The Sun Never Sets on a World of Wine Festivals

At one event, Julia Child displays her proficiency mixing a mess o’ spaghetti squash while touting the joys of Chardonnay. At another, actor Burgess Meredith speaks eloquently about his wine collecting and the great bottles he’s had. At yet another, Boston physicians Michael Apstein and Harvey Finkel lecture on the healthful benefits of wine consumed in moderation.

Surrounding these events there is wine with cheese, wine with hors d’oeuvres, wine with dinner, wine with chocolate. And wine with nothing. As well as food and more food.

These are wine festivals and/or auctions, an art form that didn’t exist in any significant way 20 years ago but which has blossomed faster than a radish on Miracle Grow. Today you can scarcely open the mailbox without finding an invitation touting the latest wine event.

Wine festivals attract both newcomers and dedicated collectors who aim to learn more about wine. Some attend to find out how the latest vintage of their favorite wine is doing. Others seek to discover new wines and/or great values.

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Many also do it for the camaraderie of other wine lovers, or the chance to meet and chat with winemakers, the joy of adding a few more words of wine-speak to the lexicon, and the chance to get yet another etched wine glass to add to the dozen or two already in the cupboard.

Wine festivals and auctions are big business. Some exist mainly to fill hotel rooms during slack periods of the year. Others are a means of promoting a wine region, though they may do so in the guise of raising funds for charity.

And although winery owners and especially winemakers generally dislike wine festivals, they participate in them because they must. They are one more way to meet the public, become visible and make more personal a product steeped in mystery, lore and ivory tower images.

Wineries will occasionally pay a hefty fee to have a place at certain prestigious events. Some festivals, knowing this, not only charge consumers $25 to $100 to attend, but they charge the wineries hundreds of dollars to pour the wines they are donating.

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The Monterey Wine Festival, staged each March, bills itself as the nation’s first major wine festival. It began in 1976, when the number of such events was close to zero and when anything that then existed was rudimentary and local.

The Monterey event was founded by a hotel/motel group that wanted to fill rooms when the Monterey peninsula was between peak seasons. After a couple of slow years, the event became a fixture. Three years ago, with the involvement of the powerful National Restaurant Assn., the festival hit the big-time.

Three full days of major tastings, seminars, luncheons and dinner events draw more than 200 persons to the Hyatt Regency Hotel, many of them from far off. This boosts the economy of the region and allows the wineries of Monterey County to showcase their top wines alongside those of Napa, Sonoma, Oregon and Washington.

One of the attractions at most of these festivals is a wine auction to raise money for charity.

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Among the charities are hospitals, health clinics and legal aid foundations for the poor.

A popular charity is public radio and television. One of the most sophisticated is the one held in conjunction with Summerday, the wine fest that benefits FM public radio station KCRW in Santa Monica. Last year the event netted $90,000, vital for a station being hit with federal budget cuts.

The biggest and most prestigious event of all the wine festivals is the Napa Valley Wine Auction held at the Meadowood Resort in the Napa Valley each June.

Set up ostensibly to promote the wines of the valley, the auction benefits various Napa Valley health facilities. The four-day event is a lot more than just an auction, however, with a load of events to choose from.

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But the auction itself is a real love-in for bauble-hunters, a way to rub shoulders with famed winemakers and drink almost endless amounts of Chardonnay and Cabernet.

Admission is more than $600 per person, and the wines are usually sold for at least three or four times the market price. Yet the escalating cost of everything hasn’t hurt this extravaganza. For the last few years, total bidding has topped $1 million and it routinely sells out.

There are no symposiums at the Napa event, but winery-hosted lunches and dinners, barrel tastings, receptions, a vintners’ ball and numerous Sunday open house events turn Thursday’s wide-eyed newcomers into Sunday’s exhausted departers.

Many festival events are structured around a theme. This year’s Central Coast Wine Classic and every year’s International Pinot Noir Celebration at Linfield College in Oregon include a number of tastings as well as a symposium on Pinot Noir.

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And the biennial World Vinifera Conference in Seattle is always dedicated to discussion of one or two grape varieties.

