne corks were definitely popping on Wednesday night for the first meeting of the Wineaux of the Goddess at our favorite hangout, Fab's Corner Cucina in Sherman Oaks.

After 12 interesting months of tasting specific varietals in 2012, we decided that 2013 would be the year of "regionality," and started off with the region of Champagne. Très délicieux! Our merry team of Wineaux were instructed to bring a bottle of Champagne - bubbles from anywhere else would cause pain and embarrassment to the bringer!

Wining at year's end...

JD & the Goddess

Hard to believe it's the last week of 2012. The Goddess of Wine and JD have gone to lots of wine tasting events, lots of dinners, lots of gatherings, lots of wineries. There has been good wine and bad wine - some astonishing in both directions - and a lot of drinkable, but ordinary wine. We've made new friends, said goodbye to some old friends, made discoveries both personal and professional.

Wining on New Year's Eve? Try Cheers@All Corked Up!

The First New Year’s Celebration Sponsored by Eve’s Wine 101 is a Perlis Pick: Cheers@All Corked Up

Ring in a new year in a new venue that promises all the bells and whistles, along with wine, beer, live music and an outstanding menu, at Santa Clarita’s only Puerto Rican themed restaurant and wine bar: Cheers@All Corked Up.

This year, to ring in the inaugural event, Eve Bushman, owner of Eve’s Wine 101 and editor Michael Perlis have chosen to sponsor the event. “We support all locally-run wine events, but never two on the same night,” Eve began. “And Cheers@All Corked Up is our choice this year as we were looking for something new and exciting for our wine friends to try.”

Guests with reservations will be able to select in advance one of four tasty main entrees in a four-course plated dinner created by Chef Dominik. While seated in one of two expansive dining rooms, guests have a choice of being close to the live music (The Bobby Cuba Band followed by the multi-talented G3 Band) in the main room or wine-ing and dining with pals in the VIP room.

Exciting news from Santa Clarita...

 Santa Clarita Valley’s

First Winery Crush Pad Opens

Soon to Follow:

First Beer and Winemaking Supply Store

SANTA CLARITA, CA – 14 December 2012 – Local Santa Clarita commercial winemakers Steve Lemley and Nate Hasper, owners of Pulchella Winery, are pleased to announce the relocation of their winery from Paso Robles to Valencia, as well as the opening of the first certified winemaking facility of its kind in the Santa Clarita Valley to service the Ventura, Santa Barbara, Central Coast, Southern California Los Angeles and Temecula area vineyard owners, winemakers, distributors, restaurant owners or anyone else looking to have their wines produced in a professional facility by professional winemakers with a proven track record. 

Wining with the Garagistes...

Having attended last year's Garagiste Festival debut at the gorgeous Windfall Farms outside of Paso Robles, I was looking forward to the 2nd Annual Garagiste Festival with great anticipation. As with the sophomore year of any project, some things were great and some not so much.

Organizers/Founders Stewart McLennan, Doug Minnick, Lisa Dinsmore, and Melanie Webber expanded the fest over 4 days, including winemaker dinners and other special events. JD and I chose to avoid the dinners (about which we heard nothing but praise), and bought the VIP package in order to attend the seminars on Saturday and Sunday.

Wining in general...

Maybe it's the unrelenting ugliness of the Presidential electioneering, or the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, or it's just that time of year when we reflect about where we are in our lives...despite some pretty wonderful people and things, the Goddess of Wine is feeling a bit low. [Note: Post-election day, feeling much better, thanks.]

Waiting for a wine bar to open in Burbank. We hope it will happen in December, but there are still details and discussions taking place at various levels, so it may not be for another month or two. When it does open, there is an opportunity for me to have a local spot to spread the good word about wine. Fingers crossed!

Have a couple of Wine Camp classes scheduled for LearnAboutWine in December for which I'm grateful, and yet, something feels anticlimactic at this point in the year. But enough with doom and gloom, let's talk about the wonderful and fun things I've been doing: