Tree House Intelligence

If you love wine events like we do then you can’t miss the next California Wine Festival in Santa Barbara. We attended the California Wine Festival, Santa Barbara for the 2^nd year in a row and Nick and I ROCKED it hard.

There were over 2,500 attendees on a beautiful mid 70 degree Saturday. We arrived around 9:30 am to set up early and hit the circuit and do a little tasting of our own. Although we produce pomegranate wine, we love tasting new and interesting reds and whites. When I attend events like this one while NOT WORKING, I personally like to spend the beginning part of the day sipping down a few chilled whites before jumping on the “red” wagon.

We always have a good time at wine and food tasting events because we get to meet so many people who all REALLY LOVE WINE. There were a few great reds from Houdini Wines,their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon was off the hook and we loved the big flavors it offered. Then we tried their 2007 Merlot and loved it too. These wines would be great with a nice medium rare steak and veggies. Fortunately, we finished up our tastings before the general public was let into the festival.

As always, we are the only pomegranate wine at the festival and once word gets around, we get swamped with tasters for the better part of 3 hours. The big hit for the day I’d have to say was our Cocktail Wine. We poured all 3 of our wines, including our Pomegranate Sparkling Wine and Pomegranate White Wine Blend.

I always feel bad when we get a few tasters who like to chit chat and the people behind them just wants a glass so they can move on to the next winery. I personally like to chit chat with tasters but at events like this we  usually have to rush our tasters to move on quickly but always try to answer any questions people have. (Which is usually quite a few because not many people know about pomegranate wine).

So, I’d say the best time of a wine festival is the before and after. Before the event starts we are able to sample our fellow wineries’ great and not so great wines and listen to all the hard work that has gone into getting those wines into a bottle and ready for the public. Since we go to SOOO many wine events every year, we sort of start to recognize and see the same ol’ faces each time. I like to say we ride the wine tasting/event circuit, like the traveling circus, same people and attractions but at a different location. I really like the end of these wine festivals because there are so many people who had a great time throughout the day and just don’t want it to end. They’re the peeps that come back asking for wine when the event is over, begging wineries to “let” them “steal” a bottle to go to dinner with or to go and share with their friends on the beach or by the lake, if that is where the event is near. And then there are those few that should have been cut off, like 2 hours ago and are trying to talk serious with you, but you know they are not all there, sort of talking too close and every once in a while spitting on your face. You know they are going to have a tough recovery in the morning.

People are fun to watch and be around, especially at wine events. We have a good time pouring our wine and hearing feedback. Don’t hesitate to give feedback to the pourers. You don’t have to be rude if it’s negative, be constructive. Everybody tastes wine a little differently and we rarely see people agreeing on what they think they are tasting in the wine, so we take it with a grain of salt, but we still love to hear how people perceive our wines.

If you see us at an event, please come by and chit chat with us and tell us what you think of our pomegranate wine.

-Brian