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The wine festival and the Reyes Winery vineyard host the festival each year to give back to a Santa Clarita Valley nonprofit, choosing the SCV Relay for Life as the main beneficiary this year.

Reyes Winery Celebrates Area Growers With Wine Festival

Despite an overcast sky and a bit of rain Saturday, hundreds flocked to Reyes Winery in Agua Dulce for the third annual Sierra Pelona Valley Wine Festival.


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 The wine festival and the Reyes Winery vineyard host the festival each year to give back to a Santa Clarita Valley nonprofit, choosing the SCV Relay for Life as the main beneficiary this year.

Local vintners, connoisseurs and enthusiasts alike enjoyed the tastes of wine and food from the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys for a good cause Saturday.

An overcast sky didn't seem to stop anyone from enjoying the food and wine available.

An overcast sky didn’t seem to stop anyone from enjoying the food and wine available.

The festival will showed off about 150 wines from more than 80 vendors, which also included local food vendors and restaurants, such as Truffles ‘n Toffee, Le Chene French Cuisine, Baracoa Lounge, Wolf Creek Restaurant and Brewery and Persia Lounge.

And while some of the grapes imbibed Sunday came to Reyes Winery from as far away as Paso Robles and parts farther north, some learned there also were offerings from much, much closer to home for Santa Clarita residents.

Danny Mascari, owner of Soundsations, grows grapes on his property in Bouquet Canyon, and takes advantage of the fact that under state law, residents can produce up to 200 gallons per year.

“The Sierra Pelona Valley Vintners Association is an organization that brings together the talents and resources of its members, partners and community in order to promote the production and appreciation of fine wines grown or produced within the Sierra Pelona Valley American Viticultural Area and to bring national and regional attention to the wine and culinary offerings of the Santa Clarita Valley, adjacent communities and the Sierra Pelona Valley,” according to the organization’s website.

An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geographic features, with boundaries defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, United States Department of the Treasury.

Members from the Santa Clarita Valley Relay for Life team stand by their booth at the festival.

Members from the Santa Clarita Valley Relay for Life team stand by their booth at the festival.

Mascari didn’t bring close to his gallon limit, as he doesn’t commercially produce the wine, but rather distills as a labor of love at home, bringing the bottles to two local festivals, including the one at Reyes Winery, every year.

“It’s probably an unfound area,” Mascari said, referring to the small but growing number of wineries sprouting up between the two valleys. He sounded as though he was hopeful to join Reyes, Agua Dulce and Pulchella (in Newhall) wineries one day as as a commercial grower.

Mascari has been growing Sangiovese and Cabernet grapes on his lot since 1994, and he brought a sampling from his 2013 collection.

“They asked us to partner with them and it’s been great,” said Betsy Keesler, SCV Relay for Life event chair at the festival. “It allows us a chance to reach a population… it really allowed us to touch a lot more people.”

The area winemakers and distillers at the festival included: San Antonio Winery, Alonso Family Vineyards, Bobcat, Chavez Vineyards, Du Nasi, Golden Star Vineyards, Donato Family Vineyard, Antelope Valley Winery, Harris Wine Biz, Bouquet Vineyards, High Desert Cellars, Coruce Vineyards, Mystic Hills Vineyard, Oasis Vineyards, Stella Rosa Wines, Six Foulkes, Magellan Gin, Agua Dulce Winery, Absenthe, High Desert Wine Cellars and Hearthstone.

The 24-hour SCV Relay for Life event takes place May 16-17, and is the largest fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

KHTS AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio

Reyes Winery Celebrates Area Growers With Wine Festival

2 comments

  1. Correction: You failed to mention one of the best, if not the best wine being served at the festival. Stephen Hemmert Wines. I believe you should make the correction on the next edition and I have a question about why you didn’t interview a professional winery instead of some home winemaker? I was pouring wine for Hearthstone Winery out of Paso and have to admit, that some of the wines at Stephen Hemmert’s booth and others matched or beat even what we do. Why am I writing you if I represented a wine from Paso? Because I live in this community and take great pride in the local production of wine.

  2. Btw: Two of the wineries you mention, Pulchella and Two Hearts were not even at the event. I think you better check your facts before posting something. There are too many people that put their heart and soul into their product to make these kind of errors.

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About Perry Smith

Perry Smith is a print and broadcast journalist who has won several awards for his focused, hyperlocal community coverage in several different regions of the country. In addition to five years of experience covering the Santa Clarita Valley, Smith, a San Fernando Valley native, has worked in newspapers and news websites in Los Angeles, the Northwest, the Central Valley and the South, before coming to KHTS in 2012. To contact Smith, email him at Perry@hometownstation.com.