SommCon and San Diego Food + Wine Festival

Ladies and gentlemen, yeah, we're getting ready. Don't point that thing at me. I saw what you did earlier. It's Wine Wednesday, and we are getting a jumpstart on two big events coming to San Diego. Careful. Our friend Will the Wine Guy of course is here, and he brought a couple of his friends. We have Michelle Metter with SomCom. We love that, SomCom. And Chef Dan Ballerino with Finca. Finca? Yeah. I say finca like in Spanish, like a farm. Exactly. Finca. Exactly. Finca. I like that. Guys, welcome. Thanks for being here. Okay, Will, talk to me. SomCom, it's happening this weekend. What is it? Like Comic-Con, but for? There you go, for wine. And for the likes of you. Yes, and so with sommeliers, everybody, we have conventions. We're a convention town. We all know that. So this is one of the largest conventions in really the country for sommeliers and for people, professionals within the industry. Michelle is the founder of this. Wow. Okay, I have so many questions for you, Michelle. Like why the idea for this, where it came from, why, and really what happens at SomCom? Yeah, so we actually also produce the San Diego Food and Wine Festival. We're one of the founders of that, and SomCom came out of the San Diego Food and Wine Festival. It is now grown to be one of the largest professional trade tastings in the country. We have 30-plus masterclasses for all industry professionals happening this weekend. So it is for professionals, really serious enthusiasts, but really predominantly geared towards professionals. What comes out of a convention like this that eventually regular folks who love going to restaurants and getting a good meal and good wine and pairings and that kind of thing, what comes out of this event that we eventually benefit at a restaurant? Oh, that's such a good question. So Dan actually is one of the proprietors at Finca, and this is a really great example. So professionals like Dan come to SomCom to level up their education, to learn the art of pairing, to learn how... It is an art. It absolutely is an art. And to learn from all these international and domestic producers. And so, you know, it's an opportunity for our industry to level up their knowledge on wine, beer, spirits. Yeah, I love it. It's pretty amazing. And Dan, he's gonna show us how to pair right now a little bit. We're gonna dive into what he has here and Spanish-inspired, right? Okay, so Chef Dan, well, you know, you have all this. What are you preparing? And what exactly is going on? It's actually been prepared by my chef partner, Joe. I'm Sommelier, an operator for the restaurant over at Finca. We do the California-inspired tapas, basically. A big wine bottle shop and wine club portion of what we do. But this is one of the tapas on the menu. It's eggplant dip. It's blended with tahini, lemon oil, garlic. It's pretty much a baba ganoush. A little bit less acidity. And then we have dried miso and sumac. Seasoned house potato chips. So we keep it really simple, right? We want the dishes to hit quickly. Yes, so people can have multiple pairing experiences actually throughout their dining time with us. So what we brought to pair with it is actually an Albarino. So you're gonna get a little bit of funk from the eggplant dip. A little earthiness to that. A little bit of funk. A little bit of 70's funk. Ideally, in a perfect world, that'd be a 70's funk for sure. A little bit of funk is a good thing. It's a great thing. In terms of the food and wine festival, the connection is pretty impressive because you get this kind of thing and then you go over there and you learn a lot. Then you bring it back. Certainly. And then how do people react? Like the people at the restaurant are like, oh my god, where did this idea come from? They get excited. I mean, I think people are really excited for experiences, right? And I think we're learning that more and more in our industry specifically. So the more that we can create opportunities to do that at a price point that makes sense also, I think the greater impact we'll make on our guests and our whole dining community. So we're going to be pairing... Well, by the way, I hate to interrupt, but it's gone very long. I don't even have a glass. I haven't even taken a sip. I saw you three cheering. What took so long? I'm sitting here empty-handed. Okay, as you were. Go ahead. So what are we going to be pairing today? And we're doing Albarino, correct? Yeah, we've got a single vineyard, single parcel Albarino from Pedro Mendez, Rockstar Winemaker from Reef Spicious. You get some like minerality. Some lemon zest. A little phenolic bitterness, a little lift in there, which plays off a little contrast to the kind of like earthy funkiness I was speaking to of the eggplant. Goodness. All right. This is really good. Wait a minute. I've got to ask Michelle over here. Can we still sign up for the Food and Wine Festival? How do we go about that? Absolutely. That's not like SOMCON. Anybody can come to this, yes? Yeah. SOMCON actually kicks off this really big epic month celebrating food and wines. The San Diego Food and Wine Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary. It's coming up in November. We kick off the November 10th, second through the 10th. And our big grand weekend is the 8th, 9th, and 10th with just a myriad of experiences, masterclasses with Louis Latour for burgundy lovers, vintage cuvee and caviar classes with master sommelier Josh Orr. We have Ray Isle from Food and Wine Magazine coming out to teach classes. Alice Waters, Elizabeth Faulkner, Art Smith, the best chefs from throughout San Diego and Baja. I brought some tequila. You know, we cannot ignore our friends from south of the border. This is a real cross-border event. So I invite you all to come out and check out getting tickets. So people can sign up online for these experiences. Sign up on SanDiegoWineClassic.com SomCon is SomConUSA.com SomCon is this weekend, 8th through the 10th. San Diego Food and Wine Festival is coming up November 2nd through 10th. Grand weekend. We're going to kick it off right now, right? We're going to kick it off, but that was a lot of information. Just rest assured we have all of it combined on Fox5SanDiego.com so you don't have to sit there with a notepad. So it's all on our website. And now, I should put this down because it's not recommended. One-handed savoring is definitely not recommended. Probably neither is this. Here's your seam. Explain to the good people you get the seam of the bottle and then you kind of hit the thing. So every bottle has two seams on either side and so you find that seam and we're looking for the weakest point which is right there so that when he hits that spot it's going to take off. And we're leaving the cork in while we do it? Yeah, the cork and then this top part of the glass will fire out whichever direction you want. It's right next to that little scrap there. Alright, here we go. You have to pull the sheath first. No, Dan, hold on to this guy. Okay, ready? Oh, man. I want to trim this bush over here behind Dan. It's like dead and it's poking people. Watch out, man. He's really close to you. You're kicking off the 20th anniversary. Just left of that little spot there. Watch out. I would do that like that way. Why are you all standing there? I have no control over where this is going. Are we ready, ladies and gentlemen? Well, not so far. Now you can't see it. Are you ready? Here we go. One, two, three. Yeah! How about that?