California Wine Festival, Southern California’s premier wine festival event producer, announces its return to Chase Palm Park for two days of coastal tasting events on Friday, July 15 and Saturday, July 16. Guests will be able to sample tastings from winemaking regions across California, paired with gourmet appetizers from many of Santa Barbara’s top restaurants while experiencing lifestyle exhibitors, live entertainment and breathtaking seaside vistas.
Overlooking the glimmering Pacific Ocean at Chase Palm Park’s charming Carousel House, Friday evening kicks off with a Sunset Rare & Reserve Tasting, a curated experience for wine connoisseurs. A sparkling wine reception begins the evening of sampling rare and vintage reserve wines and offers tasting room exclusives and limited-production wines hailing from vineyards based in California’s most venerable wine producing regions. Six to eight of Santa Barbara County’s top Pinot Noir selections will be featured. Delicious hot and cold appetizers will pair with the world-class wines.

Throughout Friday evening, guests will have the ability to participate in a silent auction, bidding on highly-sought after items such as exotic wines, tasting tours and dining certificates. Proceeds from this auction will benefit The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, whose mission is to end hunger, increase food security and transform the health of Santa Barbara County residents through good nutrition for all.

“It’s been nearly two decades since we founded California Wine Festival, and it’s great to be back again where it all started,” says Emily Kaufmann, Executive Director, California Wine Festival. “Allowing guests to sample world-renowned wines from wineries that they haven’t discovered is our specialty.”

The ultimate wine tasting experience continues with a Beachside Wine Festival taking place at the oceanside section of Chase Palm Park on Saturday, July 16th. The sun-splashed afternoon event will advance culinary education and exploration through one-on-one conversations and tastings with culinary and wine talent hailing from California’s illustrious wineries and local restaurants. Attendees will have access to hundreds of premium California wines and regional craft brews. Exquisite wines can be paired with artisanal cheeses, breads, olive oil, fresh-cut fruit, shellfish, salads, decadent chocolate, cakes and more.

The VIP Pavilion presented by HexClad will feature six serving stations showcasing cooking demos and food samples for VIP guests. Serving stations will include demos by Chef David Schoen of Knife & Grill, Rice Browns, Chocolate Marshmallow Pizza Co. and Selfie Cork; Domenico’s Foods x The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills; Chef Miguel McDaniel of Seattle-style chicken purveyor, Shine 76; Chef Kim Alter of Nightbird Restaurant; Caroline D’Amore a.k.a. Pizza Girl; and Aquamar Seafood. The VIP Pavilion will also boast a selection of reserve-level wines as well as craft brews.

Unique to Santa Barbara’s festival is the “Best Tri-Tip in the 805” BBQ competition where all guests can vote for top contender. Guests will be able to taste mouth-watering tri-tip steak samples by talented chefs from top local restaurants. Yesica Arredondo, Executive Chef at Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort will be bringing her Texas roots to the competition. Other restaurant contenders will include: The Shift Food Truck & Catering, Solvang Brewing Company, Santa Barbara WoodFire Catering, Convivo, Beans BBQ and Catering and Lucky Sevens BBQ. Traeger is the official sponsor of this competition.

The swanky festival shines a light on rare and reserve vintages, as well as popular samples from California’s best vineyards based in Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, Temecula and beyond. Notable wineries attending include: Adobe Road Winery, Animo by Michael Mondavi Family, Austin Hope Winery, Bernardus Winery, Bonny Doon Vineyard, Brick Barn Wine Estate, Carol Shelton Wines, Cuvaison, Goldschmidt Vineyards, Heavens Hill Estate, J. Wilkes Wines, Kobler Estate Winery, Michael Pozzan Winery, Miner Family Wines, Navarro Vineyards, New Zealand Wine Navigator, Rescue Dog Wines, Rombauer Vineyards, Russian River Vineyards, Smith Story Wine Cellars and Wilson Creek Winery.

In addition to the exquisite wineries featured, representatives from craft breweries will also be present including Golden Road Brewing, M.Special Brewing Company and Rincon Brewery. The event will also boast hard kombucha purveyors including Boochcraft and Flying Embers.

Live entertainment will provide the perfect soundtrack and vibes to a relaxing weekend enjoying expansive California views. Friday’s Sunset Rare & Reserve Tasting will feature live entertainment from AJ Oliviera, a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter that has performed at some of the most prestigious venues in L.A. and Las Vegas. Saturday’s Beachside Wine Festival will feature Upstream, SoCal’s premier live reggae, calypso, soca and steel drum band.

Shopify is the “Official Title Sponsor”. Icelandic Glacial returns as “Official Water Sponsor”, The Tate Group - UBS Financial Services is the “Event Bag Sponsor”, Lloyd Cellars is the “Official Stage Sponsor” and The Point Market is the “Official Glass Sponsor”. Further sponsors will include Leaf Filter, Pacific Premier Bank, Celebrity Cruises, Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort, Underground Cellars and Ruff N Tuff Turf.

Select sponsors will be hosting interactive activations which guests will be able to partake in during the Beachside Wine Festival. “Official Auto Sponsor”, Toyota will offer guests the ability to learn about the new 2022 Toyota Mirai while creating their very own DIY sustainability kit as well as laser engraving a pretzel to enjoy at the event. Guests can also stop by the Celebrity Cruises booth to sample Jackson Family Wines and discover new destinations and itineraries that they can explore, as well as enter to win an Alaska cruise for two.

California Wine Festival is a 21+ event.
Tickets are available for pre-sale.
For more information, visit CaliforniaWineFestival.com.