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It is that time of year when the rosé wines from the last vintage will be released. Each year, Fiddlehead Cellars in the Santa Ynez Valley hosts a Pink Party. Guests dress in pink and pink wine is poured all night for a fantastic nite of fun. The Fiddlehead Pink Party takes place the weekend prior to Valentine's Day, which means that it takes place around my birthday (and in the past has occurred on my birthday), so it is a dual celebration. For five years I have been attending this event! It is an event I look forward to each year and that is why this week's Please The Palate Pick of the Week is the Fiddlehead Cellars Pink Party. This year, the party moved from the Fiddlehead Winery and Tasting Room in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto to the restaurant Root 246 in Solvang. Open for ten years, I had not been to the restaurant in years and was impressed by the exciting new change. The modern decor restaurant is now run by Chef Pink, aka Chef Crystal DeLongpré. Chef Pink has been featured in Spike TV’s “Bar Rescue”, Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen,” and “Man vs. Child” on fyi,TM. Chef Pink took over Root 246 in December 2018 and has created a seasonal menu blending local ingredients with fine dining techniques.
Making wine today benefits from modern technology. But, Illahe Vineyards is producing a wine that removes every element of modernity and technology. I found it to be a fascinating story wrote about it in my weekly column in the Napa Valley Register which I am sharing here. 
Have you ever thought about how they used to make wine before all of the luxuries of modern technology? Before electricity? Before mechanization, whether with tractors or machines for harvesting and sorting? What about temperature control? Is wine simpler to make today because we have technology? Do we take for granted how so many innovations have made work easier?
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