Wine & Cars Under the Stars was exactly as described on a beautiful short sleeves night at the Los Angeles Fairplex. The benefit is in its fourth year, offering over sixty wine tasting booths which were set up amidst live music by “The Ho Dads”, a few dozen antique California beach cars and strategically placed slider stations with pork, salmon, hot dogs and meatballs plus a decadent desert bar. But we came for the wine.
We knew that we were on a real prospecting expedition even before entering the event, noticing that the wine sponsor list was a little short on big name wineries from the Napa and Sonoma regions. That was not going to keep us from sampling as many new wineries as we could. The hunt was on and by the end of the night we had discovered some very nice wines!
In the first hour of exploring white wines, we came upon a nice Dutcher Crossing 2008 Chardonnay, Stuhmuller Vineyard, Alexander Valley. The winery is located on Dry Creek Road, and we hope to visit there next time we are in Healdsburg.
Moving into the red wines, we tasted three Zinfandels from Armida Winery, where we decided that “Poizin” was the best. Don’t be fooled by the screw top lid. This is a top of the line Dry Creek zinfandel that is a great alternative for the brotherhood of Cab drinkers.
We were very surprised by the offerings from Pure Cru, Napa Valley, sampling the 2006 Super Tuscan Blend, a 31 month in the barrel blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc, Merlot and Sangiovese. Winemaker Mitch Consentino takes you on a trip to Italy with this one.
There were wines from all parts of California, with the Temecula Valley, Paso Robles and Santa Barbara and its many Pinot Noirs all represented. Congratulations to all of the award winners, since we savored many note worthy wines from around the state. A special “Rose mention” should go to Cal Poly Pomona and the students there for their second year of wine production. Everyone at the event had a great time.
As a first time contributor to Eve’s blog, we certainly had fun tasting the wines, and meeting other oenophiles. We sure like working for Eve. It is good work if you can get it.
When is the next one?
Ann Bushman and Jake Stark
