Women Winemakers Celebration Sells Out for March Event at New Mattei’s Tavern, Auberge Resorts Collection

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The sixth annual “Women Winemakers Celebration: A Toast to Women in Wine and Food” will showcase 30 of Santa Barbara County’s female winemakers, and more than a dozen chefs, bakers and other food crafters.

Tickets for the event sold out Feb. 22, according to Anna Ferguson-Sparks, a publicist for the event with its co-founder, winemaker Karen Steinwachs.

This year, the fundraising event will benefit The Rainbow House, the first LGBTQIA+ community resource center in the Santa Ynez Valley, and will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the newly opened Mattei’s Tavern, Auberge Resorts Collection, the historic property along Highway 154 in Los Olivos.

“When we launched this celebration in 2017, we never imagined that it would gain ground in the manner that it has. The support that our community displays to our women winemakers through this event is greatly appreciated and so very important,” Steinwachs said.

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“Knowing that we’re all in this together and being able to, in turn, show that support to other causes in the region is what makes this event so pertinent.” 

This year’s celebration attracted more winemakers than any past event — “we have more than 30 ladies pouring on March 12,” she noted.

Returning with her sparkling wine label, Loubud Wines, winemaker Laura Roach said she’s “extremely honored” to participate in the event.

“I am so thankful to have landed in such a supportive and creative winemaking community,” she said, “and am excited to represent our high-quality wine region on Women’s Day.”

2022 Women Winemakers Celebration
Some of the winemakers and chefs from the 2022 Women Winemakers Celebration. Chef Brooke Stockwell, front row, third from left, will once again organize this year’s culinary talent.  Courtesy photo

The International Women’s Day — on March 8 this year — has been celebrated worldwide since 1909 and focuses on working women’s achievements and issues. While about 10% of the global wine industry has female lead winemakers, Santa Barbara County boasts a much higher percentage of women winemakers than other regions in the world — with nearly double the average and growing each year, as is evidenced by this year’s roster.

Brit Zotovich, owner/winemaker of Dreamcôte Wine Co., said she enjoys being “part of something so good-natured — it’s electric standing alongside so many other amazing, inspiring winemakers. Getting around to try at least one killer wine from each of the (participants’) tables is one of my favorite parts of the event.”

Zotovich lauded Steinwachs for her efforts: “It needs to be said that Karen has put this event together for the past six years — she created a beautiful event that raises money for great causes and really brings a beautiful sense of community. Karen has been a winemaker for 23 years; she’s an inspiration to me and many others in the community.”

Among the winemakers pouring are Steinwachs, Seagrape Wine Co.; Lane Tanner, Lumen Wines; Kathy Joseph, Fiddlehead Cellars; Brooke Carhartt, Carhartt Family Wines; Zotovich, Dreamcôte Wine Co.; Sonja Magdevski, Casa Dumetz Wines, Clementine Carter, The Feminist Party; Alecia Moore, Two Wolves Wine; Alison Thomson, Lepiane Wines; Mireia Taribó & Tara Gomez, Camins 2 Dreams; Sandra Newman, Cebada Wine; Gretchen Voelcker, Piazza Family Wines and Luna Hart Wines; Roach, Loubud Wines; Dana Volk, Dana V. Wines; Jessica Gasca, Story of Soil; Angela Osborne, A Tribute To Grace Wine Company; Wynne Solomon, Peake Ranch Winery; Rachel DeAscentiis, Say When Wine; Samra Morris, Alma Rosa Winery; Alice Anderson, âmevive; Magan Eng, Kunin Wines; Megan McGrath Gates, Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards; Kristin Bryden, Zaca Mesa Winery; Amy Christine, Holus Bolus & The Joy Fantastic; Gretchen Rogers, Amiga de la Vina; Emmy Fjerstad, Forsu Wine Company; Claire Wilson, Provignage; Sunny Doench Stricker, Future Perfect Wine; Allyson Bycraft, Babcock Winery & Vineyards; Marlen Porter, Amplify Wines; Roxie Ward, Butternut Wines (Miller Family Wine Company); Anna Clifford, Cambria Wines, Nielson Wines, Final Girl Wines; and Jill DelaRiva Russell, Cambria Winery.

Culinary talent for this year’s event will be organized by Brooke Stockwell, executive chef at Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café, and among those participating will be Rhoda Magbitang, executive chef, The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern; Erica Velazquez, co-chef/co-owner of Solvang’s Ramen Kotori; Golzar Barrera, owner of Santa Ynez Valley’s All Purpose Flower; Janelle Norman, owner and cheese monger at Solvang’s Cailloux Cheese Shop; Sarah Price, owner/operator of Lompoc-based Sassafras Mobile Food Truck and Restaurant; Melissa Scrymgeour, chef/co-owner, Clean Slate Wine Bar; Laura Newman, co-owner of Los Olivos’ Lefty’s Coffee Co.; Kimberly Zimmerman, owner, The Juicy Life; Lisa Thompson, chef at Global Gardens; Tracy Fleming, owner/baker, The Bakery Farmstand; Shanté Norwood, owner/baker at Té’Stees Cupcakes; and treats- and truffle-maker Jessica Foster of Jessica Foster Confections.

