In the June/July issue of Wine Enthusiast, I write about my time at the extraordinary, not-to-be-missed Big Sur Food & Wine Festival. Here is a snippet:

We would walk that morning on private coastal land fenced off from the public. The festival is famous for finding breathtaking vistas few have ever seen, and this one especially had everyone eager to get going. “I’ve lived here my whole life and never seen it,” said one anticipant attendee.

Thirsty though we were, no one complained about the delay, which somehow made the proceedings all the more charming—a dramatic pause before the big reveal. The festival is entirely volunteer run; every dime flows right back into the community. As such, despite the opulence of the gathering, all the good wine and meals prepared by a battalion of award-winning chefs, the entire weekend feels as though its planners are just barely one step ahead of every event, Indiana Jones-charging across a collapsing stone floor. Somehow, they manage to pull it off with panache.

Read the rest here, or pick up a copy at your local bookstore or newsstand.

Image Credit: David W. Brown, made available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0)