Santa Barbara County Women Winemakers and Culinarians Raise Their Hands to Celebrate and Support Other Women

Annual Food and Wine Fundraiser Expands to Three Days of Festivities, with New Events at Fess Parker Winery and The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern

“Culinarians” is a brand-new word to me, as it is to Karen Steinwachs, one of the founding organizers of the annual Santa Barbara County women winemakers fundraising event that has renamed itself the “Women Winemakers & Culinarians Celebration” — in honor of the delicious intersection of wine and food that this now three-day extravaganza extols March 8-10.

The “culinarians” moniker came from Chef Brooke Stockwell, another founding organizer (who incidentally graced the January 2020 Indy “Chef Ink” cover story I wrote about chefs and their tattoos, which was one my first big features for the paper before I joined the staff). Stockwell, who is now the executive chef at Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café, “keeps getting more and more chefs and caterers and food purveyors and specialty people,” said Steinwachs. “She suggested that we should add ‘culinarian,’ which I didn’t think was a word; I thought she made it up, and so did she. But it turns out to actually be a word. And it’s appropriate, right? So that they get the recognition that they deserve as well.”

Steinwachs, the longtime winemaker for Buttonwood Farm Winery who now concentrates on her own Seagrape Wine Company brand, continued, “We pour bottles of wine, and that’s pretty darn easy, but they [the all-women group of chefs] have to get up early and make something and bring it there, make sure it’s hot or cold — it’s a lot more complicated than what the winemakers do that day. So it’s pretty thrilling. And hopefully, we get more and more and more of them.”

Culinarians at the 2023 Women in Wine & Food Celebration | Photo: Heather Daenitz @craftandcluster

Among the culinarians that Stockwell has brought together this year are: Taylor Tate, peasants FEAST; Joy Reinhardt, Ellie’s Tap & Vine; Vilay Saikeo, Savory & Sweet Eats; Melissa Scrymgeour, Clean Slate Wine Bar; Janelle Norman, Cailloux Cheese Shop; Lisa Thompson, Global Gardens; Louise Smith, Louise’s Kitchen Table; Kimberly Zimmerman, The Juicy Life; Shanté Norwood, Té’Stees Cupcakes; and Jessica Foster of Jessica Foster Confections, with more announcements to come.

The weekend’s events commemorating International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month — all of which benefit the new “She Raised Her Hand” initiative (sheraisedherhand.com), which provides opportunities for women to find community, purpose, and strength in their identity as veterans — kick off with “Sips and She-nanigans: A Sassy Soirée” at Fess Parker Winery on Friday, March 8. “It’s a dressy affair, because you know, every once in a while, we get to take off those work boots,” laughs Steinwachs, who said Fess Parker’s delicious “Fesstivity” sparkling wines will be featured as well as additional Fess Parker pours and “bites” from Sarah Price’s Sassafras Catering and wines from a panel that features women who are the “wind beneath the wings” for winemakers and culinarians, such as enologists, sous chefs, assistant winemakers, vineyard owners, grape growers, farmers, and restaurant owners.

Wine & Culinary Participants at the 2023 Women in Wine & Food Celebration | Photo: Heather Daenitz @craftandcluster

Not only that, the host will be Anna Vocino, a Santa Ynez Valley resident, founder of Eat Happy Kitchen, comic (Snapped: Killer Couples, Jimmy Kimmel Live!), voice-over actor, and your typical multitasker female who will also bring in fellow funny women Jessica Keenan (HBO’s Entre Nos), and Mav Viola (Comedy Central/Featuring and the upcoming Netflix Is a Joke) to entertain guests. “She’s amazing and hilarious,” says Steinwachs of Vocino, who organized the comedy component.

Tickets are available at fessparker.com/winery-events.

Some of the bites at the 2023 celebration  | Photo: Deborah Chadsey Photography

On Saturday, March 9, the Grand Tasting event will be at 27 Vines on the outskirts of Santa Ynez this year and will feature more than 30 woman winemakers and more than one dozen female chefs/culinarians (all of whom are required to be present to participate in the event). The tasting has once again sold out weeks in advance of the event.

Joining Steinwachs is a roster of her fellow women winemakers that reads like who’s-who of the Santa Barbara County wine world: Lane Tanner, Lumen Wines; Kathy Joseph, Fiddlehead Cellars; Helen Falcone, Falcone Family Vineyards; Alison Thomson, Lepiane Wines; Gretchen Voelcker, Piazza Family Wines and Luna Hart Wines; Laura Hughes, Loubud Wines and Sanford Winery & Vineyards; Dana Volk, Dana V. Wines and Happy Mommy Wines; Sonja Magdevski, Casa Dumetz Wines, Clementine Carter, and The Feminist Party; Jessica Gasca, Story of Soil; Wynne Solomon, Peake Ranch Winery; Samra Morris, Alma Rosa Winery; Alice Anderson, âmevive; Megan McGrath Gates, Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards and Toccata; Kristin Bryden, Zaca Mesa Winery; Amy Christine, Holus Bolus; Claire Wilson, Provignage; Sunny Doench Stricker, Future Perfect Wine; Allyson Bycraft, Babcock Winery & Vineyards; Anna deLaski, Solminer Wine Co.; Brittany Rice, Sunstone Winery; Kristin Harris Luis, Cote of Paint Wine; Christi Heck, Lavender Oak Vineyard; Brit Zotovich, Dreamcôte Wine Co.; Magan Eng, Kunin Wines; Jill DelaRiva Russell, Cambria Winery; Adrienne Rule, Rideau Vineyard; Clarissa Nagy, Riverbench Vineyard & Winery; Amber Hogan, Amber Rose Wines; Alisa Jacobson, Turning Tide Wines; Angela Osborne, A Tribute to Grace Wine Company; and Angela Soleno, Turiya Wines, with more announcements to come.

Lane Tanner | Photo: Heather Daenitz @craftandcluster

Concluding the weekend festivities on Sunday, March 10, is the Women Winemakers’ “Bubbly Brunch,” created by Executive Chef Rhoda Magbitang of The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern and the host of this special event. Featuring sparklers and “breakfast wines” from the participating women winemakers, the morning starts out with bubbles and then segues into a brunch, with a selection of white, rosé, and red wines from Alma Rosa Winery, Amber Rose Wines, Future Perfect, Kunin Wines, Loubud, Luna Hart, Seagrape Wine Company, and more. 

Tickets are available at aubergeresorts.com/matteistavern/experiences.

“I always have to say that men are welcome too,” adds Steinwachs with a laugh.

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By Leslie Dinaberg, Santa Barbara Independant