For our first effort, out of the chute, outstanding! The SCV Wine Fest is officially now the largest wine event in town. A small line curled around the outdoor patio, filled with cigar-smoking guests of the event, at the 2pm event start. Many guests arrived early to take advantage of some of the classes also…
What makes a good wine festival? A great selection of wine, of course, but also a great location. And what turns a good festival into a great one? Great organization to keep things running smoothly. For the second day of our Southern California wine-soaked weekend, my wife Karen and I recently attended the 29th Annual…
It’s time to celebrate! Join us for the 8th Annual Ventura County Wine Trail Celebration, and experience Ventura County’s local wineries, incredible food, live music with Blue Latitude band, entertainment and more! The evening will also feature a charity auction with all proceeds donated to FOOD Share, a food bank that distributes millions of pounds…
Last week, I wrote about our trip to the Family Winemakers Event in Del Mar, but left you with a cliffhanger as to the wineries that made the biggest impressions on me. As I’m sure you’ve been on the edge of your seat to know, here they are… ANCIENT PEAKS WINERY www.ancientpeaks.com Based in Santa…
Four Brix Winery has just released its first sparkling wine, just in time to kick off the holidays. Affectionately named, Baubles, this bubbly is comprised of 60% chardonnay, 40% pinot noir. Made in the methode champenoise style, Baubles has the petite bubbles that indicate a fine sparkling wine. As with all the labels of Four…
Once again almost a dozen merchants along Town Center Drive and the Patios of the Westfield Valencia Mall played host, with the help of dozens of volunteers, donated wine and purveyors of fine food, to The Wine Affair: Sip, Stroll & Savor the Sounds. Guests had four hours to complete their loop tour and be…
Four Brix Winery www.fourbrixwine.com We were ready for our final stop of the day. Gary Stewart, one of the owners of Four Brix Winery in Ventura, had actually set up our itinerary for the day. We had originally planned on visiting four wineries that day, but the amount of quality time we spent at the…
Cantara Cellars www.cantaracellars.com Winery owners Mike and Chris Brown opened their Cantara Cellars tasting room in October 2007. But, their winemaking actually started four years earlier, in the garage of their home in Moorpark, in the Cantara section of the Serenata development [after all, the name “Brown Estate” was taken. J] Mike grew up in…
Bella Victorian Vineyard www.bellavictorianvineyard.com My wife Karen and I were ready to start our first taste of Ventura County wine country. And since wine tasting should not be done on an empty stomach, we were glad our first stop was at Bella Victorian’s Tasting Room & Bistro in Old Town Camarillo. Traveling with our good…
It had been awhile since I gave serious thought to wineries in Ventura County. Years ago, in the 1990s, we were fairly frequent visitors to Leeward Winery, which had space in an industrial park on Johnson Drive. And later, we also enjoyed visiting Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard as well as Old Creek Ranch Winery…