2022 World of Pinot Noir Festival
Welcome to the World of Pinot
The World of Pinot Noir Festival took place at the sunny Ritz Carlton Santa Barbara this year. March 3-5, 2022. The event was originally meant to showcase Central Coast Pinot Noir from a few winemakers from California’s San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties but has since grown to include wines from over 300 producers from mainly California and Europe. For three days, there were more than 20 different events and experiences for Pinot Noir lovers, including two “Grand Tastings “ on Friday and Saturday, wine-pairing dinners, tasting seminars, and curated luncheons.
If you imagine the crowd for an event with tickets ranging from $100-$500 is going to be mainly well-off white folx, well, you’d be right. Despite bringing folx from all over the country to the breezy shores of Santa Barbara’s Coastline- it is still a pretty homogeneous place with high prices gatekeeping BIPOC folx and younger wine-lovers from truly experiencing all the wine we have to offer. That being said, a good bottle of domestic Pinot Noir usually costs around $40, so it’s safe to say, with a $125 ticket to a grand tasting, where you would be having the opportunity to try over 600 wines from up to 200 producers, you would be getting your money’s worth.
Get Ready for California Love
Although the Event’s website claims their mission is to, “ Bring Pinot Noir producers from the most exceptional and unique regions in the world together with enthusiasts for a weekend of celebration and education on the shores of California's beautiful Central Coast.” I only saw about 2 countries represented; The United States, and France. I do think the festival is missing beautiful wines from Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland and Northern Italy.
What tasters do get to experience in the most complete tasting event I have ever experienced is the Pinot Noir from California. I was able to compare Pinot from AVA’s like; Santa Rita Hills, Santa Cruz mountains, St. Lucia Highlands, as well as our Heavy Hitters; Sonoma and Anderson Valley!
The best part of the festival is the opportunity to meet with winemakers who are producing wines “vigneron style”, meaning they have a hand in making the wines, from vine to glass. In France, a ‘vigneron’ is defined simply as someone who makes wine from cultivating the vines to pressing the grapes. In this way, a winemaker has a deep connection the land they farm and later harvest. In California, this is not often the case. Most winemakers never leave the celler, and even then- some never leave their office! I was able to meet one winemaker who truly epitomizes the meaning of the word Vingeron. Cole Thomas from Madson Wines , does literally everything from farming the grapes through bottling and trade-showing “Vigneron style” .
The World of Pinot Noir Festival was established in 2001, when I was 10 years old. I was about 22 when I first heard about this event. Back then, tickets were $100 for the Grand Tasting and there were events priced as low as $25. I remember wanting to go to the tasting so bad, but only being able to afford a single $25 event. It ended up being a Wine and Chocolate pairing with Jessica Foster Confections, who became my #1 Chocolate maker and go-to source for the most delicious truffles in Santa Barbara.
Today, I was granted access to the event by my editor and fellowship mentor Matt Kettman ( The SB Independent) and honestly, It feels sort of surreal. I still can’t believe I actually got in! I remember looking at these tickets wishing I could attend… and now here I am covering it just so that I can write about it. Special Thank you to all the producers who poured their wines and shared their stories.
Special thanks to @mattkettmann for putting me on 🙌🏾💯 and to the Ritz-Carlton Bacara culinary team for providing the fresh, local and seasonal wine country bites 🤓🍷 Also, as an aside: Coincidentally, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) with tickets starting at $15 happening at the same time in Downtown SB is way more colorful and diverse and just as exciting! My recommendation: Bring your own Pinot!
