It all started on the first Monday in February, Benyamin Cantz and I were driving down to LA to attend the 2010 International Food & Wine Festival.  This is the third installment of this wonderful event, and we have both attended them in earnest, as to be honest, there are few places where one can taste hundred dollar kosher bottles of wine.  As usual, the event is set up by the congenial and detail oriented Monica Agyekum, who heads up the marketing & public relations at Herzog Wine Cellars.  The drive down started without much fanfare, but things changed quickly within the last 2 or so hours.  Benyo wanted to stop off at a wine supply shop, and since we went down with the 101, we hit Paso Robles and the shop pretty quick.  The visit to the shop though was far from quick.  To be fair, I asked a bunch of questions as well, so the visit was a 50/50 time drain.  After that, we were supposed to get to the Coast Wine Services (CCWS) in Santa Maria, to meet up with some folks making Rhone Ranger style wines, mostly GSM and GS (Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre) blends.  Well no matter how hard we looked we could not find them.  After asking around it turned out that their car had broken down, and we were more than happy to lend a hand.  The only problem was that our car was already packed – NO not with clothes; this was a two-day trip for goodness sakes.  But with Benyo’s wine!  It turns out that he has many happy clients in LA, and we were shipping it to them!  Well the trunk was filled with MANY thousands of dollars of wine, and we needed to pick up these two poor guys, and all of their belongings!  AHH!!  Thank the Lord, we made it work.  However, the two guys were covered to their heads with their stuff, in the back seats.  Well, we thought that would be the totality of surprises for this leg of the trip, but not long after Oxnard, a police man pulls us over.  We are not sure for what; we were driving with the traffic.  However, once he saw the two poor guys in the back, it was game over; he kept harassing me and begging me to say something stupid.  All the while, I kept my cool, and prayed that we get out of this as well.  Once again, Baruch Hashem (Thank the Lord), he came back and told us to drive slower.  At that point all I wanted was some food and a bed to sleep on.  I was dead.  We had been driving and walking and packing for some good 10 hours or so.  We slowly got to Jeff’s Sausage, where we inhaled two dogs and fries.  We dropped off our guests, and headed over to our sleeping accommodations.

The next day started off and ended in a wonderful way, which was a huge step up from our previous 24 hours.  The day started off with a late morning, Starbucks coffee, and a short drive into Encino, CA found me meeting Craig Winchell at this nice Kosher Sushi restaurant, called Sassi Sushi Bar, for a late lunch.  Craig has been a long time friend, and is the owner of the still existing Gan Eden Winery, and also the owner of the wonderful Smokin’! Restaurant in Valley Village.  The last time we were here in LA, Benyamin Cantz and I enjoyed a meal there, and my posting of that dinner can be found here.  We met there and we both enjoyed the meal, and on the way out I bought some plain (unsweetened) rice to go, to use as a palate cleanser for the upcoming wine tasting event that we were both going to.  So many times people go to these wine tasting events and have no way to manage tasting more than some 20 or so wines, before their palate’s either die, become overrun with wine characteristics, or worse, ghost characteristics.  I first heard of this approach on Rogov’s Forum, and I have used it many times, since then.

After lunch we got into the rental car, and drove north on Highway 101 for some 38 or so miles.  Herzog Cellars winery is a fascinating story.  It started with Eugene Herzog immigrating to the US from Austria in 1948 after the war and after communism took over his winery.  He worked for a small winery in NY, and by 1958 he became the majority owner of it.  In deference to his grandfather, they called it Royal Wines, as he was given the title Baron in Austria.  By 1985, the family decided that they needed a California presence, and so they hired the famous Wine Maker Peter Stern, to build their initial footprint into the world of high end wines.  After that they moved to Santa Maria, hired the now head wine maker, Joe Hurliman, and leased space from Coast Wine Services (CWS), while all the while knowing that they needed a place that they could call home.  In the end, Joe went looking for a plot of land, that was as close to a Jewish Community as possible (for the Kosher Wine managers), and landed on Oxnard.  Not a classic place to house a winery, but one that is close to the highways to truck in the grapes and one close enough to a Jewish Community to allow for full time Jewish supervision.  The winery opened in 2005, and three years later it started hosting the now yearly International Food and Wine Festival.

