With the Jesusita Fire burning in everyone’s minds during the first week of May, The Winehound‘s owner Bob Wesley made the keen decision to postpone his first ever wine futures tasting, which was originally scheduled for May 9. The newly anointed date became June 13, which – happily for all of Santa Barbara’s proud wine snobs – happens to be tomorrow, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Museum of Natural History. There are still a handful of tickets remaining, and reservations are required, so please don’t plan on walking up.

The Winehound's Bob Wesley
Paul Wellman (file)

Other than the date, nothing’s changed, so we’ll just rehash what was written about the event at the end of April. Here you go:

The Date: Saturday, June 13, 4:30-7:30 p.m.

The Man with a Plan: Shop owner and former Lazy Acres wine guy Bob Wesley, who bought his first wine book at age 14. “Once the Wine Cask abandoned the program, I got on the phone,” said Wesley, who helped with Elements’ event last year. “We got a very positive reaction.” Since mid-February, he’s been working like a true hound, sniffing out the best wines, and fetching the info for the catalog, which features Wesley’s whimsically wise wine descriptions that employ musical and cinematic references, but reserve a “more reverential” tone for the most holy bottles. He equates the rushed experience to “writing a novella in a month-and-a-half.”

The Scene: Taking place at the S.B. Museum of Natural History, the tasting features 34 different labels, about 90 wines, and is limited to 250 people, who are allowed to purchase merely three bottles per selection rather than the traditional six. Catering will be by Metropulos Fine Foods, and the dress is casual. “Jeans and a T-shirt are fine,” said Wesley. “That’s what I’ll probably be wearing.”

The Inside Track: Predicting “deep deals” on such popular wines as the Hitching Post’s Highliner Pinot Noir and prices as low as $14, Wesley is also proud to bring Brewer-Clifton and Melville wineries back to the futures game, and by relation, Chad Melville’s label Samsara. Other standouts should be Alta Maria Vineyards and Native9, the partnership between winemaker Paul Wilkins and viticulture mastermind-and generation niner in the Santa Maria Valley-James Ontiveros. Extra-special to Wesley’s heart is his employee Deanna King’s new wines she made with her husband, Chris: De Su Propia Cosecha (a $30-ish GSM blend) and Rey (a grenache and a mourvedre, both less than $20).

Getting In: $65. See thewinehound.com or call 845-5247.

For the original article, go here.

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