Most festivals are free-form, where the dress is jeans and T-shirts. Anyone attending the Aspen Food and Wine Classic or the Sonoma County Wine Showcase and Auction goes casual.

Other events cater to a dressier crowd, such as the World of Wine, hosted every year by the elegant Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Laguna Niguel, where suits and ties are commonplace at the grand tastings. Or the Anthony Spinazzola Scholarship Foundation dinner honoring the late Boston Globe wine and food columnist. It is at Boston’s World Trade Center and it’s a black-tie affair.

At events that feature symposiums, such as the Midwest Wine festival in Chicago, the speakers range from the academic to the absurd. The latter are most welcomed.

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Among the featured “performers” at some of the more upscale events are Joshua Wesson, a witty master sommelier from New York who does wine-and-food pairing demonstrations; Hugh Johnson, the world’s greatest living wine author, and a droll personality who employs rapier wit and British understatement; Len Evans, a brilliant and hilarious Australian winery owner (Rothbury Estate); and Kevin Zraly, a zany former restaurateur who delivers a fast-paced monologue that flits from subject to subject like a May fly.

Other celebrities who show up on occasion are Ed McMahon, Robin Leach, George Plimpton, Alex Trebek and Francis Ford Coppola. The latter two own wineries--Creston Winery in Paso Robles and Neibaum-Coppola Estate in the Napa Valley, respectively.

On the more serious front are dozens of wine experts who deliver solemn presentations on subjects like rootstock experimentation and malolactic fermentation with such dedication to their subjects that they run the risk of losing their audience before the first wine is poured.

In fact, at many of the symposiums wine is poured early and often. In an effort to give the consumers their money’s worth, some festivals schedule tasting sessions as early as 8 a.m. And I don’t care what the organizers say, I can’t enjoy Chardonnay at 8 a.m.

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Sometimes the amount of wine served is so great one can’t appreciate even the really good stuff.

A decade ago at a wine festival in San Francisco, I attended a morning session with Riesling, a late-morning session with Zinfandel, a luncheon with four wines, and then a 2 p.m. seminar with Sauvignon Blanc.

At that point, I dragged myself into another seminar room for a 4 p.m. tasting where they were just pouring four great vintages of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild. My friend, a San Diego wine merchant, and I both realized we were so sated with wine we couldn’t appreciate even the 1953 Lafite! Nor could most of the rest of the attendees, who barely touched their glasses. This meant there were a lot of bottles of the ’53 left on the pouring table.

I asked the waiter if we could take one back to our room. He shrugged and nodded, so we put a cork in one and took it.

Over the next two days there was so much more wine that we finally left the bottle in the room, untouched.

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A Corking Calendar

A partial list of wine festivals and symposiums scheduled for 1995:

April 22-23: Santa Barbara Vintner’s Festival. Gourmet food and wine tasting event in the Santa Ynez Valley. Sold out; for information about next year’s festival, contact Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association, (805) 688-0881.

April 29: 11th Christermon Foundation Expo du Vin, Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles. Price: $50 ($25 advance sale), includes wine tasting from 100 wineries and foods from local restaurants. Benefits City of Hope and Beverage Industry Scholarship Foundation. Contact Brenda Stumpf, (714) 833-1173.

April 30: Ashlawn-Highland Wine Festival, Charlottesville, Va. Benefits Ashlawn-Highland Museum, home of James Monroe. Price: $10. Contact Jim Wootton, (804) 293-9539.

May 6: 13th Sierra Showcase of Wine, Plymouth, Calif. Benefits Assn. of Retarded Citizens (ARC). (209) 267-5958.

May 19-21: Paso Robles Wine Festival Weekend, Paso Robles, Calif. Benefits wine education programs of Paso Robles Vinters & Growers and Paso Robles Chamber of Commerce. Price: $15, includes eight tasting tickets and a tasting glass. (805) 239-VINE (8463).

May 21: Los Angeles Shanti Wine Tasting and Auction, Universal City Hilton, Los Angeles. Benefits L.A. Shanti Foundation for people with HIV, AIDS and other life-threatening ailments. Price: $50, includes wine tasting, glass and foods of leading local restaurants including Yujean Kang, Water Grill, Rustica, Joss, Sonora Cafe. (213) 962-8197.

