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SFWC Fiesta Helps Cooking with Kids
February 20, 2011The Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta presented a check for $20,000 to Cooking With Kids in Santa Fe on Tuesday February 10th.
Proceeds from the annual Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta Auction help fund programs such as Cooking with Kids. The check was presented by SFWC President Tom Kerpon (chef of Rio Chama) and SFWC Fiesta Executive Director, Greg O’Byrne. For information on Cooking with Kids see the Santa Fe New Mexican.
50 Years of Bordeaux
February 17, 2011From the very good 2001 Bordeaux vintage, last night I enjoyed a Chateau Montrose from Bordeaux. 
The wine was in perfect form, exhibiting scrumptious red fruits, compelling notes of tobacco leaf and cedar, smooth tannins and a long satisfying finish — all markers worthy of Chateau Montrose’s second growth status of the 1855 Bordeaux Classification, a ranking of the top 61 Chateau into 5 levels of quality. I paid $40 a bottle for the 2001 Montrose seven years ago, a great bargain considering the quality of the wine. Robert Parker rates it 91 points on his 100-point scale.
Bordeaux is one of the very few regions that price their wines differently every year, and they do so not only prior to release but based on critic’s ratings. The most influential critic is Robert Parker who annually tastes a vintage in barrel (“en primeur”) the spring following harvest, rating the vintage and the wines two years before they are released. Almost all of the 61 Chateaux rated in the 1855 Classification wait until Parker’s scores before announcing their price of their wine from a new vintage.
The 2009 Montrose, which you can buy on futures (pay now, get two years from now), sells for $225 was rated 96-100 points by Robert Parker on his now-ubiquitous 100-point scale. The same wine from Chateau Montrose from the acclaimed 2005 and 2000 vintages sells for $169 (RP 95) and $225 (RP 95+) respectively. Every few years or so, Bordeaux has a “vintage of the century,” a vintage that the press fawns over before release, pumping up the hype and resulting in collectors lining up to pay a premium – a phenomenon well-documented with these the three vintages of 2000, 2005 and 2009. Even with struggling economies, prices have continued to escalate.
Though I will happily drink wines from the most acclaimed vintages when offered, I prefer buying and keeping wines from the shoulder vintages. On the heals of the much-ballyhooed 2000 Bordeaux vintage, 2001 suffered in it’s shadow. Yet, the 2001 Bordeaux wines are very fine indeed, representing excellent value in comparison. The same is true for the very good 2004 Bordeaux wines in comparison to 2005 and the 2008s in comparison to the 2009s. Are wines from the acclaimed, no-doubt excellent, vintages worth three to six times the price for the same wines from the very good vintages that precede or follow? Not for my pocket book, which I recently opened for six 2004 Montrose (RP 91) at $49 a bottle.
Sometimes a shoulder vintage is the better vintage in quality as well as price. The 1995 vintage in Bordeaux was very hyped, largely due to the fact that it was the first decent vintage in the region since 1990, the vintage of the 90s. On it’s heals, the 1996 wines were at least the equal or better than 1995s, but since it was hard for the press and the Bordeaux producers to hype the 1996s after hyping the 1995s so high, the 96s have represented better value over time. The same happened with the truly excellent 1990s that today show better, and are slightly less expensive than the very sought-after 1989s, the best vintage alongside 1982 from the 80s.
Which phenomenon will hold true with 2010? Early reports say 2010 is a vintage as good or better than 2009. Will the 2010s sell for less and represent better value than 2009? Or can the Bordelais get yet even higher prices for the 2010s after convincing consumers to pony up for the 2009s at unprecedented levels? It didn’t seem possible they could get more for the 2009s than they did for the 2005s, but they did.
Indeed, even after calling 2009 a five-star vintage following his en primeur tasting in the spring of 2010, Robert Parker cautioned it would be impossible for Bordeaux to price their 2009s higher than they did their 2005s, but with his glowing reviews, overprice they did and most markets responded affirmatively by buying into the hype. Could it be possible that the reviews of the 2010s will match those of the 2009s and the prices will equal or exceed the previous year’s all-time high? The next few months will tell.
