Guest Blog: Creating a Barrel Tasting

Our guest blogger this week is Lisa Schoneman. While I'm away singing at the Carmel Bach Festival, Lisa is taking the lead in planning our July 30 Barrel Tasting. Lisa and her husband Scott are friends and Canelo Hills regulars, and we're lucky to have Lisa involved for this special evening of wine and food. Here's her report on the preparations:

From a planner's perspective, there are so many fun details to think about when planning an event - seating, linens, place settings, flowers. But the most important detail is - what is the focus, the inspiration for the event? In the case of this month's barrel tasting, the focus and the inspiration are Tim's exciting new reds. Which leads to the very pleasant dilemma of what foods to pair with the wines to show them off and treat the guests to a memorable food and wine pairing experience.

To that end, we spent a fun few hours with Joy Varga and John Hall of Canela Bistro tasting the varied reds right out of the barrel, sharing the tastes and scents we found in the wines and the 'food dreams' inspired by them. I really can't wait to experience the wines and the food together, and see how each compliments the other!

photo credits: AWGA (1), Scott Schoneman (2)