Santa Barbara Shines at Los Angeles Pinot Party

STARS of Pinot Noir Features Nearly 40 Top Pinot Noir Producers from West Coast and Beyond

Ian Blackburn, founder of STARS of Pinot Noir | Credit: Hector Sandoval/@sandovalmedia

Santa Barbara is so awash in top-shelf pinot noir that it’s easy to forget we are just a tiny part of that grape’s universe. Those seeking to understand where our Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley producers match up with their leading West Coast counterparts should head south on for an eye-opening Thursday night out in Los Angeles on July 18.

That evening, at Tesse Restaurant in West Hollywood, renowned wine educator Ian Blackburn is curating about 40 wineries to pour for a crowd that should be much more intimate and well-fed than the usual roundup tasting.

Featuring highly reviewed and even cult-level brands primarily from Oregon, Sonoma, and the Central Coast — but also with some Burgundy and New Zealand in the house — the STARS of Pinot Noir kicks off with a VIP panel tasting featuring a handful of winemakers (hosted by yours truly) and dinner at 6 p.m., which costs $200. Then the ticket options are early access (6:30 p.m., with heavy apps; $175), general admission (7 p.m., with food stations; $99), and late entry (8 p.m.; $79).

The event follows the recent STARS of Santa Barbara and STARS of Cabernet tastings hosted earlier this year by Blackburn’s company LearnAboutWine.com. He started this series with the inaugural STARS of S.B. back in 2008, and the first pinot event followed a few years later.

To learn more about the event and its host, I asked Blackbun a few questions recently.

How’d you get into wine in the first place?

I was raised by wolves. My father was in the military, so I was born in Minot, North Dakota, on an Air Force base. My mom was a working model who held three jobs, as models do: retail, grocery clerk, secretary. Neither had a degree. Both just came from the school of “work hard and make it happen.”

If we had a bottle of wine on the table, something important had just happened, like someone’s first raise, first promotion, an anniversary. I think that has a profound impact on a child.

My father came home with a bottle of port from 1840 when I was about 7 years old. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. That bottle sits on my desk still today.

Flash forward to college. I thought I wanted to be an engineer. I did well in school and got accepted to study at Cal Poly Pomona. However, the reality is that I loved going to work and hated going to school.

So I worked in restaurants and discovered the wine industry inside the restaurants, working with names like Thomas Keller when he was at Checkers at Joachim Splichal at Patina.

Scenes from past STARS events | Credit: Courtesy

Why did you start hosting events like this?

Along my journey, I started to sell wine for a distributor (Youngs), then a winery (Kenwood, when family-owned), and then an importer (Kobrand). I quickly realized that few restaurants had a database to promote events. I also learned that many professionals knew jack shit about wine and probably didn’t care to. So I thought to educate the discerning consumers instead.

STARS of PINOT followed STARS of Cabernet and STARS of Santa Barbara. It just made sense to get the best brands in one room from all over the world and respect the greatest efforts.

We also raise charity dollars with our auctions, but these are not charity tastings. They are professional tastings that raise money for charity on the auction only. That allows me to employ my team, and send checks to our focused charity’s 501c3. We have raised millions along the way, including more than $1 million for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

How has the wine world changed since you first got on the scene?

As with everything, we see trends grow and bust. If you can avoid working with those trendy topics, the core of the wine industry is genuine and authentic, and that is where I prefer to focus.

I started LearnAboutWine.com as a blog in 1995, and then it grew into a basic wine education business. Then events made sense, and then better wine classes and better wine events.

Now we thrive as innovators in education and I call it “liquid entertainment.” We host amazing “once-in-a-lifetime dinners,” “trips around the wine world,” and specialty tastings and events.

What makes STARS more interesting is that we eliminate sponsors and the big grocery brands, and get authentic and genuine with some of the best in the business.

How has the world of pinot noir evolved?

We have moved from categoric pinot to very focused single vineyards. It’s no longer Sonoma, but Sonoma Coast, and now Sonoma Coast West. This type of focus at every level means the wines are better than ever and probably better for us.

I think there is perhaps too much wine in the world today, but this is what is self-correcting about the wine industry. Only the fit survive, and some thrive.

What trends are you excited about?

Colder and colder spots are emerging — probably because they are not as cold as they once were — as leaders in the future of wine. I love the quality trend and it’s up and to the right going forward.

Where’s Santa Barbara fit into all this?

Santa Barbara is about as exciting a place to taste wine as anywhere in the world. I think the next iteration of Santa Barbara is in the works. I think diversification of the region, so that there is something for everyone, is important.

Santa Barbara is hitting another moment. The old guard is breaking apart, and new ideas are rising from the ashes. Old leadership is important to respect, and typically they give way to younger disciples. That is what I’m seeing.

What can attendees expect at the event?

Energy and excitement! I want our tastings to be serious — and the quality of the wine gets us there — but then I want them to be seriously memorable and fun. DJ Richard Blade will be there, a few Hollywood movie stars popping in. We take over the entire restaurant and it will be a big show.

There are many great tastings in today’s world. Ours is just more focused on quality, the location, the audience, the wine, the food, the music….

STARS of Pinot Noir is Thu., July 18, 6-9:30 p.m., at Tesse Restaurant in West Hollywood. See STARSofPinot.com for tickets, and use the discount code FRIENDSofMATT to save $20 on the VIP and early access tickets.