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A crowd of approximately 2,000 people sipped wines and nibbled food under balmy and breezy skies at the Santa Barbara Vintners’ 34th annual spring Vintners Festival, held Saturday afternoon at River View Park in Buellton.
The festival was part of the organization’s “Spring Weekend,” four days of special events designed to spotlight Santa Barbara County’s wine industry.
New to the weekend this year was a “Big Bottle Bash” dinner Friday evening at Presqu’ile Winery in Orcutt that featured only wines in “magnums or larger bottles,” and a sold-out, varietal-specific seminar entitled “An Exploration of Syrah,” said Morgen McLaughlin, executive director of Santa Barbara Vintners.
The Saturday morning seminar featured a “killer panel of winemakers — a great mix of people,” she said.
At River View Park, winemakers and food purveyors were organized by the various wine-tasting trails or regions found throughout Santa Barbara County: Foxen Canyon Wine Trail, Lompoc, Santa Rita Hills Wine Trail, Buellton, Solvang, Los Olivos, the Santa Ynez Valley Wine Trail and Santa Barbara.
Restaurants and chefs prepared edible delights, including spicy pork belly tacos, barbecue, finger sandwiches and salami, cheese and olive plates. People lined up 30 deep to sample wares from several popular eateries.
Along with wine, winemaker Brittany Zotovich, co-owner of Dreamcôte Wine Co., poured guests samples of her hard cider.
“People here really find cider refreshing,” she said.
McLaughlin heaped praise on the crew of volunteers who help set up and break down the banners, tables and assorted equipment required for the festival and then deliver ice, food and assistance Saturday to the 180 vendors, 125 of which are wineries.
“This event is fully staffed by volunteers,” she said. “We cannot do this festival without volunteers.”
Katie Hershfelt, executive director of the festival and the owner of Cultivate Events, coordinates the volunteers’ efforts with Kim Heuring, manager of the volunteers.
“Many volunteers have worked the festivals for multiple years — such as the 65 ‘returnees’ who have volunteered for 20 years,” she said.
“That’s more than 40 festivals,” Hershfelt added, referring to the twice-yearly festivals, Saturday’s and the Celebration of Harvest, held every October.
“This festival is a detail-oriented event that requires lots of coordination, and occurs rain or shine. We have to be prepared for any kind of weather. Last year it poured for the first two hours of the event,” she said.
This year Mother Nature was kind to Hershfelt, Heuring and the cadre of volunteers, and provided April showers early Friday evening instead.
Santa Barbara Vintners is Santa Barbara County’s largest organization devoted to the promotion of the region’s wineries. Click here for more information.
— Laurie Jervis blogs about wine at www.centralcoastwinepress.com, tweets at @lauriejervis and can be reached via winecountrywriter@gmail.com. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.