May 4 will be a big day for fans of craft beer and wines crafted in Santa Barbara County with both the eighth annual Buellton Brew Fest and the 37th annual Santa Barbara Vintners Festival.
The Brew Fest will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at River View Park and will feature more than 50 breweries, wineries and spirits. Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets to soak up music by DJ Hecktik, Richie Rey and Tony Balbinot and the Cadillac Angels. Food trucks will be on hand.
Firestone Walker Brewing Co. and Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co., the county’s two largest producers, will be joined by favorites from the region and beyond. Among them will be Sierra Nevada, M. Special, Topa Topa, Captain Fatty’s, Saint Archer, Barrelworks and Guinness.
The early entry VIP session ($55) will open at 11:30 a.m. and will include special beers not available to general admission ticket holders. General admission ($45) will open at 12:30 p.m. Early entry will be available to those who purchase designated-driver tickets, which are $20 per person.
The Brew Bus will provide round-trip transportation from Goleta, Lompoc, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria. Bus transport tickets are only available in advance, not at shuttle locations. Visit the website below for details on shuttle times and locations.
Click here for more information about the Buellton Brew Fest. Click here for tickets.
The Santa Barbara Vintners Festival will highlight Santa Barbara County, home to more than 200 wineries, 170 tasting rooms and six American Viticultural Areas.
Tickets for VIP access are $100 per person with the doors opening at noon, and at 1 p.m. for general admission ($75). “Locals only” general admission is $60, and tickets for designated drivers and those younger than 21 are $25 each.
The Coals will provide live music, and a silent auction, cooking and winemaking demonstrations will round out the festival. Parking is free.
Click here for more information, ticket sales, directions and a full list of participating wineries and food purveyors.
Vintage 2018 Sets State Wine Grape Crush Record
The California Agricultural Statistics Service recently released its annual Grape Crush Report.
The state crushed a new record — 4.28 million tons of wine grapes, a figure up 7 percent over 2017, according to the final report, available by clicking here.
The 2018 harvest also surpasses the previous record-high year of 2013, which saw a 4.2 million-ton crush, according to Wine Business.
The exact figures for 2018 and 2017 are 4,506,583 tons and 4,241,945 tons, respectively, the report detailed.
Wine Business attributes the increased tonnage to higher yields in Napa and Sonoma counties as well as on the Central Coast, which spans Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. The three grape varietals that drove the increase are cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and chardonnay.
Pinot noir yields increased by 19 percent, chardonnay by 16 percent and cabernet sauvignon by 13 percent, according to the report.
Red wine grape varieties represented 2,447,930 tons, up 8.8 percent from 2017. The 2018 white wine crush totaled 1,833,755 tons, up 3.8 percent, according to CASS.
The average per-ton price for all grape varieties was $831.63, up 6.8 percent from 2017. Red grapes averaged $1,019.03 per ton, up 5.5 percent from 2017, while white wine grapes averaged $634.84 per ton, up 8 percent.
In District 8, which comprises Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, the total tonnage crushed was 245,000, an increase of 5 percent. The Lodi region also produced a record crop with 850,687 tons, an increase of 14 percent.
Vintage Wine Estates Buys Laetitia Vineyard & Winery
Vintage Wine Estates, based in Santa Rosa, further expanded its Central Coast holdings with the purchase last month of Laetitia Vineyard & Winery near Arroyo Grande.
Laetitia is best known for its lineup of sparkling wines as well as pinot noir and chardonnay.
According to Wine Business, the deal includes the winery, the vineyards, the inventory and a guest house. The estate covers 1,986 acres with more than 680 planted with vines.
Selim Zilkha, a Los Angeles resident who was born in Iraq and immigrated to the United States in 1941, purchased Laetitia in 1998.
Vintage Wine Estates purchased Clayhouse Wines of Paso Robles in 2016 and, more recently, Alloy Wine Works, also of Paso Robles. In November of last year, Vintage Wine Estates announced the purchase of Qupé Cellars from founding winemaker Bob Lindquist.
— 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.