While prices for current releases from Bordeaux continue to excel, wines from older, equally good vintages start to look like relative “bargains” given that they have been stored properly and are ready to drink. 2009, 2005 and 2000 have their equal in rating and quality in 1990, 1989, 1982, 1961 and 1959. Together these are the eight greatest (five-star) vintages of the past 50 years.
Wine-Searcher.com shows average price of Chateau Montrose from 1990 selling for $647 (RP 100), 1989 for $330 (RP 96), 1982 for $243 (RP 92), 1961 for $618 (RP 95) and 1959 for $982 (RP 95).
While there are eight five-star vintages from the past 50 years in Bordeaux, four-star vintages would be 2004, 2001, 1996, 1995, 1988, 1986, 1985, 1966, 1964, 1962 and perhaps 1970 (that lousy decade needs at least one recommendation). Three-star vintages are 2006, 2003, 2002, 1999, 1997, 1983, 1978, 1975 and 1971. The rest would be two to one-star — best to avoid unless you are being complimentary to your host.
Perhaps my favorite vintage of Bordeaux (and Burgundy) is from my birth year, 1959. Since the time of their release, the 1961 Bordeaux have been loudly trumpeted as the best ever. Yet, recently in side-by-side comparisons, 1959s have shown better longevity and garner greater reviews then the same wines from 1961. I recall my epiphany wine was a 1959 Montrose, a wine that I paid $100 for twenty years ago (a small fortune at the time), cellared for 10 years and then drank with a small group of friends on my 40th birthday. It was a profound wine, very compelling and on point that night. An eye-opener, it was my first experience of a wine so old tasting so complex, vibrant and youthful.
While one can pay $225 now for 2009 Montrose and receive the wine in another year, I will keep my eye on Costco’s every-revolving bins and be prepared to pounce on the 2008 Montrose (RP 95-97) for $75.
2008 Oregon Pinot Noir
November 10, 2010For lovers of pinot noir, the 2008 vintage from Willamette Valley presents an opportunity to enjoy the best wines from the region’s forty-year history. My annual visit to Willamette Valley this past July while attending the International Pinot Noir Celebration allowed me to taste quite a few 2008 Pinot Noirs and talk with the winemakers. None of the producers I talked to could name a better vintage.
IPNC 2010 Luncheon
My own tasting notes the past few months from the early releases define the 2008 Willamette pinots as a hypothetical blend of the ripeness and power of the 2006 pinots with the clarity and finesses of the 2007 wines. Benefiting from lower alcohols than the 2006s, combined with 2007s brighter acids, the 2008s I have tasted show sappy and upfront red and black fruits framed with juicy acids resulting in wines of impeccable balance and ageability.
David Millman, General Manager at Domaine Drouhin Oregon, said “2008 is a benchmark year for Oregon Pinot Noir, the kind of year that generates a lot of excitement. Best of all, the wines are classic Oregon, with beautiful fruit, earthiness, lower alcohols, good acidity and great ageing potential.” Domaine Drouhin’s less expensive Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2008 is available right now and is a wonderful expression of the dusty red cherries flavors found in their Dundee Hills vineyard. With anticipation, I wait for their barrel selection, the Laurene, to be released from the 2008 vintage.
One of my best-loved producers, Doug and Melissa Tunnel of Brick House, have sold out of all four of their 2008 Pinots. Unlike many others, Brick House releases their wines early. Most 2008s are about to be released now or in the coming months. Always transparent with elegant precision, Brick House wines represent their vintage extremely well. Worth the search, Brick House Boulder Block Pinot Noir 2008 is still available at local retailers and some of Santa Fe’s finer restaurants.
One of my favorite visits each year is with Michael Etzel of Beaux Freres. He said, “Everyone seems to be interested in Oregon’s 2008 vintage. The Spectator is rumored to have given it a 100-point vintage in the next
edition.” While Etzel said 2008 is old news, he did with my urging “clear the cobwebs of [his] mind” and tell me “It all began with the growing season of 2008. The flowering was just right. Not too good and not too loose. Guessing, about a 50 to 60 percent success in the flowering. Which produces nice small clusters that are loose enough to allow berry expansion. Finished cluster weights were 85 grams, unlike 2007 with cluster weights of 135 or so.” Looser clusters allow for even ripening of all grapes.
