Life theArts ‘Toast to Women in Wine and Food’

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Karen Steinwachs, owner/winemaker Seagrape Wine Co. and co-founder of the annual Women Winemakers Celebration, toasts with guests at the 2022 Santa Barbara County Women Winemakers Celebration in Santa Ynez. This year’s celebration will take place March 12 in Los Olivos.

Female winemakers in Santa Barbara County for sixth annual celebration

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

In delayed honor of International Women’s Day, which is March 8, the sixth annual Women Winemakers Celebration showcasing the winemaking talents of more than 30 Santa Barbara County women winemakers will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 12 at the newly opened Mattei’s Tavern, Auberge Resorts Collection, in Los Olivos.

“Women Winemakers Celebration: A Toast to Women in Wine and Food” will once again benefit a regional nonprofit, with event proceeds from the 2023 gathering donated to The Rainbow House Inc, the first LGBTQIA+ community resource center in Santa Ynez Valley. Tickets to the event are currently available at 2023womenwinemakers. eventbrite.com.

“When we launched this celebration in 2017, we never imagined that it would gain ground in the manner that it has. The support that our community displays to our women winemakers through this event is greatly appreciated and so very important. Knowing that we’re all in this together and being able to, in turn, show that support to other causes in the region, is what makes this event so pertinent,” said Karen Steinwachs, Santa Barbara County woman winemaker, part of the all-female Women Winemakers Celebration event production team and cofounder of the annual celebration.

“Now in our sixth year, the 2023 Women Winemakers Celebration will feature more women winemakers than at any of our past events. We have more than 30 ladies pouring on March 12. We’re also holding the event in a new ‘home,’ a spectacular new hospitality venue, The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, Auberge Resorts Collection, which has welcomed us all with open arms,” she added stressing that men are also welcome at the event.

The celebration will once again be a daytime happening, an intimate, alfresco wine tasting reception complete with elevated hors d’oeuvres.

The three-hour wine and food tasting reception will boast the largest number of female winemakers that this event has featured to date, all of whom will be on-hand to pour tastes of their wines and talk with event guests. Passed and stationary appetizers will be offered by their female counterparts in the Santa Barbara County food world, while live music by Arwen Lewis will add to the event’s convivial ambience.

Also returning to this year’s event will be the popular “Estrogen Collection” wine bottle opportunity drawing.

“International Women’s Day has been celebrated worldwide since 1909 with a focus on working women’s achievements and issues. In a working environment which sees about 10% of the global wine industry as femalelead winemakers, Santa Barbara County continues to see a much higher percentage of women winemakers than most regions in the world with nearly double the average and growing each year,” said Ms. Steinwachs, owner of Seagrape Wine Co.

Participating winemakers and wineries include Lane Tanner, Lumen Wines; Kathy Joseph, Fiddlehead Cellars; Brooke Carhartt, Carhartt Family Wines; Brit Zotovich, Dreamcôte Wine Co.; Sonja Magdevski, Casa Dumetz Wines; Clementine Carter, The Feminist Party; Alecia Moore, Two Wolves Wine; Alison Thomson, Lepiane Wines; Mireia Taribó and Tara Gomez, Camins 2 Dreams; Sandra Newman, Cebada Wine; Gretchen Voelcker, Piazza Family Wines and Luna Hart Wines.

Other are Laura Roach, Loubud Wines; Dana Volk, Dana V. Wines; Jessica Gasca, Story of Soil; Angela Osborne, A Tribute To Grace Wine Company; Wynne Solomon, Peake Ranch Winery; Rachel DeAscentiis, Say When Wine; Samra Morris, Alma Rosa Winery; Alice Anderson, âmevive; Magan Eng, Kunin Wines; Megan McGrath Gates, Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards; Kristin Bryden, Zaca

The calendar appears Mondays through Saturdays in the “Life & the Arts” section. Items are welcome. Please email them a full week before the event to Managing Editor Dave Mason at dmason@newspress.com.

TODAY 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Entangled:

Responding to Environmental Crisis,” runs through March 25 at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. The museum is open from 10 a.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It’s closed on Sundays and college holidays. For more information, call 805-565-6162 or visit westmont. edu/museum.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Interlopings: Colors in the Warp and Weft of Ecological Entanglements” is an exhibit that runs through March 12 at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, 1212 Mission Canyon Road, Santa Barbara. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The exhibit features weavings dyed with pigments from non-native plants on Santa Cruz Island. The weavings were created by artists Helen Svensson and Lisa Jevbratt. For more information, see sbbotanicgarden.org.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Coast artist and London native Annie Hoffman’s exhibit “Seeing Ourselves in Colour” will be displayed through Feb. 28 at Gallery Los Olivos, 2920 Grand Ave., Los Olivos. For more information, visit anniehoffmann.com.

Noon. A rally honoring Ukrainians will take place at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, 1100 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara. The event is planned to take place, rain or shine.

Noon to 5 p.m . “Clarence

Mattei: Portrait of a Community” is on view now through May at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, which is located in downtown Santa Barbara at 136 E. De la Guerra St. Admission is free. Hours are currently from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and from noon to 7 p.m. Thursdays. For more information, visit www.sbhistorical. org

1:30 and 7 p.m. “The River Bride” will be presented by PCPA (Pacific Conservatory Theatre) in Santa Maria. The play is being performed at the Severson Theatre at Allan Hancock College, 870 S. Bradley Road. Tickets are $49. To purchase, visit www.pcpa.org or call the box office at 805-922-8313.

FEB. 26

1 p.m. A vigil to honor victims and survivors of recent mass shootings in California will take place at the corner of State and Anapamu streets in Santa Barbara.

1:30 p.m. “The River Bride” will be presented by PCPA (Pacific Conservatory Theatre) in Santa Maria. The play is being performed at the Severson Theatre at Allan Hancock College, 870 S. Bradley Road. Tickets are $49. To purchase, visit www.pcpa.org or call the box office at 805-922-8313.

MARCH 1

7:30 p.m. The Santa Barbara City College Theatre Group will perform Ken Ludwig’s “A Comedy of Tenors” March 1-18 at the Garvin Theatre on the college’s west campus in the 900 block of Cliff Drive in Santa Barbara. The curtain will rise at 7:30 p.m. March 1 and after that, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 18. The March 1 and 2 performances are preview shows. The 2 p.m. March 5 performance