The Friday before this year's Vintner's Festival it was raining, sometimes very heavily, as Dan and friends rode their Hogs up the coast to Lompoc so it didn't look like good news for the event. Today, Sunday, the day after, it is raining once again. Strange weather this late in the Winter/Spring season. But yesterday, Saturday, the day of the festival, it was glorious ... sunny with a bit of a breeze and just warm enough that jackets weren't required. And since the festival moved to River Park in Lompoc this year, we didn't need our big old Silverado to navigate the ground squirrel holes and puddles so we jumped in our little Honda and ran up the road to the park.
The same amazing organizational skills that have made all the previous Vintner and Harvest festivals such blazing successes was clearly in place once again with lots of event staff watching out for everyone. The Lompoc Park Rangers were also there, making folks get out of the beds of pickups (that's illegal here ya' know!) riding in. I also discovered a Paintball Park is right across from the R.V. area on the way in. I have a feeling that there is a lot of stuff in Lompoc that most of us way East in Buellton and Solvang and Santa Ynez are not aware.
Just to the left as you came into the Festival area proper there was a covered area with a band playing. There were four long tents filled to gunwhales with winery and eatery vendors. And there was the usual enormous and friendly crowd with their big Riedel tasting glasses scurrying from winery to winery trying to taste everything new ... which is about impossible given the number of amazing little wineries we have in the valley. I wandered a bit before finding Casa Cassara as there just wasn't enough room in the allyways between the tents for all the people.
I finally found us, with all the usual suspects pouring away ... except Alicia who was heavily involved in the logistics for the event itself. There was 2003 Cuvee Syrah Santa Barbara County, 2004 Chardonnay Santa Barbara County, 2004 Merlot Santa Rita Hills, 2005 Pinot Noir Estate, 2005 Riesling Santa Barbara County, 2005 Rose Santa Rita Hills and 2005 Sauvignon Blanc Santa Ynez Valley. And as always the pouring was being handled by family and friends: Carolyn, Dan, John, Alicia (for a few minutes), Bennie and Bridget.
This year we somehow managed to be just down the isle from the Wine Cottage Bistro booth that was serving an interesting duck item (see pictures.) In addition some marvelous looking chocolate covered strawberries kept showing up with the tasters.
And not the least interesting was when Kathleen Griffith, producer and host for Discover Lompoc came around doing interviews with videographer Lael Wageneck in tow. She put Alicia in front of the camera with a bottle of wine and set her off as the cameras rolled ... all great fun (see picture.)
So it was another great event with great old and brand new friends. We handed out lots of flyers announcing the new tasting room that will arrive in June just off Hwy 246 at Valley Station and expect that it will be a grand adventure when we finally open those doors. |
