In a tasting room, I'm guided towards a glass of crisp salmon pink rose. But this isn’t Napa Valley or Temecula — it’s not even the Santa Ynez Valley. This tasting room is the Cavaletti Vineyards in Moorpark.
"We're in our winery and tasting room," explained owner Patrick Kelley. "This is where we do all our production. It's about 2,000 square feet. You're surrounded by barrels. All of our production equipment is next door in our other unit. And this is where we do our production and our tastings on the weekends."
Ventura County is rich with produce. So why isn’t it firmly on the map when it comes to producing wines? Kelley asked himself that same question before setting up the winery.
"I joke a lot that I went to business school, and I must not have paid very good attention because I started a winery," he laughed.
"But the truth is, I was really curious about local vineyards. When I looked around, there wasn't anybody making wines really from Ventura County in a serious way. There were wineries around, but they make wine from other areas. I couldn't figure out why they didn't do it, so I decided to jump in and give it a shot.
"Why weren't there wines being made in Ventura County? It's easy. The climate is actually too good to grow grapes," said Kelley. "It sounds kind of counterintuitive, but the reality is that in Ventura County, we can grow any other crops four times a year. You can turn crops over, you can make more money farming other things, and as a result of that, grapes never really took hold. There are people who are farming avocados, citrus, row crops, and grapes in most areas of the world, (who) are relegated to hillsides and less attractive areas to farm, and here we were planting other things there that made more money."
Kelley is one of several boutique winemakers in Ventura County who are putting the county’s wines on the map.
"There isn't a broader market out there looking for Ventura County wines yet, but if you're selling direct to consumer in the local area, people are really interested in that," he said.
Cavaletti is one of the over 60 wineries and craft breweries taking part in one of Southern California’s oldest wine festivals this Saturday.
"It's really a very unique area for growing grapes," explained organizer Angela May, Executive Director of the Ojai Wine Festival, which is put on by Ojai Rotary West. "We're getting more and more local wineries in the area. I look for boutique wineries and ones you cannot find at your local grocery stores or big box stores."
"It's got a wonderful microclimate," May continued. "It gets quite warm here in the summertime. So you're gonna find a lot of really wonderful reds, like Syrah, Grenache, and Barbera...We're lucky because it gets cooler in the evenings. So you want to get that for the grapes."
Do you have to be an expert on wines to enjoy the Ojai Wine Festival?
"Actually, no!" said May. "Wine is to be enjoyed. And each person has their own specific palette. So when you're drinking wine, it should be what you like. Some people only prefer whites, some people only prefer reds. Some people like sweet wines. Some people like dry. It doesn't matter. It's what you like that counts."
The Ojai Wine Festival is Saturday, June 20, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Lake Casitas Recreation Area.
