My favorite annual winetasting event, Wine & Fire, returns to the greater Lompoc Valley later this month.
Come hungry for tasty food and the best cool-climate wines the Santa Rita Hills appellation has to offer.
The 2019 event — Aug. 16-18 — is the 18th annual festival that showcases the grape varietals thriving within Santa Barbara County’s coolest AVA — historically chardonnay and pinot noir, but increasingly others, among them grüner veltliner, syrah and grenache. The available food, be it wood-fired pizzas or barbecue — consistently ascends to match the wines on display.
While early bird pricing ended July 31, tickets for the entire weekend, or the three single events, remain available and can be purchased online here.
Tickets prices per person: Friday Night Barn Party, $85; Saturday combo (speed tasting plus grand tasting), $200; speed tasting alone, $110; grand tasting alone, $120; and I Want it All/All Three Events, $290.
A weekend tasting passport to participating member wineries is included in the purchase price of tickets; the passport is not available for purchase on its own, according to the Santa Rita Hills Winegrowers’ Alliance website.
Wine & Fire opens with the traditional Barn Party, this year at Foley Estates Vineyard & Winery, 6121 W. Highway 246 in Lompoc. The event runs from 5 to 8 p.m., and will include approximately 30 winemakers who will pour large format bottles and library wines.
Local Santa Ynez Valley favorites, The T-Bone Ramblers, will provide classic rock tunes.
Businessman Bill Foley purchased the former barn and ranch in the late 1990s, converted it to a 500-acre vineyard, and planted mostly to pinot noir and chardonnay, a tasting room and production facility.
For the second year running, Barbara Satterfield, executive director of the Santa Rita Hills Wine Alliance, the organization behind Wine & Fire, has organized a group of Santa Rita Hills’ winemakers to conduct a “speed tasting” Saturday morning.
Last year, I poured wine during the debut event, and savored participating winemakers’ willingness to personally interact with guests about their winemaking styles.
This year’s event will take place at Peake Ranch Winery, 729 Santa Rosa Road.
The 105-acre property includes 50 acres of grapevines and a newly opened tasting room. The vineyard encompasses seven different pinot noir clones, three of chardonnay and two each of syrah and grenache.
The speed tasting format is an ideal way for guests to meet and chat with participating winemakers as well as wine taste. Winemakers will rotate around the room and spend 10 minutes at each table. Each table will have its personal sommelier, who will engage guests and the winemakers in “wine talk.”
Pouring and talking this year will be Steve Arrowood, Montemar Wines; Bryan Babcock, Babcock Winery; Dan Kessler, Kessler-Haak Vineyard & Winery; Lorna Kreutz, Foley Family Wines; Rick Longoria, Longoria Wines; Bruce McGuire, Lafond Winery & Vineyards; Brandon Sparks-Gillis, Dragonette Cellars; James Sparks, Liquid Farm; and Norm Yost, Flying Goat Cellars.
I emailed James Sparks, winemaker for Liquid Farm and winemaker and co-owner with his wife, Anna Ferguson-Sparks, of Kings Carey Wines, for thoughts on his debut speed tasting and the Santa Rita Hills in general.
Sparks plans to pour two chardonnays, possibly the “2017 White Hill and the 2016 Golden Slope, especially since we do a lot of chardonnay, and those two wines started the project,” he said.
Writing about the early days of Liquid Farm, he recalled: “From the beginning, when Brandon (Sparks-Gillis, and James Sparks’ brother-in-law) nudged Jeff (Nelson) into starting Liquid Farm, it was about being true to the area, and using restraint” in making wine.
“Inspired by Burgundy, Brandon told Jeff that he could make Old Wine wines that could stand side by side (with the real thing),” Sparks wrote. “With Jeff’s background in Champagne sales, and his love of white burgundy, he wanted to keep his focus on chardonnay.”
Nelson named his “White Hill” Chardonnay both for the white hills of Chablis and the white hills of the Santa Rita Hills, and his “Golden Slope” for the Cote d’ Or (Slope of Gold) from Meursault and the Golden Hills of Santa Rita Hills, Sparks noted.
After a stint in Dragonette’s Los Olivos tasting room, Sparks started as assistant winemaker at Dragonette Cellars in 2009, and took over as winemaker at Liquid Farm in 2013.
That label, Sparks said, “continues to be led by flavors, acid, restraint — and in an area that allows all of those things. (With each year), we have more vineyards and more colors to choose from by using vineyards from both sides of the Santa Rita Hills Valley.”
Of the appellation itself, he said: “Santa Rita Hills is really a unique AVA. The funnel-like aspect from the mountains to the ocean breeze keeps us at such amazing temperatures. Each vineyard brings its own unique quality to the table … it’s exciting to see each vineyard continue to mature and add more depth to the wines … From the location of the vineyard, to the soil type, to the placement of the rows, to the age of the vineyard, and when each vineyard decides to ripen.”
On the heels of the speed tasting and discourse will be lunch, this year by a Wine & Fire favorite, Bello Forno in Orcutt, which will offer wood-fired pizzas, upscale salads and a cheese buffet.
Following nap time — er, a break — will be the Grand Tasting, once again on the scenic and shaded grounds of the historic La Purisima Mission, 2295 Purisima Road.
Wines from more than 40 wineries and winemakers, along with bites from local chefs and caterers, will round out the evening. Only 325 tickets will be sold. Free parking is available inside the gates of the mission.
— Laurie Jervis blogs about wine at www.centralcoastwinepress.com, tweets at @lauriejervis and can be reached via winecountrywriter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are her own.