June 3: Sonoma Odyssey: Wine, Books and all that Jazz, Saralee’s Vineyard/Richard’s Grove, Santa Rosa, Calif. Benefits Wine Library Associates of Sonoma County. Price: $25, includes tasting, food, jazz and rare book sale/author’s book signing. Contact Gail Ryan, (707) 524-7811.

June 8-11: Napa Valley Wine Auction, St. Helena. Benefits various Napa Valley health facilities. Price: $640, includes three lunches, barrel tasting, hosted winery dinner, sparkling wine reception, vintners’ ball, auction, concluding dinner, and Sunday open house events. Some events available on a per-fee basis. Contact Napa Valley Vintners, (707) 942-9783, ext. 901.

June 18: Summerday, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles. Benefits radio station KCRW-FM. Price: $85, includes tasting, food by local restaurants and wine auction. Contact Lauren Deutsch, (310) 450-5183.

June 24: Jackson Hole Wine Auction, Jackson, Wyo. Benefits Grand Teton Music Festival. Prices vary depending on event. Contact Mary Webber, (307) 733-3050.

July 5-9: KCBX Central Coast Wine Classic, Avila Beach Resort, Avila Beach, Calif. Benefits radio station KCBX-FM. Price: $275, includes barrel tasting, winery dinner, wine auction, sparkling wine reception, Sunday brunch, symposium, gala dinner and grand wine tasting. Contact Archie McLaren, (805) 781-3026.

July 12-15: World Vinifera Conference, Seattle. Price: $395 includes all symposiums, three lunches, various wine tastings, and salmon barbecue dinner. Contact Washington Wine Commission, (206) 728-2252.

July 20-22: 14th Kapalua Wine Symposium, Maui. Price: $395, includes seminars, tastings, two lunches and seafood extravaganza dinner. Contact Loren Malenchek, (808) 669-0244.

July 27-30: New Orleans Wine and Food Experience. Contact Sandra Darfus, (504) 522-5730.

July 27-30: Sonoma County Wine Showcase and Auction, Benefits local charities. Price: varies depending on events attended. Contact Ellen Gall, Sonoma County Wineries Assn., (800) 939-7666.

July 28-30: International Pinot Noir Celebration, Linfield College, McMinnville, Ore. (Sold Out for 1995.) Price $510. Includes all tastings and seminars, three luncheons and two dinners. For information on the 1996 celebration, call (800) 775-4762.

Aug. 19: Long Beach Grand Cru Culinary Experience, World Trade Center, Long Beach. Benefits Legal Aid Foundation of Long Beach. Price: $50 includes wine tasting and food from local restaurants. Contact Carmen Reeves, (310) 435-3501, ext. 217.

Sept. 2: Central Coast Wine Festival, Historic Mission Plaza, San Luis Obispo, Calif. Contact Angela Mitchell, (805) 239-3926.

Sept. 2-3: Sonoma Valley Harvest Wine Auction, Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa, Boyes Hot Springs. Benefits Sonoma Valley Hospital and other valley charities. Price: $250, includes tasting panel, two dinners, main auction. Contact Chris Finlay, (707) 935-0803.

Sept. 4-5: Livermore Valley 13th Harvest Wine Celebration. Contact Livermore Calley Winegrowers Assn., (510) 447-WINE.

Oct. 20-21: Rhode Island Wine and Food Experience, Providence. Benefits local chapters of National Academy for Hospitality and Tourism. Price $100, includes tastings, food from 40 local restaurants, auction and dancing. Contact Mary Beth Miller, (401) 272-4441, or Rhode Island Hospitality Assn., (401) 732-4881.

Nov. 17-19: 10th World of Food and Wine, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Laguna Niguel. Price not yet determined. Contact Nancy Parramore, (714) 240-2000.

* A list of wine events appears monthly in Wines & Vines Magazine. Annual subscriptions are $32.50. To order call (415) 453-9700.