Venteux Industry Party!

So my brother the schoolteacher made the astute point that my blog should have more educational info mixed in along with the stories of my personal life as well as the parties. Now I completely agree with that - he's absolutely right. Part of the reason I've been light on the educational part is because I just started a new job, I've been short on time, etc. etc. So though I have a few educational blogs that I have in my back pocket (including the one on the new women winemakers of California website - coming soon!) tonight I throw all caution to the wine and say, "No educational blogs allowed! We're focusing on the Venteux industry party because, well, it was one heck of a party!"

The folks @ Venteux are always known for throwing really great industry parties. Now it's the first industry party of theirs that I've been too, and it definitely did not disappoint. They were even advertising this party on the radio, inviting industry folks to come - & boy, did they ever! There were tons of people there and it was so great being able to check up with so many people that I knew.

First off, Boyfriend & I were greeted by Jenny, who helped us the first time we ever tasted at Venteux. Great news for her: she's now the tasting room manager. Yay! Congrats, Jenny! I'm so happy for you :) Here is Jenny (pictured right) with Tawney, who was Jenny's sidekick for the night. Aren't the ladies gorgeous?

Then we meandered into the new tasting room which is located in a large old barn on the Venteux property. Of course, who else was there but my buddy, Bobby Fox. Of course I yelled out, "Bobby Fox!" as it's just too cool of a name. I mean really, how can you ever forget that name?  He usually yells back, "Sarah Jessica!" which I'll happily take on :)  

So here's a photo of Bobby with his buddy Glenn, pictured behind the bar, pouring for all of us crazy industry folks. Now I'm getting a little bored of people just smiling for a photo (Stormy: you ruined me with all of you crazy antics in pictures!) so I was trying to get the guys to do something crazy. This is the best they could do - with Glenn snuggling up to Mr. Bobby Fox. Quite darling, boys :) (Bobby on left, Glenn on the right)

After a little wine, Boyfriend got into the long ass food line to get us some food. Literally, the line must have lasted a couple blocks! Lucky me got to be the social butterfly until the last second, when I cut into the line with Boyfriend to get my food. (Yes, I'm one of the horribly annoying people....) But here's a close up of the buffet line:

And here's a photo of my dear friend Laura who works at Clayhouse Wines in Paso. She's serving up some of the amazing mac & cheese that I heard was zero fat and extremely low calorie.

So we sat down to eat our food and listened to the great music - though man, it was loud! But that's OK as everyone loved it. What always makes the headlines of the Venteux industry party is that the band plays their music off the back of an old pick-up truck. Here's a glimpse of the set up:

While we were hanging out enjoying the evening, I was lucky enough to run into two of my old buddies from Cypher Winery: Mike & T. Yes, his name is really T. Well, I should mention, short for Tajin. They were hanging out with one of my new buddies, Shannon, the winemaker for Rangeland Wines. You'll definitely be hearing more about her in the next blog post which will focus on women winemakers.

But again, I needed a cool photo of the group, and this is what Mt. T came up with:

So now we're tired and heading out of the party, only to run into my dear boss man, Seth, from Halter Ranch. He showed up on the later side with his girlfriend Zina, who looked like a gorgeous Greek Goddess! They had been celebrating Evan's birthday - Evan works at Brochelle winery where they were also holding an industry party last night. So on my way out the door, I told then I needed a crazy shot - smiling wasn't good enough! And here's what my dear Zina came up with on the fly:

Woo hoo guys! I just love this shot :)

A big thanks to Jenny & everyone @ Venteux for holding such a grand industry party. I just want to say how kind that is of you guys and how much we all appreciated it. You're the best!

Venteux Winery

1795 Las Tablas Road Templeton, CA

805.369.0127

http://www.venteuxvineyards.com/