International Wine and Food Society.

If any of you were lucky enough to meet up with members of the International Wine and Food Society in May, you know what a joy they were. Not only that but they had the coolest visits arranged by their leader/cellar master Dave Felton. I had the privilege of being their local wine guide for 2 days of their visit to Santa Barbara. Three coaches filled each morning at the Four Seasons Biltmore with a cuvee of international wine and food experts.
Their destinations included a private tasting at Clos Pepe with lunch provided by New West Catering (chef Jeff Olson knows food, many of the members were talking about it the next day), a second tasting at ampelos introduced the majority to the wines of Peter Work.
Day 2 with me they then went to a fascinating seminar held at ABC/Qupe with a focus on pinot noir.
Hosted and moderated by Jim Clendenen with a panel made up of Bill Wathen from Foxen, Gary Burke from Costa de Oro and Dora, Jonathan Nagy from Byron, Jeff Fink from Tantara and Greg Linn from Ambullneo. I couldn't resist hanging around for the presentation and the array of pinots on the table.
Wines Presented:
Costa de Oro 2005 "Reserva oro Rojo" Gold Coast Vineyards
Ambullneo 2005 Rancho Ontiveros
Au Bon Climat 2005 "Knox Alexander"
Byron 2004 Nielson Vineyard
Foxen 2005 Santa Maria Valley
Tantara 2005 Dierberg Vineyard.

Six great wines, a wide diversity of style and an impressive display of some of Santa Barbara's finest. It was good to finally try some Ambullneo, their wines are way outside my price range. Foxen's SMV pinot is delicious and have gone through a few cases since it's release. Tantara's pinot was such a flavour of the Dierberg Vineyard, typical of its terroir if you will. It's worth finding all the winemakers who use the Dierberg fruit and you will find an indelible typicity in all the wines, profoundly unique and all excellent. But for me I'm loving everything that Gary Burke is making recently and this pinot is no exception.

The biggest surprise to me was that a group this size (120+) worked so well together. I have been a guide for about 20 years and have worked all over the world yet this is the first group I have ever had to be so civilised, eloquent, prompt, attentive, fascinating and fascinated, well-mannered and so much fun to be with. It wasn't just me that noticed, everyone I spoke to noticed. Diane Dennell who organised all that David couldn't, the aforementioned winemakers, the Biltmore staff, even the coach drivers had nothing but the highest of praises. A pleasure to witness a well organised tour, something I hadn't seen since my own tours of China.
I'm told it took over 12 months of planning to put their program together and it was agreed that it worth every minute, nothing was overlooked. Well done and thank you.