LAKE CASITAS : Festival Is Vintage Fun for Wine Lovers

Thousands of people attended the fifth annual Ojai Wine Festival on Sunday, enjoying an afternoon of chilled wine, live jazz and a gentle summer breeze off Lake Casitas.

By 3:30 p.m., more than 4,000 people had stepped through the festival gates at the edge of the lake to taste the vintages of more than 30 California wineries, said organizer Les Gardner.

The annual event is the major fund-raiser for the Rotary Club of Ojai-West. Gardner estimated that this year’s function would raise at least $20,000.

The festival drew wine lovers from the Ojai Valley and beyond.

John and Vikki Cuccia of Ojai counted themselves among the festival’s most loyal followers. They said they attended their first festival five years ago and have not missed one since.

“We’re Chardonnay drinkers,” John Cuccia said.

Jennifer Sievers of Thousand Oaks and Karen Tiffany of Calabasas made their first visit to the festive this year--merely by chance. The two women had planned to spend the day hiking but decided to attend the festival when a friend of Tiffany’s gave her a ticket.

Neither said they regretted the change in plans.

“This is a lot more fun than hiking,” Sievers said, sniffing an engraved glass of white wine.

Many of those working at the vendor booths seemed to delight in hawking their wares and meeting wine lovers.

Jim Rohde, manager of Austin Cellars of Los Olivos, glowed as he talked about his winery’s products and about his boss, winemaker Anthony Austin.

“He’s a little off, so his wines are a little off,” Rohde said, referring to Austin’s rare wines, such as Cabernet Franco Blanc.

He said his offbeat winery is the only producer of Cabernet Franco Blanc in the nation.

Camille Antcliffe, who was distributing wines from both Buena Vista Winery and Sebastiani Vineyards, both of Sonoma County, raved about the festival.

“They loved it,” she said of the thousands of festival-goers, noting a marked enthusiasm by the crowd for white wines such as Pinot Noir.

Antcliffe said the festival was an opportunity to educate the public to the mysteries and delights of wine.