Arte Cafe and Wine Tasting

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Arte Cafe in Cerritos, www.artecamellia.com,  had their summer wine tasting today. Not their normal day or time. It is usually held on a weekday in the evening. An experiment by the Richard, the owner. Did not go well. Richard thought if it was held late afternoon on a weekend people would stay and have dinner. Not going to happen. The time of 4 to 6 on a Saturday is beyond my understanding. People use their weekends for other things. After  tasting 30 or more wines on a hot afternoon, last thing you want is more food and wine. I doubt if there was more than 30 people in  attendance, Usually this tasting draws over 100 people. The time, day and heat were the topic of conversation.

All wines, red and white were iced down but still too warm. There was no air movement on the back patio because of the tarping that was on the fence to keep people from seeing the entertainment they have on Friday nights. Everyone was clustered around the fan in the bar area. The list of wines on the flyer were not necessarily what was poured. I did not keep tabs of the wines as it was just plain to hot and miserable on that patio but a couple of wines that were standouts were the Louis Jadot Pouilly Fusse, Domaine Serene Yamhill Pinot and the Conn Creek Cabernet Sauvignon. The appetizers were good. About 8 different kinds and they were passed around quite frequently

Youngs Market and Southern Wines were the distributors today. One of the rep's recognized me from another event. Since it was not crowded you could have longer conversations with them regarding their wines. Managed to snag an invite to the big trade tasting later this summer.  Have done that tasting before and it always a good one to attend. Open only to the trade, not the public, and they show case all the wines and spirits that are in their portfolio. It is a huge tasting with hundreds of tables set up  in a convention hall of a major hotel. And the food is also excellent. They spare no expense on this one