Foodie donations will be made by Theo Stephan, owner of Global Gardens, and Shawnda Marmorstein, owner of the Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café and Café Farm.

The event is sponsored in part by Visit the Santa Ynez Valley and The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, Auberge Resorts Collection.

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By Laurie Jervis, Noozhawk Columnist

Women who brunch: Santa Barbara County’s women winemakers, chefs ready to serve

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Behind every great man is a great woman. And behind every great woman winemaker, is a great female culinary crafter.

On International Women’s Day, Sunday, March 8, nearly 200 women and men will gather to toast Santa Barbara County’s women winemakers, and the lady chefs, bakers and other food creators who make the annual Women Winemakers Celebration a delicious success.

Now in its fourth year, the food and wine celebration which will for the first time take place at Roblar Farm in Santa Ynez, has also become an inaugural brunchtime event where a host of female culinary talent will pair their edible wares with the fruits of their winemaking colleagues’ labor.

Guests have two ticketing options: a tasting reception-only ticket, to include some serious appetizers, or the “Full Feast” ticket which includes both the tasting reception and a seated, four-course brunch, at which the women winemakers will join attendees under the arbor, in the middle of Roblar’s working farm.

The hearty pre-brunch nibbles menu will feature Santa Ynez Valley-style “chicken and waffles,” done up with a blood orange Sriracha glaze, orchestrated by the ladies from Buellton’s Pattibakes and Sass Catering. The duo will also offer blini skewers with Nutella and farm-fresh strawberries.

A handful of additional passed appetizers will be served, including beet-pickled Deviled Eggs with smoked trout, all circling a stationary appetizer spread to include braided challah from Leyla Williams of Solvang’s Good Seed Coffee Boutique. Williams will also feature her fanciful Yemenite Kubana bread with smoked and aged, clarified fenugreek butter. Theo Stephan, owner of Los Olivos’ Global Gardens will join the party with patatas bravas, accented by her orange olive oil and smoked paprika.

Event guests who also opt for the seated brunch will encounter four courses of spring-hinting, mid-day cuisine, each paired with two different wines. Pouring during the brunch portion of the event, will be Clarissa Nagy, C. Nagy Wines; Brooke Carhartt, Carhartt Vineyard and Winery; Sandra Newman, Cebada Wine; McKenna Giardine, E11even Wines; Gretchen Voelcker, Luna Hart Wines; Jessica Gasca, Story of Soil; Wynne Solomon, Peake Ranch Winery; and Karen Steinwachs, Buttonwood Farm Winery & Vineyard.

The foodie line-up for the brunch, coordinated by executive chef of Gleason Family Vineyards Brooke Stockwell, will start with a course by The Lucky Hen Larder’s Cynthia Miranda and Alicia Valencia. The chef pair’s version of ham and eggs entails air-dried ham and free-range egg gribiche, among other components like black kale and local, pickled vegetables. Chef Robin Reynolds, of the Santa Ynez Valley’s Dunn School, will offer a basted egg dish for course number “two”, with fennel butter, gruyere, and levain from baker Amy Dixon of The Baker’s Table.

Course “three” takes a decidedly exotic departure, in Persian oxtail stew with chickpeas, potatoes and Persian flatbread, à la chef Golzar Barrera’s All Purpose Flower. Chef Brooke follows with course “four”, bacon-wrapped pork belly balanced by a blackberry-thyme gastrique and pea tendrils, straight from the surrounding farm.

Seasonal sweets will be represented in the form of two desserts: Meyer lemon cream puffs from Lompoc’s Sweet Baking Co. – which will also provide a more savory appetizer during the wine tasting reception – and heirloom carrot cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, a sentimental pastry option by Chef Brooke, who added with a wink, “In these California wine country parts, behind every great woman chef is a great free-range egg gribiche.”

The celebration runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 8, at Roblar Farm in Santa Ynez. Tickets are on sale at womenwinemakers2020.eventbrite.com. Proceeds from the charitable event will benefit the Women’s Fund of Northern Santa Barbara County.

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By Anna Ferguson-Sparks, Santa Ynez Valley News

Women winemakers of Santa Barbara County celebrate International Women’s Day

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It is not uncommon for Jessica Gasca to pour a glass of the wine she makes at an event and hear the question, “Who is the winemaker?”

“The answer is, ‘I’m the winemaker,’” she told me at the Women Winemaker’s Dinner on March 8. “And it’s interesting to see the expression change.”

Gasca, winemaker and owner of Story of Soil winery, was one of more than a dozen women winemakers who gathered on International Women’s Day in Solvang for a unique event honoring local women and their wines. The celebration was held at K’Syrah Catering and featured an eight-course meal prepared by Chef Pink DeLongpré of Bacon and Brine and Chef Brooke Stockwell from the 1880 Union Hotel. Proceeds from the event went to the Women’s Fund of Northern Santa Barbara, which funds organizations that provide educational, health, and other services to women and children.

