Tahoe Autumn Food & Wine Festival

Wow, what a blast we had last weekend at the Autumn Food & Wine!!! It is Marko's 9th year and my 4th :-)
We left Friday and made our way up the mountain, stopping to shop for mixers and cups for the weekend. Saturday was so crazy and fun (check out the pictures below right)! We poured Charbay Clear, Pomegranate and Green Tea on the rocks for Blazing Pans. Chef Joseph Keller (Bouchon, among many other famed restaurants) MC'd as always and is so entertaining! I didn't catch who won though, because I packed up my bar (Marko stayed to pour) and ran up to the tent where our Annual Launch Party was about to take place. We set the room for about 35 people, but then about 50 showed up so we had to throw up some tables in the back to squeeze everyone in! We poured Charbay Rose (a big one! Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Pinot Noir and Syrah - yum!), Charbay '05 Cab Staggs Leap District, Charbay Green Tea Aperitif, Charbay Pomegranate Aperitif AND Charbay Whiskey Release II!!!! And let me tell you thirsty people, it was super sweet to just pour everything on the rocks - normally at this event I am shaking cocktails non stop and to tell you the truth, my arms get sore! Ah, all in the name of better drinking :-)
Anyway, the crowd was great, Marko had everyone in stitches (proof below right) and we all had a great time. Chef Carl whipped up some tasty treats and a very nice man named Tim (or Jim, geez it's a blur but he sure was great!) helped me keep everyone's glasses full.
THEN I sent Marko to take a breather at Mikuni Sushi (where Judy Laverty was having a little break - she's the mastermind behind this entire event and a very good friend of ours) while I got us set up for our Ritz bar... It was a great event, pouring cocktails for the Ritz homeowners and having a good time.
And THEN we were very thirsty so we took the party to the room! Joh & Carrera came to join in the fun, which made everything even better :-) Check out the photos below if you haven't already - Joh get's the credit for almost all of them, thank you Joh! We all hit up another party upstairs too, woot woot.
Sunday we had an awesome set-up with the Ritz - the Charbay Ritz Lounge, in our own cabana! We were told over and over by the pour thirsty souls in line that we were by far the most popular booth at the event. Well it was HOT out and we were pouring ridiculously amazing cocktails!! Like this one:

Jenni's special of the hour (which means till the italian soda ran out)
1 1/2 ounce CHARBAY Pomegranate Vodka
1 ounce Odwalla Pomegrand
1 ounce Safeway Organic Pomegranate Italian Soda
2 fresh raspberries
lemon twist

YUM!!

Till next time ya'll - See you at the Cantinetta tomorrow from 2-5!!