The Conejo Wine & Jazz Fest was held on May 20, 2012, at Conejo Creek Park North in Thousand Oaks. It featured wineries, restaurants, caterers and live jazz. An enjoyable afternoon of wine and food tastings with great music!
EVENT SOLD OUT!
Apparently the park limited attendance to only a few hundred people, but there was room for two or three times that amount and the booths were spaced around an area that could have held another event within it. It was probably a good thing that it was limited though. The parking lot was completely full when I got there and the overflow parking at the library was a long hike away.
Apparently the park limited attendance to only a few hundred people, but there was room for two or three times that amount and the booths were spaced around an area that could have held another event within it. It was probably a good thing that it was limited though. The parking lot was completely full when I got there and the overflow parking at the library was a long hike away.
Finally - a wine and food festival that gives you a convenient way to juggle everything! The tray/wine glass holder was a winner!
The winery line up included Cielo Malibu Estate Wineyard - The SIP, Consensio Cellars, HAKA by Labyrinth, Herzog Wine Cellars, J. Hamilton's Wines, Magnavino Cellars, Millésimé Cellars, OneHope Wines, Opolo Vineyards, Ranch Ventavo Cellars, ViñAlegre, Vines on the Marycrest, and Roxo Port Cellars. Wine merchants included Bean Crazy and Total Wine & More.
Restaurants and caterers included BJ's Restaurant / Brewhouse, DJ's California Catering,
The Sugar Lab, KIND Healthy Snacks, La Cucina di Venti, The Mermaid Tavern, Jinky's Cafe, Vom Fass, Robeks, Don's Smokin' Salmon, Pierre's Catering, Pookie's Thai Westlake Restaurant, I Would Rather Be Baking Co., and Nothing Bundt Cakes. A few markets were there too - Maddy's Market and Sprouts Farmers Market.
The Sugar Lab, KIND Healthy Snacks, La Cucina di Venti, The Mermaid Tavern, Jinky's Cafe, Vom Fass, Robeks, Don's Smokin' Salmon, Pierre's Catering, Pookie's Thai Westlake Restaurant, I Would Rather Be Baking Co., and Nothing Bundt Cakes. A few markets were there too - Maddy's Market and Sprouts Farmers Market.
I especially liked the food from the Mermaid Tavern, Cucina di Venti, Pierre's Catering, and BJ's Restaurant/Brewhouse.
The Mermaid had a nice layout with mini wonton tacos filled with duck confit, Napa cabbage, finished with a sweet cherry vinaigrette. They also had a pear salad that looked very good and healthy. This was my first food tasting and a great way to start!
The skewered Hors d'oeuvres featuring olives from Cucina di Venti went very well with my glass of wine from the booth next door - Labyrinth Haka Freebird (50% Merlot, 50% Tempranillo).
Pierre's Catering offered homemade whole wheat sesame thyme pita flats finished off with a bleu cheese mousse, crushed, crystalized walnuts, and sprouts from Camarillo. That Pierre, he's clever, this is is nice with any type of wine! I was enjoying a Sangiovese from Consensio Cellars at the time.
BJ's Restaurant/Brewhouse was serving a nice choice of regular or dark chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Great dessert, but where's the beer? (I suppose it wasn't allowed in the wine event.)
I didn't get to visit Nothing Bundt Cakes, but my wife and I are frequent customers so I'm sure they had yummy cakes!
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| Don's Smokin' Salmon |
Looks delicious!
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| The Matt Finders Septet (plus the guy who constantly fiddled with the audio equipment) |
Live music was performed throughout the afternoon by keyboard artist and composer Tim
Heintz plus jazz singer Karen Harper, jazz aficionado Matt Harris, Cuban-born percussionist Luis
Conte and vocalist/keyboardist "Mighty" Mo Rodgers, and the Matt Finders
Septet.
They were all great and I liked "Mighty" Mo Rodgers' song about the Facebook blues. The VIPs in the tents had a nice location for listening to the music.
Although I didn't visit all of the wineries at the festival, here's the complete list:
After tasting most of the wines being poured I rated them from 1 to 5:
Considering the wine rating vs. the price they rank as follows:
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| Vines of the Marycrest |
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| Bean Crazy |
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| Millésimé Cellars |
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| HAKA by Labyrinth |
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| Cielo Malibu Estate Wineyard - The SIP |
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| Consensio Cellars |
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| Magnavino Cellars |
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| OneHope Wines |
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| Roxo Port Cellars |
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| mi Casa de Angeles |
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| The Rotary Club - Westlake Village |
The Conejo Wine (and Food) & Jazz Fest was a nice way to meet the people that are involved in fine wines and gourmet food. Overall, it was a great day for enjoying wine, food, and music outdoors in Conejo Creek Park.
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| Sponsors |
See you there next year. Cheers!
Gary Coon
Taste N Trip Blog
CoonToonStudios
Thank you so much for your review. I worked the event for the Rotary Club and did not have a chance to sip and make notes. Now I know what to try and which winery to visit on my next wine trip.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it! There are a lot of great wineries around the area. The Ventura County and Malibu Wine Trails are worth exploring if you have time. Click on my Older Posts to see a review of these nearby wine trails.
ReplyDeleteThe chart is really helpful!
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures & accompanying comments. The charts are helpful too!
ReplyDelete