Etzel went on to give kudos to the growing season, saying it “was moderate, not too much heat, rain or cool days. This permitted the grapes to get fully ripe seeds stems and the skin of the grape. The week of September 1st, we had rain all weekend. Then the warm fall season began. The rain was just enough to give the plants that shot in the arm to carry on the ripening process. We began picking young vines on Wednesday September 29th. Everything was picked by October 18th. Ferments were native and behaved very well. They aged well and now two years later they are showing what a good childhood will do for later development.”
Beaux Freres produces three Pinot Noirs each year – their entry level Willamette Valley, their estate Beaux Freres Vineyard and the Uppper Terrace Pinot noir. I buy four bottles of each from every vintage. Just the other night, while celebrating the second anniversary of Vinaigrette Restaurant with Philip de Give and John Grimm of Bacchus Wine & Spirits, we popped a 1999 Beaux Freres Vineyard Pinot Noir and we found it ageing extremely well, showing complexity from bottle age but still maintaining lovely primary fruit.
In summary, the 2008 Willamette Valley growing season was nearly perfect from bud break to harvest, with an even growing season in between and a protracted, rain-free September and October. Daytime temperatures during the fall were typically warm and nighttime temperatures often dropped into the 40s, which helped the grapes retain their natural acidity without a jump in sugars. This later-than-normal harvest allowed growers to bring in grapes at optimal ripeness.
Other producers available in our market that I have my eye on, waiting for their 2008 Pinot releases are Adelsheim, Cristom, Elk Cove and Ponzi. Having gone through all my 1994s, most my 1999s and half of my 2002 pinot noirs from my favorite producers in Willamette, the release of the marvelous 2008s will allow me to purchase a few assorted cases to guarantee future pinot drinking pleasure.
Photos from 2010 Events
October 19, 2010Join us on FaceBook to view hundreds of fantastic photos from this year’s Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta events
Wine Auction 2010 & Guide PDF
September 23, 2010As a non-profit organization, the mission of the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta is to create a week of food and wine events that promote Santa Fe as a world-class culinary destination. The Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta Live Auction (this year on Friday September 24th, 2010) raises money for the SFW&C Foundation which sponsors Santa Fe students taking service, wine and cooking classes as well as Santa Fe’s Cooking with Kids program.
These funds come from the revenue generated from wine lots auctioned at the Live Auction Luncheon. Every fall and winter the SFW&C Fiesta Restaurant Education School offers a syllabus consisting of three programs for Santa Fe restaurants and their staff. Intensive six-week sessions are taught by industry leaders in Cooking Skills, Wine Education and Great
Guest Service.
By reinvesting resources and education into the Santa Fe restaurant scene, the SFW&C Fiesta Restaurant Education program serves the mission of the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta – keeping Santa Fe on the map as a world-class culinary destination.
Thank you to all the sponsors, local restaurants and wineries who help to make this happen. And a great thank you to all the food and wine enthusiasts who keep returning to Santa Fe supporting our great restaurants!
A Toast: The First 20 Years
September 20, 2010In 1991, the first Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta started as a one-day Grand Tasting in the back parking lot of Sanbusco Center. About three hundred people attended, and 20 Santa Fe restaurants served tastes alongside tastes from 20 world-class wineries. Working the Coyote Café table that first day, serving griddled corn cakes with chipotle shrimp, I recall it was a beautiful fall day, the last Saturday in September. Under the bluest sky imaginable with the biggest white clouds on god’s good earth, the smell of piñon fire and roasted green chile mingled with the crisp fall air. It was a unique environment, and everyone seemed to have a really good time.
As the event delivers it’s 20th rendition in 2010, little has changed — the sky is still as blue, the Santa Fe restaurants are still as great and attending guests will have a wonderfully unique time. What has changed are the numbers. The one-day event has matured into a five-day bacchanalian fiesta featuring 8 wine and food pairing seminars, 6 guest-chef lunches, 45 winemaker dinners, a reserve tasting, a trade tasting, a live auction luncheon, and a Gruet Winery golf tournament. Still, the centerpiece remains — the Grand Tasting — always on the last day of September and now featuring 70 great Santa Fe restaurants serving fabulous tastes alongside 100 world-class wineries to 4000 people having a good time under the bluest skies…well, you get the picture.
