View As PDF - Wine Country This Week

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY – SANTA MARIA | WINE COUNTRY THIS MONTHOne Winegrowing County, Four AVAs, 65 Varietals,110 Vintners – All Together for One Day, April 16Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Festival Celebrates ‘Diversity Perfected!’“Grape diversity here is the norm, rather than the unexpected,”explains Jim Fiolek, Executive Director of the Vintners’ Association.“Santa Barbara’s vineyards are planted along transverse valleys that runeast to west, the only place on the Pacific Coast that this occursbetween Alaska and Tierra del Fuego, Chile. This unique geologic‘twist’ creates hundreds of micro-climates, with soils and climaticconditions changing just about every mile. We can grow superb PinotNoir in the western areas and excellent Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet25 miles further to the east. All with excellence. This is indeed anincredible place.”To celebrate this “Diversity Perfected” as well as the arrival of springand the beginnings of the 2011 vintage, the Santa Barbara County Vintners’Association will be hosting their 29th annual Vintners’ Festival, tobe held at the western edge of one of the four official AVAs in thecounty. River Park in Lompoc will host the event on April 16 from 1 to4 p.m. The Festival is hosted by the more than one hundred vintnersand winemakers of the organization, who will be pouring their latestreleases of the sixty-five plus varietals of wine grown in the county.Festival-goers will be invited to play Santa Barbara County by theNumbers, wherein they search, find and taste many of the differentwine varietals produced by member vintners. Those with the mostcompleted game cards will be entered into a drawing for a variety ofwine country prizes. The festival will also feature more than two dozenlocal restaurants, caterers and purveyors of specialty foods serving tastywine country bites, and two live and lively bands filling the spring airwith music. Add to that a Silent Auction to benefit local charities, artdisplays from area artists and a day of wine country camaraderie andyou’ve got a festival where the whole is greater than sum of the parts.Come celebrate with us!The Vintner’s Featival will take place at River Park in Lompoc. Vintners’Festival Tickets are $75 per person. Designated Drivers are $25per person. Vintners’ Visa for participating wineries, April 15th through18th are $35 per person. Combination Vintners’ Festival and Vintners’Visa tickets are $100 per person. For tickets or more information, visitsbcountywines.com/events/festival.html.About Santa Barbara Country Vintners’ AssociationThe Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association is a non-profit organizationfounded in 1983 to support and promote Santa BarbaraCounty as a premium wine producing and wine grape growing region.The Vintners’ Association produces festivals, seminars and tastings andprovides information to consumers and the wine and travel media.11351McKeon-PhilipsCoreWine Co.OrcuttBLOSSERLe FenêtreSKYWAYEAST CLARKE DONOVANMAINSTOWELLBROADWAY135Los AlamosToLompoc (18 miles)Solvang (34 miles)To San Luis Obispo(32 miles)ROEMERAddamo EstateVineyards & Bistro101BETTERAVIATELEPHONEDOMINIONCottonwoodPresqu´ile CanyonBedfordRoemer Way Self-StorageCOSTA DE OROCoreWine Co.SANTA MARIA MESA RDRiver BenchVineyardsFOXEN CANYON RDALISOS CANYONSanta MariaCambriaZaca MesaDemetriaCurtisFIRESTONESTAZACATantaraKENNETHVOLKVINEYARDSTEPUSQUETRancho SisquocFoxen VineyardsTres HermanasFess ParkerKoehlerFOXENCANYON RD154www.santamariavalleywinecountry.comNOT TO SCALE101To Solvang(17 miles)To Los Olivos(11 miles)38 Sign up for our email newsletter at www.WineCountryThisMonth.com