Like many of the women pouring that night, Gasca is used to the surprised looks. In a traditionally male-dominated industry, Santa Barbara County has seen an explosion in the number of women taking charge as winemakers and owners at successful wineries throughout the region.

Gasca began making wines in 2012, after a career change and love of wine brought her to Santa Barbara County.

“We have great camaraderie here and we have a lot of support, not just from other women but from the men who are winemakers as well,” she said. “I think we’re very fortunate to be in a community where we have so many female winemakers.”

Denise Shurtleff, winemaker at Cambria Winery, said she too knows what it’s like to catch unsuspecting parties off guard with her knowledge and expertise in wine.

“I don’t come to work every day and think, ‘I’m a woman,’” Shurtleff said. “I don’t think twice about it. At the same time, every so often, I’ll meet somebody and tell them what I do. And they’ll say ‘Oh, you work in the tasting room?’ I tell them I work in production. They say, ‘Well, what do you really do? Who makes final decision?’”

Along with Cambria and Story of Soil, other winemakers featured in course pairings at the event included Bevela, Buttonwood, Casa Dumetz, Cebada, Dreamcote, Fiddlehead Cellars, Harrison Clarke, Kitá, La Montagne, Lepiane, Lumen, Nagy, Rideau, Rusack, Sanford, Terravant, and William James Cellars. If you skipped cardio this week, just try memorizing and saying all those winery names to make up for it.

Kathy Joseph, proprietor and winemaker at Fiddlehead Cellars, poured her 2014 gruner veltliner, an Austrian white wine, to accompany the first course of cheese plates.

“I’m here with my comrades in crime,” said Joseph. “We make our mark in the world of wine, and we’ve all come together with the wines we spend a lot of energy creating to make something special.”

She said the night was about commemorating the diversity of winemaking in the region and coming together as one united front.

“We celebrate each other’s successes,” Joseph said. “We put to bed any marketing competition and come together in celebration of the energy it takes to make great wine.”

While women and their groundbreaking achievements were a focus of the event, it was the food and wine they created that everyone was eager to sample. And they certainly didn’t disappoint.

Women winemakers of Santa Barbara County celebrate International Women's Day

PHOTO BY REBECCA ROSE 

INTIMATE GATHERING: K’Syrah Catering and Events hosted the Women Winemakers Dinner, a celebration of camaraderie among the female winemakers in Santa Barbara County. 

Hors d’oeuvres served on the patio included smoked salmon and goat cheese with pickled cucumber on a house-made potato chip and a surprise offering of sea snail, served with chanterelle mushrooms. Sea snail is a bold choice for an appetizer, and dressed in garlic butter, it was almost enough to make me almost forget my (probably irrational) loathing of mushrooms. As the party moved inside, diners were offered a delicately fresh and refreshing salad for third course.

But it was the fourth course that stood out as the grand dame of the evening. A brilliantly refined soup of smoked pear and celery root, served with a carrot top pistou and a small portion of crisped Gouda cheese. It was the perfect balance of flavors in one restrained dish. Had I not been surrounded by some of the most influential and successful women in the local food industry, I might have just licked the bowl clean. (Come to think of it, they probably would have applauded my show of hedonism.)

A play on potato latkes for the fifth course included an uni butter, made from local sea urchin. Sixth course was an unusual plating of smoked pork cheeks braised in bonito and served with collard greens and crunchy sticky rice. Taken as one fully composed bite, the dish unlocked something magical, the perfect combination of sweet, salty, and spicy with an eccentric diversity of texture.

Aside from the soup, the other major highlight was an oxtail croquette, served as part of a beef trio for the seventh course. Oxtail, when cooked properly, is one of the most delicious, unctuous dishes on the planet and a favorite of mine. This dish was no different, and the decision to serve it to a large group after a lengthy progression in courses was smart, especially when paired with a beef tartare.

There were more than 30 different wines from the many winemakers who took part, with as many as four different pairings with each course. If that seems like a challenge, we fine women were up for it. I tasted and lovingly surveyed as many as I could without completely losing my senses. Story of Soil’s Larner Vineyard syrah with the pork cheeks was one of my favorite pairings of the night, along with Cambria’s 2015 viognier and that legendary smoked pear and celery root soup.

Chef Pink, who thanked diners after the last course, said the timing of the event was important and necessary due to the political climate.

“Everyone is feeling repressed, scared, and anxious,” she said. “Women have always been the first people to band together whenever there is something that needs to be done, to make sure everyone is fine in community.”

“These are strong women, phenomenal women, entrepreneurial women,” said Gasca, who plans to open her own tasting room soon. “To be considered to pour my wines among these passionate winemakers is very humbling to me.”

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By Rebecca Rose, Santa Maria Sun