Crave: not your parent’s winetasting event

The music was loud, the heels were high, and the all-ages crowd was definitely having a good time. Demonstrating the breadth of the wine enthusiast category, guests at October’s San Luis Obispo Crave included everyone from 21-year olds to folks in their 60s.

The cocktail dresses and lounge atmosphere (at the SLO Vet’s Hall!) added a special snazz component to this food-wine-music event.  It was also cool to have in one space the younger-minded members of the three predominate demographics: your baby-boomers, the genX gang, and lots of millenials.

With Cal Poly State University just down the street, this event drew a healthy number of students. Again demonstrating that a growing number of young people already have a passion for wine, over the course of the evening I met an ag-business major, an aerospace engineer, and of course, multiple wine and viticulture majors.  Other guests included folks in their 40s who run with the local mardi gras scene, and a fair number people sporting silver hair.

One of the smart choices for the event was the direction from the PRWCA to each of the Paso Robles wineries at the event to bring just one wine to pour. Each span of tables featured wineries featuring, for example, one of their Syrahs or one of their white Rhône varietals. This limitation on wines to pour actually contributed to the ability of guests to compare directly among Cabernet Sauvignons, for example.  Sometimes regular wine tastings can overwhelm tasters with so many wines poured by each winery.

Like any successful wine tasting event, the volume increased through the evening, but the music also began to pound at a higher volume toward the end. The Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance (PRWCA) certainly deserves kudos for managing to make the humble Vet’s Hall, which hosts my voting station on election day and a tank on the front lawn, into a type of temporary club.  Seemed to work well.

While not every wine tasting needs to feel like a rave, it’s certainly fun when they sometimes do. More of this, please!

– Rachel Duchak