The location, the participating wineries, the time of year, all conspire to make a memorable event, but the identity and long-lasting character of the SFWC Fiesta is the Santa Fe restaurant community. As was the intention, the SFWC Fiesta has matured into a five-day snap shot of the diverse and unique culinary arts as represented by our Santa Fe restaurants. As our restaurant community continues to evolve, so does the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta.
All wine events have an identity — Aspen Food and Wine’s identity is the magazine’s sponsors and their Food Network chefs; Napa Valley Wine Auction mirrors all the glitz and generosity of their wineries; Pebble Beach Food & Wine is a showcase for international chefs. Other non-commercial, annual wine events that celebrate a grape, such as the International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and Hospice du Rhone in Paso Robles. But, most wine events are produced by a magazine or a national wine distributor to promote their brands and advertisers.
What is unique about SFWC is that it is an independently produced food and wine event put on by the Santa Fe restaurant community to showcase Santa Fe restaurants. Not a high-volume placement but a high profile placement, national and international wineries want to attend the Fiesta and show their wine side by side with Santa Fe’s unique cuisine. Consumers who attend are the winners in this symbiotic relationship. No other wine event comes close to being able to boast the incredible level of food as presented by the 70 participating restaurants at the SFWC Fiesta.
Having coordinated and directed the schedule for 17 years, what is special for me are the relationships formed. Working each year with 100 wineries, 70 restaurants, a dozen guest chefs, my production crew, my sales staff and a 21-person volunteer board of directors in creating and executing a five-day party for 4000 food and wine enthusiasts, I feel I am the luckiest (if not most connected) man in the world.
Let us now raise a glass to the 20th annual Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta and to the reason it exists: the most fabulous restaurant community in the universe!
How To Use This Site
July 3, 2010Tickets go on sale 9am Mountain time on July 5th. Prior to that time, you may browse the event schedule.
Checkout
You will not see the red “Proceed to Checkout” button on the bottom of the “View Cart/Shopping Cart” page until you have either logged in with an existing account, or you have created a new account.
NOTE: Only one account may exist per email address. If your current email address has been used on this website before, you will be required to log in to the site in order to checkout. If you have forgotten your password, simply click the “Forgot Your Password“ link at the bottom of the log in screen. An email will immediately be sent to you from support@santafewineandchile.org which will contain a clickable link that will allow you to set a new password for your email address.
Log In
In order to purchase event tickets, you will need to log in. There are two ways:
- After adding items to your cart, you need to log in (or create an account) before you may Proceed to Checkout; or
- You may Login at any time by clicking the red Login button in the left-side brown navigation link bar shown on every page of the website. After logging in, you will be taken to the View Cart/Shopping Cart page, even if you have not yet added any items to your cart.
What if I’ve used the site before but I have a new email address?
- You may go ahead and just create an all-new account. That is probably the fastest and easiest method. You will have to add at least one item to your shopping cart after 9am July 5th in order to create a new account. New accounts cannot be created prior to July 5th. Regardless of the item you add to your cart, you may optionally delete that item from your cart before proceeding to checkout
- During business hours and subject to staff availability, you may call us and we can locate your old account and change your email address
NOTE: For security reasons, staff do not have access to passwords. They may set a new password for you, just like you can do by clicking the Forgot Your Password link.
How to Place an Order
- Browse events/tickets
- Select quantity desired
- Click Add To Cart next to the quantity and below the description of an event
- Login (or Create Account – requires a unique, new email address)
- Click Proceed To Checkout
- Verify your billing address, shipping address and email address
- Click Pay by Credit Card
- Enter Credit Card Information and click Submit
- After verification, a thank you/printable receipt page will display and an email receipt will be immediately sent to you
- If you do NOT see the “Thank You for your Order” page or receive an email order confirmation, then your order has NOT been completed!
- We will mail your tickets out if you have ordered prior to September 7th, otherwise they will be available at Will Call at La Fonda hotel beginning September 22nd.
