L.A. Wine Fest

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Attended the LA Wine Fest, http://www.lawinefest.com/, aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach. The tasting was held in the Grand Salon which is where "Sunday Brunch" is held. It took awhile for all the vendors to show up but about 3:00 it was starting to get very crowded and busy. The air circulation left a lot to be desired.

There also seemed to be a bit of "lack of knowledge" of the staff. In their program book they had a list of winemakers that were to appear. When we started asking where these people would be, no one knew. Even a person that was supposed to be one of the organizers didn't know what we were taking about. I had to show her the list in the program but she did not have a clue. We finally saw one of the "winemakers" that was on the agenda and found out they were giving a series of lectures in an adjacent room. No sign next the room of any kind to inform people of what was taking place. One of the speakers was Wes Hagen from Clos Pepe Vineyard. http://www.clospepe.com/. I just had dinner at their house last weekend. (see posting).

There were 80 vendors attending. Some of the vendors were distributors or wine stores. They had multiple wines on their tables that they were pouring. One of the wineries that I did like and I had tasted their wines last year at the "Passport" tasting at Delius Restaurant, http://www.deliusrestaurant.com/ , was Barretto Cellars, http://www.barretocellars.com/, They are in the Paso Robles area and they specialize in Spanish varietals. .

Twisted Oak cellars , http://www.twistedoak.com/. They are from the Murphy area in Calaveras County were there also. About 6 years ago when I was in the Sierra Foothills tasting, I walked into their tasting room which had been opened only 9 days. I had a barrel sampling of their Tempranillo and was impressed. They had since received many good reviews on their wines.

The price of the ticket was $40 for a 1 day pass and $70 for Saturday and Sunday. I opted for the one day pass but in retrospect, if I attend next year I will a get a 2 day pass. It was difficult to get to all the tables because of the crowd of people. I think you really need 2 days to take in all in.

For the most part this was a lot of fun. My biggest gripe was the lack of knowledge from the staff and the lack of air circulation. If you were on the porthole side of the room, you were getting quite heated. Perhaps when they move into the Queen Salon for Sundays event, things may improve. They also needed to keep the cheese and cracker tables better supplied.