Picture with me if you will, a “Wonka Style” wonderland no longer catering to a persnickety group of snot-nosed grade schoolers, but to a much more discriminating crowd that fall under the “21 and over” category. I stepped into the magical “Wine World” created by the innovative Alan Semsar & his team at Barcelona Enterprises and truly thought for a moment I had died and gone to “Adults ONLY” Heaven! Set among the park-like setting of the Calabasas Inn, lined up for my indulgent perusal were over 200 wines, 20 breweries, 20 spirits, 19 restaurants and an endless list of mouth-watering vendors vying for my attention.

Some of the “fan-favorite” vendors included Pacific Dining Car, Trader Vics, Stella Artois, Firestone Walker Brewery, High West Distillery, Pinks Famous Hotdogs, Dove Chocolates, View Carre Absinthe, The Sushi Chef Institute and pastries from Frania Mendivil to name just a few. Entertainment included live cooking demonstrations by several of the Food Network’s Celebrity-Chefs, as well as the fantastic 17-piece “Esquire Big Band” that kept the place jumpin’to the cool sounds of Frank Sinatra & Louis Armstrong. Among the numerous “special attractions” at the event was a glass engraver who customized wine glasses for the guests, a painting “Picasso of the wine-world”, mystic fortune-tellers and tarot card readers and of course, last but not least, The Celebrity Wine Review Media Lounge. And if that weren’t enough, just to keep us from feeling guilt over all of the extravagance, Barcelona Enterprises donated a percentage of the event’s proceeds to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. In the case of this Wine Festival, it was good to be “bad!”

Throughout the day, the Celebrity Wine Review Lounge was visited by some of the top “wine world VIPs” including, Bill Candela of Wades Wines, Jim Norman of Norman Vineyards, Don Schmitz of Malibu Solstice Vineyards, Libby Congelliere of One Hope Wines and our exotic event sponsor flown all the way from Paris, Miss Vicky of Miss Vicky Wines. In one of my interviews, I enjoyed pairing the award-winning “Purple Haze” Cabernet by our friends at Cielo Malibu Vineyards with the mouth-watering cheeses, like the organic “Purple Haze” goat cheese with hints of fennel & lavender from Cypress Grove Chevre. Meanwhile, my co-host Erin Darling, drooled over scrumptious delicacies in her interview with Patrice Tissier, a French pastry chef from Le pain Du Jour, who flirted with Miss Vicky in their seductive native tongue. We “worked” in the Celebwine media lounge all day, but I did get a brief break around mid-day when the sun was hot & high in the sky & I made a mad dash inside to the gourmet dessert tables in hopes of appeasing my insatiable sweet-tooth! During my short-lived 10-minutes of bliss, I managed to down a red velvet cupcake, a hand-dipped dark chocolate lollipop and some absolutely sinful caramel-toffee cookie bark from “Flour girl Desserts” in a truly surreal “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” moment! In this fantasy-like-state, I began to look around for the existence of those creepy-cute icons of Wonka Land, the Oompa-Loompas! To my surprise, in their place- standing well over 15 feet tall-in equal creepy-cuteness were the wine-festival mascots; “green-giant-stilt-people” from Stilt Circus Inc. who amazed the crowd with their uncanny ability to “double-fist” glasses of wine while balancing at death-defying heights! To be sure, a day in this Wine-World “Wonka Land” was an experience not to miss, but the best part is- unlike the film- you don’t have to be the lucky lottery winner in an exclusive, party of five to attend. Nope, in the real world, the “Golden Ticket” that opens the door to all your culinary dreams come true, can be yours with one painless swipe of your credit card! Over 3,000 satisfied attendees agree it’s a purchase well-worth its weight in wine & chocolate and one that raises the standard of indulgence, as even Willy Wonka himself would agree! ~ CW