It’s the west coast’s largest luxury wine and food event, a week-long extravaganza of wine, food, beer, spirits and numerous classes and demonstrations, planned for many locations in San Diego.
The Grand Tasting with star-studded wines and chef personalities returns Saturday November 18th from 12 to 3pm at the Embarcadero, behind Seaport Village. It includes 150 wineries, breweries and spirits from around the world.
The one and only 13th annual San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival is coming Nov. 14 to 20.
That’s only one of over 50 events at the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival. Included in the festive Saturday event is the “Chef of the Fest” competition, where San Diego ’s leading chefs battle head to head in a fierce culinary showdown.
Friday the 18th is the Trade Tasting at SommCon, from 5:30 to 7:30pm at the Marriott Marquis & Marina on Harbor Drive. Beginners, Master Sommeliers and everyone in between will have something to taste and love at this largest event of the SommCon conference, tasting over 100 wine, brewery and spirit producers, while meeting and greeting wine producers.
Thursday November 17th you may want to join in a dinner and live auction with culinary greats, from 6 to 10pm at the Marriott. Gather your friends and reserve a table. It’s a once in a lifetime dining experience. The auction will benefit tomorrow’s culinary stars with scholarships for deserving students.
Skipping to Sun. Nov. 20th, join the Battle of the Bartenders combined with a Pizzapalooza, the best pizzas in the known world, from New York, Naples, Sicily, SoCal and other pizza capitals.. The fun goes from 11am to 2pm. The smartest way to go is to combine the week’s events into prepared packages. For instance, the Grand Cru VIP is: the Pizzapalooza on Sunday, wine or culinary classes, the Friday tasting at SommCon, the Lexus Grand Tasting on Saturday and a Party after Dark by Stella Artois beer. All the event details are in front of you, along with pricing, at sandiegowineclassic.com.
Rotary Carlsbad Brewfest draws big crowd
Over a thousand visitors partied with area craft brewers recently at the 3rd annual Carlsbad Brewfest, held at Holiday Park off the Interstate 5 freeway. There was a wonderful mix of beers to choose from, testimony to the rage of interest in craft beers. Forget about your father’s favorites like Coors and Bud. All the current best selling craft beer sellers were there, like Ballast Point, Stone, Karl Strauss and Green Flash.
The beer king of the Encinitas Oktoberfest, Edgar Engert with his wife Renate, are shown admiring Alpine Beer, a German style brew from Alpine, in East San Diego County.
Meet Peachy Canyon and Benziger from the Wine & Roses Tasting
For 33 years, the venerable Wine and Roses event has graced the wine events calendars in San Diego. It’s the longest running event of its kind here and it has benefited Camp Oliver , a disadvantaged youth summer camp in nearby Descanso, where over 2 million dollars has been donated.
This year it was held in a luxurious intimate atmosphere, the elegant Darlington House in downtown La Jolla , now open for meetings and events. The Egyptian and Andalusian patios, surrounded by blooming gardens, fit some 25 wineries that were carefully selected. Selections poured ranged from nearby Temecula to the legendary Napa Valley , and most wine countries in between.
Paso Robles and Sonoma are high on my list of excellent wine appellations. Large and rangy, they have hundreds of wineries. We’ll spotlight two, from Wine and Roses.
Peachy Canyon winery was born in 1988, founded by Doug and Nancy Beckett. These dedicated owners make nothing but low production sustainable wines. One of the best known wineries in Paso Robles, it’s just off Highway 46 west, a blessed terrain with the right amount of heat spikes and foggy cool-downs, and where Cabernets can thrive right alongside Zinfandels.
Zin has for a long time been Peachy Canyon ’s go-to wine varietal. Their 2014’s are out now and are showing a wild vibrancy with deep plum and mushroom flavors leading to a long textured finish. Visit peachycanyon.com for brands and prices.
Another winery at the event was Benziger and its limited production sister, Imagery. Both are minutes away from each other near the city of Sonoma . Benziger is well known for its Bordeaux style wines on 85 terraced acres. Imagery produces rare and small production varietals from far-away places, and only purchased at the winery. Wines like the 2013 Lagrein and the 2013 Teroldego from northern Italy , 2015 Alberino from northwest Spain and my favorite, a 2013 Petit Verdot from France , all produced in Sonoma . This robust Petit Verdot is cellar-worthy for several years, with 18 months of oak aging ($42.). For Benziger, visit benziger.com….for Imagery, visit imagerywinery.com.
Cape Rey Resort rocks on with a new season of fun.
Cape Rey Resort in Carlsbad is becoming the fun capital of North San Diego with well placed party themes including live bands, small bite gourmet food, beer and wine and beach town fashion, all done around a playful pool and an ocean view fire lounge. Their End of Summer Celebration lit up the night, with a partnership by Stone Brewing Company, in a beer garden atmosphere.
Lane Thompson, Stone Brewing sales rep and Jillian Holmes,
Chandler’s Restaurant Bartender, at the Cape Rey End of Summer Celebration.
