03/28 MORGEN MCLAUGHLIN, SANTA BARBARA VINTNERS, SB VINTNERS SPRING WEEKEND, DOUG TIMEWELL, TOUCAN WINES, 27TH ANNUAL CULINARY EVENING WITH THE CALIFORNIA WINEMASTERS

MORGEN MCLAUGHLIN - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SANTA BARBARA VINTNERS - SB VINTNERS SPRING WEEKEND APRIL 21-24

SANTA BARBARA VINTNERS SPRING WEEKEND
APRIL 21 - 24, 2016

FESTIVAL  GRAND  TASTING
SATURDAY,  APRIL 23
RIVER  VIEW  PARK, BUELLTON

VINTNERS  VISA
The Vintners' Visa gives you one complimentary wine tasting at 12 different wineries throughout Santa Barbara County. The Visa lasts for the entire Spring Weekend starting on Thursday, April 21 - Sunday, April 24, 2016

VINTNERS  FESTIVAL
The Festival showcases over 100 Santa Barbara County wineries along with some of the best local food from restaurants, catering companies, and gourmet food creators in addition to music, art and related wine country vendors.

EVENT  CALENDAR
There are plenty of fun and exciting events taking place over the Spring Weekend. Check out winery open houses, special wine maker dinners or lunches, vineyard hikes, and more. Events will be added to the calendar at sbvintnersweekend.com

ABOUT SB COUNTY VINTNERS ASSOCIATION
The Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association is a non-profit organization (501c6) founded in 1983 to support and promote Santa Barbara County as a premium wine producing and wine grape growing region. The Vintners’ Association produces festivals, seminars, and wine tastings as well as providing information to consumers and the wine and travel media.

Through the Santa Barbara Vintners’ Foundation, the Association contributes to the community through local charitable, art and educational and scholarship organizations with proceeds from its various events, such as Santa Barbara Wine Auction, held every other year and benefitting Direct Relief International, and silent auctions at all the Association’s festivals.

ABOUT MORGEN MCLAUGHLIN: 
Morgen has been deeply involved in the wine and tourism industries since childhood through her family's various projects on the East Coast and Colorado.  Wanting to follow her own path outside of wine, Morgen graduated from Boston College with degrees in English and Secondary Education.  As she prepared to enroll in Graduate School, she was pulled back into the family wine business as the General Manager and eventual Co-owner of McLaughlin Vineyards.  After twelve years at the winery and diversifying the business into special events, direct to consumer initiatives and ag-tourism projects, she left to become the President and CEO of Finger Lakes Wine Country Tourism Marketing Association in Corning, New York.  Morgen led the organization and region through six and a half years of tremendous growth and national and international visibility.  Morgen lives in Santa Barbara County with her husband (a fellow wine professional) and three sons. She currently serves on the Visit Santa Barbara Board of Directors, Santa Barbara Vintners Foundation Board of Directors, Santa Barbara County Agriculture Advisory

WWW.SBCOUNTYWINES.COM 
WWW.SBVINTNERSWEEKEND.COM


DOUG TIMEWELL –WINEMAKER AND GROWER, TOUCAN WINES - 27TH ANNUAL CULINARY EVENING WITH THE CALIFORNIA WINEMASTERS

$75 off if anyone uses the promo code “CRN2016”

Toucan Wines is a tiny estate micro-winery, where we produce hand-crafted, estate grown, premium Zinfandel and Petite Sirah wines in the Arroyo Grande Valley. Our limited production of estate wines from our 3½ estate vineyardtotal less than 300 cases per year.

AWARD WINNING AND HAND CRAFTED

Small by any standard, our micro-winery is focused onquality - it’s our limited production and attention to detail that set our wines apart. Our winery and estate vineyard, located next to our family home, produces full-bodied and richly flavored wines taking full advantage of what our old-clone vines and our microclimate have to offer.

Our vines, grafted from the 1923 planting of the highly regarded Benito Dusi vineyard, thrive by producing intensely colored and flavorful fruit in our microclimate of warm-to-hot days and cool nights. We marry this fabulous fruit with both traditional and modern winemaking on ascale that makes us one of the smallest wineries and estate vineyards in California.

ABOUT THE 27TH ANNUAL CULINARY EVENING WITH THE CALIFORNIA WINEMASTERS
Saturday, May 14th, 2016 6PM
at Warner Bros., “Midwest Street”

A wine tasting extraordinaire and spectacular hors d’oeuvres dinner benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. One of WINE SPECTATOR’S “TOP TEN U.S. CHARITY WINE AUCTIONS” will be held on the “Midwest Street” backlot at Warner Bros.

The California Winemasters is a perennial Wine Spectator Top 10 Charity Wine Auction set for May 14, 2016 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.  This extraordinary event showcases 50 international chefs and 75 of California’s Finest Wineries.  “Winemasters” has raised nearly $29 million in support of the mission of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The CF Foundation is a nonprofit donor-supported organization dedicated to attacking cystic fibrosis from every angle.  It’s focus is to support the development of new drugs to fight the disease, improve the quality of life for those with CF and ultimately, to find a cure. The Foundation’s drug development success has been recognized by Harvard Business School and by publications such as Forbes, Discover Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. Make your reservations NOW for this wine tasting extraordinaire and spectacular hors d’oeuves dinner!

