Even though the Santa Maria Valley is Santa Barbara County’s most populous area, it has lacked a live music venue that regularly delivers concerts featuring high quality, touring performers. One of the newest additions to the valley’s wine scene, Presqu’ile Winery, took the deficit into consideration when designing the stunning new tasting room and winery.
The tasting room includes space for regular live music featuring singer-songwriters, explained Presqu’ile’s Estate Manager Cameron Porter, but the real attraction is the outdoor area’s multileveled, grassy amphitheater.
“The Murphy family built everything from scratch here,” he said, “and they designed it with the intention to do concerts and offer a live music option a little different than what you might see here.”
The winery began its summer concert series on June 27 with a performance by beloved local cover band The Molly Ringwald Project, Porter explained, but the amphitheater remains reserved for bigger touring ensembles performing as part of Presqu’ile Presents, the winery’s concert series. The Reverend Tall Tree with the Ruben Lee Dalton Band—blues rockers out of LA—packed the outdoor venue as the sun set over the rolling Santa Maria hills on July 25.
Thanks to a partnership with the Trombone Shorty Foundation, the famed Dirty Dozen Brass Band out of New Orleans will perform as part of Presqu’ile Presents on Aug. 29. The event is designed to emulate the raucous enjoyment of a New Orleans concert, Porter explained.
“We want the wine to encourage the conviviality and fun that you find there,” he said. “When the music is really kicking into gear and the sun is setting behind the bands, it’s very impressive visually, and there is a real communal feeling among the audience.”
Part of emulating New Orleans boils down to the taste buds, and Presqu’ile made sure that’s covered as well. Presqu’ile Presents includes food trucks and local chefs creating delicious dishes to pair with the wine and music, but this event required a number of familiar culinary locals, Porter said.
“It’s going to be, this time around, a really New Orleans, Cajun-influenced menu,” he said. “We’ll have Chef Rick, who’s really Santa Maria’s master of Cajun cuisine, and Josh Snow with Spencer Johnston, who owns Josh Danior Kitchen.”
Presqu’ile’s outdoor space is designed for more than concerts and relaxed sipping and eating, Porter said—there are places for bocce ball and horseshoes. The winery’s tasting room also includes a members’ lounge with pingpong and foosball tables.
The tasting room also houses regular live music featuring solo singer-songwriters who perform acoustic music more suited for the indoor space. Upcoming tasting room concerts include Jineanne Coderre on Aug. 21 and Matthew Szlachetka on Aug. 28.
“For us, it’s about giving back to the community and providing these new experiences for guests that really enrich the entire community of Santa Maria,” Porter said. “And it’s been amazing, I think we were even surprised by just how successful and strong the response was for these concert events. I think it shows that people locally really are clamoring for these kinds of events and experiences.”
Contact Arts Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2015.