Wine In The Pines
The second weekend of June was pretty amazing for those of us who live in the Los Angeles area.
Eve has already written about the two-day Los Angeles Wine Festival. In addition to that, there were two other events that weekend – Wine In The Pines on Saturday, June 8th and the Ojai Wine Festival on Sunday, June 9th, both held at incredible outdoor venues.
Wine In the Pines has been held since 2003 at Pine Mountain Club, which is just about an hour drive from the Santa Clarita Valley, but a whole different world. Just take the 5 freeway north to the Frazier Park exit and head northwest into the mountains
I had the pleasure of being joined on this trip with my friend, well-known local wine professional Vic Herstein. We got to the event about a half hour early, as typically that was when people would start to line up. The new organizer of the event had made a change – no waiting in line, turn in your ticket, grab a glass and go on in! And even though technically the event didn’t start until noon, no one seemed to mind pouring a taste early.
This was especially great for that particular day. For the first time since I’ve attended this event, it was hot.
Temperatures appeared to get into the 90s very quickly, which would have made it uncomfortable to wait in line.
But, the heat admittedly did impact how I handled my wine tasting experience. I drank a lot more water, tended to taste more white wines than red, tried to limit my alcohol consumption even more than usual, and most importantly, focused primarily on enjoying the festival.
Some of the wineries represented were:
Tolosa
Vista Del Rey
Castoro
Hug Cellars
Christian Lazo
Rio Seco
Tobin James
Laraneta
Cass
Lapis Luna
Pear Valley
Andrew Lane
W.H. Smith
Bianchi
Hope Family
One Hope
Tejon Ranch
Treana
Cupcake
Scott Harvey
And for those who wanted something to drink other than wine, Stella Artois was there, pouring their beer and giving away their great glasses.
Food was provided as well, at no additional charge, such as:
Big Mike’s Ragin’ BBQ
The Garden Spot
Pine Mountain Pizza Co.
La Lena Mexican Restaurant
Basecamp Café
Café Med
I’d be remiss not to mention the entertainment. Boys Nite Out put on a great show. And wouldn’t you know it – Vic had played with some of them before, as besides being a wine guy he is a great bass guitarist.
All this in a setting so nice that you’d swear you were in Big Bear or somewhere similar.
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 encourages him and shares his interest. After a couple of decades of learning about wine, attending events, visiting wineries and vineyards, and tasting as much wine as he possibly could, he had the amazing luck 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. (2013 Update: Eve and Michael announced Eve Wine 101 Consulting. Info is here: http://evewine101.com/press-releases/) Michael can be contacted at michaelthezinfan@aol.com.