WWW.TOUCANWINES.COM

04/20 DOUG TIMEWELL, TOUCAN WINES, CALIFORNIA WINEMASTERS, SHARON KAZAN HARRIS, RARECAT WINES

DOUG TIMEWELL - OWNER OF TOUCAN WINES – TALKING ABOUT THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THE CALIFORNIA WINEMASTERS ON MAY 16, 2015

Toucan Wines is a tiny estate micro-winery, where we produce hand-crafted, estate grown, premium Zinfandel and Petite Sirah wines in the Arroyo Grande Valley. Our limited production of estate wines from our 3½ estate vineyard total less than 300 cases per year.

Small by any standard, our micro-winery is focused on quality - it’s our limited production and attention to detail that set our wines apart. Our winery and estate vineyard, located next to our family home, produces full-bodied and richly flavored wines taking full advantage of what our old-clone vines and our microclimate have to offer.

Our vines, grafted from the 1923 planting of the highly regarded Benito Dusi vineyard, thrive by producing intensely colored and flavorful fruit in our microclimate of warm-to-hot days and cool nights. We marry this fabulous fruit with both traditional and modern winemaking on a scale that makes us one of the smallest wineries and estate vineyards in California.

We enjoy sharing our wine making tradition and we ask that you share in our passion by trying our hand-crafted wines with food, family and friends. To read about our on-going adventure, events, and new releases - please join our newsletter list.

The new Toucan Wines Club is the best way to save on wine purchases, you pick the wines we ship, and when you want them shipped - a small volume commitment and you get our largest savings.

ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA WINEMASTERS
The California Winemasters is a perennial Wine Spectator Top 10 Charity Wine Auction set for May 16, 2015 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.  This extraordinary event showcases 50 international chefs and 75 of California’s Finest Wineries.  “Winemasters” has raised over $27 million in support of the mission of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

The CF Foundation is a nonprofit donor-supported organization dedicated to attacking cystic fibrosis from every angle.  It’s focus is to support the development of new drugs to fight the disease, improve the quality of life for those with CF and ultimately, to find a cure.

The Foundation’s drug development success has been recognized by Harvard Business School and by publications such as Forbes, Discover Magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

Make your reservations NOW for this wine tasting extraordinaire and spectacular hors d’oeuves dinner!

We would like to thank again all of the donors who make the Winemasters Main Event possible!!

WWW.TOUCANWINES.COM
CALIFORNIAWINEMASTERS.ORG


SHARON KAZAN HARRIS - FOUNDER/PROPRIETOR, RARECAT WINES

THE LOVE OF WINE BEGAN IN BORDEAUX...

It was during a junior year abroad in France where Sharon spent a year at the Universite de Bordeaux. As a student she was taken under the wing of the wife of the University’s president, which in short is how she found herself, at age 20, being taken on a personal tour of Chateau Haut Brion, producer of one of the greatest wines in the world. The tour was led by the legendary Monsieur Delmas (Senior) himself, who kindly let her taste the renowned 1982 vintage out of the barrel, followed by the 1966. That moment changed her life, and sealed her interest in wine and the Bordeaux region itself.

After hard work in publishing and technology, and several years later, in 2004 with two young children in tow, Sharon applied and was accepted to the famous DUAD program (the Diplome Universitaire d’Aptitude a la Degustation des Vins) offered through the University of Bordeaux’s Oenology department. The DUAD is an intensive year long program that takes four years of oenology and condenses it into one compacted year.

Two years later, armed with a remarkable Bordeaux experience, Sharon returned to the States and moved to Napa Valley. Although I live in the Napa Valley and was born and raised in California, my love of wine really is a shared experience between Napa and Bordeaux.  

Interested in staying at our villa in St Emilion?
WWW.WINEVILLAS.COM

ABOUT SHARON
I FELL IN LOVE WITH WINE IN BORDEAUX WHEN I WAS 20 YEARS OLD, A TIME WHEN I WAS OBSESSED WITH SPEAKING FRENCH AND LIVING ABROAD. THERE TO STUDY FRENCH, BORDEAUX BROUGHT ME SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN MY LIFE: AN APPRECIATION OF FINE FOOD AND WINE, AND A JOIE DE VIVRE ONE GETS FROM SHARING THOSE THINGS WITH FRIENDS

Most people have long lists of accolades that define their life’s successes. For me, it is quite the opposite -- my successes have been a result of fortuitous introductions, dreaming big (with the ability to make ideas happen), and a willingness to try new things. My love of food and wine directly stems from naive gumption, charm, and a desire to learn, all of which led me to my first wine experience at Haut Brion; then to living with France’s most famed cheese making family; and finally to a cooking internship under the wings of Amat, a famous 2 star chef in Bordeaux and my first fine culinary experience.

I have had the desire to be in the wine industry for decades, but getting to Napa Valley has been like taking windy back roads more than efficient toll roads. I spent many years working in executive positions in publishing (Managing Director of Miller Freedman's International Division), advertising (President of an ad agency, Transphere), and technology (VP of Sales of Inktomi, an internet search engine start-up and consultant to Visa and Estamp). Luckily very successful in business, I was able to trade computers for vineyards.

Undoubtedly the hardest thing I have accomplished is graduating with honors from the Universite de Bordeaux’s famed D.U.A.D. program, a technical oenology diploma taught in French.

I now live in Napa Valley full time, yet frequent a second home in Bordeaux, and have two great teenage boys.  I co-owned Amici Cellars, but RARECAT wines is the wine business that I have the greatest attachment to. While promoting RARECAT, my greatest passion has been empowering women through wine and supporting women in the wine industry. Several years ago I formed an exclusive trade group called Wine Entre Femmes, comprised of some of the most remarkable women in wine in Napa and Bordeaux, and have recently co-launched A Woman's Palate, a company that celebrates wines by women for women.  I am lucky; I am living my passion. 


WWW.RARECATWINES.COM