fête

a celebration or festival

from the Old French feste and the Middle English feast.

The Larner Fete was just that, a celebration, a festival of wine. Gathered in the Barn at the Larner Vineyard were winemakers, people who trusted and sourced grapes from Larner Vineyard in Ballard Canyon.

Tables at the entrance to the yard held sparkling wine glasses for the guests and a stage was set for the band, that spilled over onto the back of a flatbed truck to provide enough space. You could smell the smoke from the grill and the portable wood fired pizza oven followed by the aroma of things set to make your mouth water. The buildings remind you of a small western town, with the barn looming in the center, filled with tables, each with it’s own winemaker, each serving a wine they created from grapes grown at this vineyard. Michael Larner tells the story of how the Larner Fete came to be.