Chandler’s Restaurant Bartender, at the Cape Rey End of Summer Celebration.
Next up is a fun Halloween trick or treat party Monday October 31st from 5 to 8pm. Come in costume and little ones if you have one or more. All night happy hour at Chandler ’s with discounts on wine and beer. Details at 1-760-602-0800.
On the Road Again Tasting Northwest Wines
My all-time favorite County music singer is Willie Nelson, especially when he sings “On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again…”I’ve got a couple of close friends that I want to introduce you to, Nancine and Scott Hagner. Willie’s song could have been written for them.
After twin careers in the San Diego Unified School District, they have both retired to pursue twin loves, traveling in their motor home and visiting wineries. They just recently returned from their latest adventure, a 2 month journey including tasting and experiencing the great wine countries of Oregon and Washington . It was their 93rd road trip, and like Willie sings, they can’t wait to get on the road again.
Frequent wine travelers Scott and Nancine Hagner,
in the Appplegate Valley of southern Oregon, at the Wooldridge Creek Winery.
in the Appplegate Valley of southern Oregon, at the Wooldridge Creek Winery.
“We are now retired and we have had an RV motor home that can pull a small vehicle,” said Hagner. “Nancine and I have been planning to see the countryside of the Yakima Valley and Walla Walla in Eastern Washington for a long time. We combined it with the beauty of Oregon and set our sights for our longest trip yet, with a no-reservation adventure. We depended on the network of RV parks, traveled for 3 to 4 hours, then parked and explored. It is a great feeling of freedom for us on the open road.”
On their way up, the Hagners went through Napa Valley, tasting and touring through some of the wineries on their short list. They got to know Beaulieu, Provenance, Sterling and a favorite of mine, Castello di Amorosa.
Interstate 5 provided access to Oregon and on to State 238 and the powerful Rogue River near the city of Grants Pass. This is rugged fir and rapids country and the 18 wineries follow suit: powerful, flavorful and rugged. Two names to know in this Applegate Valley wine country in the south of Oregon: Troon Vineyard and Woolridge Creek Winery. Troon was the earliest of the wineries to plant Zinfandel. They have expanded their wine menu to 10 more on 25+ acres, including the Italian heavyweight varietal, Vermentino. Visit troonvineyard.com. It gets an emphatic thumbs up from the Hagners.
Close behind is Woolridge Creek, 56 acres of Cabernet, Merlot, Cab Franc and 9 other mostly French style wines. Check out wcwinery.com.
After a detour to the Oregon coast and the city of Florence , the Hagners set out on Interstate 84 to get to the state of Washington and the Yakima Valley. The first people to inhabit this fertile valley were the Indian tribes of the Yakima nation. The wild sagebrush and sloping foothills still mould the culture and living of the wineries and other farms of this vast area of central Washington. The Hagners camped in this area for 3 days and it was here they discovered Kana Winery in the historic downtown of Yakima, one of the few in-town tasting rooms.
Kana winemaker Tony Lombardo checks next year’s vintage in Yakima Washington,
one of over 900 wineries in the state.
one of over 900 wineries in the state.
Up until the Kana Winery experience, Yakima was a disappointment with the best comment being “decent and drinkable.”
Kana is a native word for the spirit or the fire within a volcano. Volcanic influences abound in the soil of central and eastern Washington. The winemaker is Tony Lombardo who joined Kana in 2012 bringing his philosophy that “90% of winemaking is done in the vineyard.” Recent vintages from 2008 to the most recently bottled 2014 have all been above average. The best varietal was brought back to me by the Hagners, a Kana Old Vine Blaufrankisch Lemberger 2011, a recent award winner at a Seattle tasting, with dark, spicy, balanced tannins. This grape is well known and grown in Austria , the Czech Republic and Croatia. The Yakima Valley is one of the few places in the U.S. where this grape is grown. Kana sells this bottle for $18. Visit kanawinery.com.
Two hours from Yakima, Nancine and Scott Hagner settled into Walla Walla and it was here they hit the mother lode of wines, as downtown Walla Walla has over 22 tasting rooms and over 60 wineries in the district. Long Shadows, Amavi and LeEcole are 3 well known wineries in the Walla Walla district, but Nancine and Scott are seekers of small, more handcrafted wineries, wineries less traveled. The top of the list was Spring Valley Vineyard, home of big red wines. Their 115 acres produce Merlot, Cab Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Malbec and Petit Verdot. Spring Valley’s brand names reach out and grab like Muleskinner, Derby and a 3,000 case Uriah 2013 blend that has all of the above varietals, for $50. a bottle. Visit at springvalleyvineyard.com. Other discoveries in Walla Walla were: Kontos, Seven Hills, Henry Earl, TERO, Saviah and Northstar.
The Hagners ( a.k.a. Willie and Willamina) are taking short trips to keep in shape for a possible big one in 2017, a river trip through the Rhone Valley of France. I guess they will have to keep the RV home for that one.
