A Taste of Camarillo 2013

The Taste of Camarillo food and wine festival was lots of fun last year, so I was looking forward to it again this year--plus the Wine Auction Gala & Dinner held the night before.  I took my DSLR camera and HD videocam planning to capture the essence of both events, but I think I ended up capturing almost all of the events! So if a picture is worth a thousand words, along with HD video, I've got a few gigabytes of words.

The Wine Auction Gala & Dinner started with a silent auction on the side of the Camarillo Ranch house. Domaine Saint-Vincent Methode Champenoise Brut and Bridlewood Reserve wines were poured along with Hors D'Oeuvres:

• Lobster Salad in a hand rolled chive crepe and topped with caviar and micro greens.
• Chicken & Black Truffle Pate in pastry with fig preserves.
• Fava Bean Tapenade served on crostini with pickled onions and artichoke heart.
• Mushroom Tarts with French brie cheese.
• Beef Wellington wrapped in pastry with a tarragon dijon sauce.

The Big Little Jazz Band provided some nice background music, the dinner was fabulous and the live auction was a hoot!  

Click here to watch a video of the Gala.

A Taste of Camarillo wine and food festival had a very good mix of wineries, beer, and food.  I managed to take pictures of about 50 wineries, but I'm sure there were a couple more there.  Out of the new wineries (to me) that I found interesting were Barr Estate Winery, Frolicking Frog Cellars, Hidden Oak Winery, J&J Cellars and Sextant. Some of my favorite wines tasted were: 

• Alma Sol 2010 Cuatro Caminos, Paso Robles
• B&E Vineyard 2009 Merlot
• B&E Vineyard 2008 Rhythm
• J&J Cellars 2009 Tempranillo, Estate, Paso Robles
• Pear Valley Estate Wine 2009 Distraction (27% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Malbec, 24% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petite Verdot).
• Sextant Wines 2010 'Night Watch' (69% Zinfandel, 23% Petite Sirah, 9% Syrah).

Towards the end I sampled some beer from Sierra Nevada, Enegren Brewing Company, Ninkasi, and Surf Brewery.  Most were IPAs and very hoppy!

All of the food from Billy D'z Backyard BBQ, N'Awlinz Bistro, Spanish Hills CC, Sushi Fresh Ventura, Tierra Sur (Lamb Bacon!), and Twenty 88 was fabulous!

And the Cover 2 Cover band covered a lot of great songs!

Click here to watch a video of the Festival.