Learn About Wine’s annual flagship wine tasting event STARS OF CABERNET took place Nov 16 at The Peninsula Beverly Hills.
The day kicked off with a wine tasting lunch sponsored by four wineries: Patland Estate Vineyards, Rocca Wines, David Arthur, and Justin Winery.
Representatives presented background on the companies and owners and how they got into the wine business. Each company presented two samples for tasting.
Following the introduction to the wines, an open ended discussion moderated by Learn About Wine founder Ian Blackburn touched a host of topics: future price speculation and rebuttals, the prohibitive difficulty of entering foreign markets involving paperwork and steep tariffs such as those in Canada, the largest foreign market for US wines, with these difficulties are further aggravated by the absence of a trade group to lobby the goverment and simplify the process.
Touching on the high end pricing that may often seem random, the discussion got lively as David Arthur joked that he first decides what car he wants to buy that year and the price of the wine follows. On a more serious note, there was mention of the high cost of land in the wine growing Napa region, compared to, say, the corn growing land of midwest, the competitive reliance on using high price consultants, and re-doing production methods, e.g. changing barrel type. `What the market will bear' seemed to be a refrain, and one attendee pointed out the existence of a secondary market that buys up popular wines that are in short supply for reselling for profit.
Following lunch, from 2-5pm, a trade tasting featured 30-40 leading Cabernet producers.
The main event of the day was the STARS of Cabernet consumer tasting at 7:00pm that attracted over 150 guests where 30-40 leading Cabernet Producers featured event standby brands like Lail, Cain, Heitz, Phelps, Grgich, Venge and ZD as well has new wineries like Patland, Moone Tsai, Knights Bridge, Kelleher, and Darms Lane. Many were lavish and collectable. There was plenty of crackers, bread and cheese to nibble on between the tastings to refresh the palate.
More substantial dinner fare prepared by Peninsula chefs included a main course of prime rib rounded out by a pasta buffet of cheese ravioli, tortellini and mac & cheese.
Also featured as part of the evening was a silent auction benefitting the TJ Martell Foundation Children’s Cancer Research at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
LearnAboutWine hosts more than 100 wine events a year for private collectors, auction houses, the beverage industry, and tens of thousands of enthusiasts wanting to expand their knowledge of wine.
For more information visit, www.starsofcabernet.com and LearnAboutWine.com.
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