March 8, 2020

Every year on March 8, Santa Barbara's Women Winemakers & Chefs get together to celebrate International Women's Day.

This year, with International Women's Day falling on a Sunday, the celebration which typically takes place in the evening as a dinner, was instead held as a brunch at Roblar Farm.

This was my second year photographing (and third year attending) the annual Women Winemaker's & Chef's Celebration in Santa Barbara County. It's my favorite event of the year, with proceeds benefiting the Women's Fund of Northern Santa Barbara County, and I know that it is hotly anticipated by everyone in the community annually.

We are blessed here in Santa Barbara Wine Country with a higher than average percentage of women winemakers. It was armed with this knowledge that Karen Steinwachs first conceived of the idea of celebrating our women winemakers four years ago.

"I was first inspired to do this after a speech that Patricia Arquette made at the Oscars in 2015. That year, we had a tasting one night at Sonja Magdevski's Casa Dumetz tasting room in Los Alamos of as many women winemakers as I could find/note. The idea for a dinner was formulated there, and in 2016 we (quickly, crazily!) put together the first wine dinner at K'Syrah." -Karen Steinwachs

Karen was shortly joined by Brooke Stockwell, Danielle Dauphinee Thurston, and Anna Ferguson-Sparks in organizing and putting on these events annually.

The first three iterations of the event were held at K'Syrah in Solvang, but each year the event has gotten larger, with this year being the largest attendance ever at almost 200 guests. It is a true testament to the support our women winemakers & chefs have in this community that each year the event sells out, encouraging Karen, Brooke, Danielle, and Anna to expand to larger facilities.

The event opened with a reception style tasting of 29 wine labels in attendance. It was a beautiful example of the diversity Santa Barbara Wine Country has to offer; from Bevela Wine's Teroldego, to Story of Soil's Grüner Veltliner, to Say When Wine's Tempranillo, and of course, the many Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon our county is known for.

This is one of the (many) things I love about the women winemakers in our valley... that they aren't afraid to add the lesser-known varieties to their rosters, in addition to the classics we all know and love. There were even a couple of pet nats available to taste from McKenna of E11even Wine and Brit of Dreamcôte, in addition to classic rosés and méthode traditionelle sparkling wines.

After enjoying such hand-passed treats as fried chicken & waffles and quiche bites from Sass Catering during the tasting reception, guests made their way to their tables for a four-course brunch. Each course was expertly paired with two wines, again, showing the incredible range that our valley has to offer, both in wine and farm-fresh ingredients.

In all, it was another wonderful event and I'm so excited to see what the team can come up with next year!

I'll leave you all with a final quote from Karen, which I think perfectly summarizes the heart and soul of this event:

"My personal belief is that this event continues to showcase the generosity of all here - all participants (winemakers, chefs, somms) volunteer their time. The women winemakers donate all the wine and purchase a ticket. The chefs gather ingredients from their purveyors. We have awesome lady photographers chronicling this event. And we have all these guests who come out to celebrate and support all of us."

Be sure to mark your calendars now for next year's Santa Barbara Women Winemaker's & Chef's Celebration on March 8, 2021!

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