FAMILY WINEMAKERS OF CALIFORNIA – Part 1
http://familywinemakers.org/
Family Winemakers of California is an organization dedicated to family-owned wineries. Formed to give small wineries a voice on public policy issues, the organization also helps member wineries gain more exposure by hosting periodic tastings.
FWC has held a trade tasting in the Los Angeles area since 2000, the last 10 at the Pasadena Convention Center, until this year. In addition, a trade and consumer tasting has been held in Del Mar at the fairgrounds for the last five years. Well, as it was explained to me, the Pasadena Convention Center was not available for the day desired, so the decision was made to not have a trade tasting in L.A. and to extend the trade tasting in Del Mar.
Admittedly, I received this news with somewhat mixed feelings. Obviously, Pasadena is much more convenient to get to. But, going to the event in Del Mar not only gave us the opportunity to get out of town for a couple of days but also enabled me to visit the venue that you, our readers, would go to if attending, as the consumer portion of the tasting has always been held in Del Mar.
And, truth be told, Del Mar is only a couple of hours away, which could conceivably just be a road trip. But, with the Del Mar Hilton right next door and within walking or shuttle distance to the event, why not stay over? And since there were also a limited number of VIP tickets available to consumers to not only attend the trade portion of the tasting [in addition to the consumer tasting] but to visit the Reserve Lounge area, this option would seem to make a lot of sense.
The Exhibit Hall in which the event was held was appropriately huge, which it needed to be to showcase the 150+ wineries pouring their samples. Wineries were organized alphabetically, and the first several pages of the program included a varietal map so one could focus on those varietals that held the most interest. But, of course, even with such great instructions, it is hard to make more than a dent in all that is offered. Of those I tasted, these were the ones that stood out for me…
[to be continued next Saturday, 4-20-13]
Michael Perlis has been pursuing his passion for wine for more than 25 years. He has had the good fortune of having numerous mentors to show him the way, as well as a wonderful wife who puts up with him. After a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting tasting rooms and tasting as much wine as he possibly could, Michael had the amazing good fortune to meet Eve Bushman. Now, as Contributing Editor for Eve’s Wine 101, he does his best to bring as much information as possible about wine to Eve’s Wine 101 faithful readers. At the same time, in his day job he provides outsourced controller services to companies that do not need a full-time controller. One day, he hopes to be able to combine these two pursuits. Feel free to contact him about either at mcpfinancial@aol.com or michaelthezinfan@aol.com. (2013 Update: Eve and Michael announced Eve Wine 101 Consulting. Info is here: http://evewine101.com/press-releases/)
