Two wonderful wine-and-food festivals will take place in mid-April: The first is the Earth Day Food & Wine Festival, which supports farmers who grow grapes and/or produce wine in ways that nurture a healthy environment. The other important event is the Cal Poly Wine Festival Weekend, which supports nearly 280 Wine and Viticulture majors who will become future winemakers and vineyard managers. Cal Poly now has the largest Wine and Viticulture program in the United States, but I’d bet many wine lovers thought U.C. Davis is larger.
The Earth Day Food and Wine Festival, celebrating environmentally conscious farming, is in only its fourth year but has been greatly expanded. Last year, the event planners asked festival attendees what they wanted to see added to the one-day affair and the majority clamored, “More events.” Now they’re offering three days of cooking demonstrations, vineyard tours, and barrel tastings besides the main tasting event with live music at the Santa Margarita Ranch.
“This year the event is almost one to one, wine and food; we have over 200 purveyors of sustainably produced food and wine,” explained Kris O’Connor, Executive Director of the Central Coast Vineyard Team, who created the Earth Day celebration dedicated to green farmers. “This is not your carrot sticks and ranch-dressing food. It’s serious food from people like chef Chris Kobayashi of Artisan who will be cooking with Bill and Barbara Spencer’s produce grown at their Windrose Farm. “This event’s minimal footprint is impressive: last year there were only two garbage bags, everything else was recycled or composted. “This year we’re pushing so there’s only one bag!”
I spoke with John C. Peterson, Cal Poly’s Director of the Wine and Viticulture Program, and Department Head and Professor of the Horticulture and Crop Science Department, about the Cal Poly event. “The wine festival is really a wonderful component of the education of our students. It’s part of our “Learn by Doing” program where students get involved; they are 90-percent responsible for making this event happen. It gives them management skills at a major event, and the opportunity to get the experience of working together in a team environment,” Peterson noted. Wineries from Napa Valley and Sonoma, most of them Cal Poly alumnus, attend the event annually. “It’s an opportunity for students to interface and interact with winemakers from the Central Coast as well as other significant wine regions in California. The students also get the experience of tasting really good wines—and those that aren’t,” he chuckled.
Peterson leads a project to design a new “Wine & Vit Education Center” as part of the Horticulture and Crop Science Department. Twenty years ago at Cal Poly, students studying viticulture and winemaking attended interdepartmental programs. Now, he is working with the faculty, staff, students, and the wine industry to develop this new facility that will bring these departments together:
“The students went to the Horticulture and Crop Science Department who are the vineyard experts; then they went to the Food Science and Nutrition Department for the wine experts; and to Agriculture Business for the wine business experts. Now they’ll have a collaborative faculty from three different departments at the new facility, which will be the hub for all three departments,” Peterson explained. The Cal Poly Wine Festival not only funds the students’ Vines to Wines Club, but the major education system at large.
These celebrations provide great entertainment, and fabulous food and wines. All you have to do is enjoy yourself.
You can reach New Times’ Cuisine columnist at khardesty@newtimesslo.com
This article appears in Mar 25 – Apr 1, 2010.
