Nice view from the Inn at Spanish Bay

From April 12 to 15, 2012 I attended the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival. What a great experience! Probably the best part of this festival was meeting such an array of impressive people from the wine and gourmet food industry.  Click on the link below to see some of the photos of the event.

Pebble Beach Wine and Food Festival

The Festival was celebrating its fifth anniversary reinventing the concept of the food festival, creating over four days of veritable culinary playground for gastronomers and oenophiles the world over. In a short time, it has become what superstar chef Daniel Boulud calls “the most high-end (festival) in the country… my personal favorite”. “The first Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival in 2008 sent a huge ripple through the luxury lifestyle world. Berhald (David, co-founder of Coastal Luxury Management (CLM)) vividly recalls the opening night reception in that year when 1,500 people showed up – seemingly all at once. “It really put into perspective what it took to create this behemoth event” he says. “It was an unbelievable moment for all of us who work so hard to make it happen”.

Highlighted by a 60,000-square-foot Lexus Grand Tasting Tent that housed two-dozen celebrity chefs, and volunteers pouring 400 unique wines, the initial event drew rave reviews.

The White Wines were Outstanding

An Enjoyable Wine Tasting Event

I felt so sorry I could not make it to one of my favorite events: “Celebrating Thirty Years of Extraordinary 1982 First-Growth Bordeaux“. The taste included the finest year from the finest chateaux in Bordeaux including all the First Growths – Mouton Rothschild,  Margaux,  Lafite, Latour and Haute-Brion – in addition to other standout bottlings. Of course, with such a great collection of ultra quality and expensive wines, seating was extremely limited. I hope to be able to make it next year, when hopefully my two great 2010 Bordeaux wines LATERALITE DROIT and LATERALITE GAUCHE will be featured in that or other similar venues.

I had a chance to meet so many interesting people like the team that led the “Lot18: How the Pros Hunt for Wine Treasures“, Kevin Boyer, (Sr. Director, Lot18), Ray Isle (Executive Wine Editor Food & Wine), Janine Lettieri (Imported Wine Director Lot18), Damon Ornowski, (MS Vin Divino) and Emily Wines (MS, Wine Director Kimton Hotels). With this group we managed to taste and enjoy the stories of an excellent selection of wines, such as the 2009 Chateau Cadillac (Cuvee du Pin Franc, Bordeaux, France), the 2009 Ariette (Quartet, Napa Valley), the 2007 Tolain (Valdisanti, Tuscany, Italy) and the 2007 Camianc , Cabernet Sauvignon (Blue Hall Vineyard, Howell Mountain, Napa), and the 2010 Casa Marin Sauvignon Gris (Estero Vineyard, San Antonio Valley, Chile)