NOTE: If you do NOT want us to mail your tickets, and instead wish to pick them up at Will Call, please say so very clearly AND IN ALL UPPER CASE LETTERS in the Comments box on the Order Checkout page (where you verify your billing and shipping address). You may also want to reply to your order receipt email just to make sure we saw your comment (We promise to make this easier next year)
How to Subscribe to the Email Announcement list
- Enter email address in the white box at the bottom of the left-side, brown navigation box on every page, then click the GO button
- Another page will popup requiring you to fill in your first and last name, then click Save Profile Changes button
You are also given an option to add an email address at the time of checkout for each order
How to permanently update the billing/mailing address that we have on file for you so we send your brochure to the right place next year!
NOTE: At this time, we do not store your shipping address – it only prints on the invoice of your current order. Your “account mailing address” for our brochure mailings is the address that shows as your billing address when you first get to the Order Checkout page. You may permanently change this address if you desire:
When you get to the Order Checkout page (verify billing/shipping address screen), you may set either the billing address OR the shipping address that you enter to be your “new/permanent” brochure mailing list address.
- Near the bottom of the Order Checkout page, there are a few sentences describing updating your address, and there are three buttons below that sentence:
- None - clicking this button (or clicking nothing) will do nothing – next time you login, the site will remember the same address it had before
- Billing - If you have made changes on this screen to your billing address (upper left) and would like those to be permanently saved as your brochure mailing address, click the button next to “billing”
- Shipping - If you would prefer that we mail your brochure to the address you have entered as your shipping address (upper right), then please check the button next to “shipping”
New Features for 2010:
- Updates & News (this section!) – Staff will now feature highlights of Santa Fe as a culinary destination and incorporate periodic email newsletters
- Who’s Pouring/Who’s Cooking Detail Pages – Wineries and Restaurants now edit their own pages on this site, where not only can you see their logo, but some information about them, contact information, website link and best of all a preview of what items they will be bringing to the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta and if you’re lucky – a recipe or two!
If you are a winery or restaurant participant and would like to edit your detail page, please:
- If you do not already have an account (email address and password) on this site, then:
- First create an account (after July 5th 9am) by adding any ticket to your shopping cart – you don’t have to purchase anything, just click the Add To Cart button, then
- Create your account until you get to the point that you see the red Proceed To Checkout button on the View Cart/Shopping Cart page (You do NOT need to actually click Proceed To Checkout or place an order), and then
- Call or email our office so that we can authorize your account and we will then give you further page-editing instructions
- If you DO already have an account on this website (email address and password), and you know your password and are currently able to log in, please:
- Call or email our office so that we can authorize your account and we will then give you further page-editing instructions
- If you have an account, but don’t know your password, simply use the Forgot Your Password link on the Login page to set a new password for yourself, and then:
- Call or email our office so that we can authorize your account and we will then give you further page-editing instructions
NOTE: A user account may only edit one restaurant or one winery. If a single person needs to be the editor for more than just one, then you will have to have an additional email address to create an additional account.
American Express Helps Celebrate our 20th
June 30, 2010The Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta is pleased to announce that our long-time marketing partner, American Express, is helping us celebrate our 20th Annual event. We have created an official 20th Annual Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta poster featuring the artwork from each of our first twenty years. Together we are pleased to make an exclusive American Express Cardmember offer. All American Express Cardmembers who make a minimum purchase of $125 for Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta tickets or retail items will receive a complimentary SFW&C Fiesta 20th Annual poster. For each such purchase, Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta will send you a coupon for the 20th Annual poster, redeemable at any of our events.
Georgia O’Keeffe
June 29, 2010For our 20th annual event this year, the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta is proud to have an image from Georgia O’Keeffe for our featured art. Georgia O’Keeffe’s image Jimson Weed is featured on the cover of our brochure this year and will be used on our 20th annual Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta Poster. The SFW&C Fiesta Georgia O’Keeffe poster will be available at all our events this year.
The Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta is pleased to be a community partner of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. The Museum is dedicated to perpetuating the legacy of the iconic artist. Through their exhibitions, public programs, and research center, you can experience O’Keeffe and her art in ways not possible anywhere else. As a member of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, you can also enjoy free admission all year, discounts in the museum shop, a member news magazine, discounted or free admission to our public programs, and invitations to exclusive, members-only events. To find out how to join, visit the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum website, okeeffemuseum.org.