As in years past, we came for both the trade and consumer parts of the festival.  The festival’s name, International Food & Wine Festival, is aptly applied, as it is a celebration of both the Tierra Sur Restaurant and the wines made and imported by the Royal Wine Company.  The trade portion is open during the early afternoon, while the public portion is open in the early evening.  Craig and I arrived for the trade portion of the event right on time.  As we approached the front of the winery, we were greeted by a pair of hostesses who took down our names and gave us name tags.  As we entered the winery, I had a case of Déjà vu.  The layout and setup was the same as the previous two incarnations.  As you enter the winery, the conference room is to the right, where Jay Buchsbaum, Vice President of Marketing and Director of Wine Education, holds his unique and eclectic wine seminars, on subjects ranging from reading a label, wine tasting, or what kosher wine is.  They are seminars that should not be missed, and on an aside, a personal note, Jay if you are reading this, I hope your leg is doing better.  To the left though was the Raison d’être of the evening – the wines and Todd’s delicious food.  As you enter the tasting room, the table with Herzog Moniker-ed glasses is to your left.  With a glass in hand, we entered the hall that is Herzog’s tasting room.  There were some 12 to 13 tables with wine on it, someone to pour the wine, and finally, a person intimate with the wines or better, the wine maker.  Past all the tables and wine bar, is the now renowned Tierra Sur Restaurant, run by the incomparable Todd Aarons, the Executive Chef of Tierra Sur.  The entire restaurant, the sitting areas, and the adjoining patio, was setup with elaborate dishes and on-the spot preparation utensils, to heat/smoke/finish any of some 20 to 30 dishes.  The layout, display and hands on preparation by the many chefs of the restaurant, only help to accentuate the evening, and gives the average consumer, an almost chef’s table view into the world of elite class dining.

As usual, the staff of Herzog Winery were out in force, and it was great to see them all again, Cellar Master Josh Goodman, and the fore mentioned Head Wine Maker, Joe Hurliman.  However, to pull off an event of this scale, you need many people.  Even if you leave aside all of the mashgichim needed to pour the wine, or all the wine makers/wine promoters who talk to the wines on the table.  What about all the spit buckets that magically are empty when you turn to use them, though you swear you just spit into one of them a few moments ago.  Or, what about all the preparation that was required to pull this off (hint hint Monica), the setup of all the tables, the shipping in of all these wines, the Herzogs that seemed to be in view whenever you took your eye off the wines or food, or the management of the human mass that seemed to almost overrun the winery, but not to the point of getting in your way.  All of this work, which is in NO way small, needs a huge round of applause.  No, I do not work for Royal, nor do I sell their wines.  What I am is a wine blogger with at least a decent eye for the not so obvious.  Some call me observant, and not only in a religious manner.  In no way was the gathering in your face, nor was it oppressive or difficult to get to wine you wanted to taste.  Instead, the event was quite impressive, well run, and in so many ways yet another step forward for this progressive kosher winery.

Last year, the event was equally impressive, but the crowds were smaller, in an almost diminutive and unfortunate manner.  More than a few of the wines were corked or DOA.  Further, sometimes, the tables were left with people who poured the wines, but knew nothing about them.  All of these issues took away from the event.  This year, all of those issues were rectified, in an impressive tour de force that truly brought the Herzog and Baron name great “nachas” and accord.  Nary a bottle was DOA this time, some may not have been so great, but none were dead because of poor shipping, lack of foresight, or poor cork/bottle management.  The crowds were robust, but as stated already, not oppressive.  The tables were manned by people passionate about the wines, and equally capable of talking to them at a drop of the hat.  Finally, the selection was impressive as well.  I asked one of the Herzog’s why many of the wines that were poured at the New York wine tasting, were not here in California?  He aptly replied that it is up to the wine makers.  If they want to come to California, then they are more than happy to help promote the wines.  However, a few of the wineries, like Alexander and Tzuba Wineries, both of which we have highlighted in previous, were no shows at the California tasting.  I hope that next year, more people will get a chance to taste some of these magnificent wines from Israel.

So without further ado, left us take a quick virtual tour around the room before, we adjourn to the restaurant, where we will give Todd his insane due.