Lasseter Family Winery at DCA 5/1/09

[ALIASd]

I attended the Lasseter Family Winery wine-tasting event on May 1st at 5PM at the Food and Wine Festival at Disney's California Adventure- FANTASTIC!

John & Nancy Lasseter and their wine maker Julia hosted our lucky group of 60. Their wines were terrific, particularly the Rosé.

They obviously love what they're doing and each other. The photos of the new house being built on the property were so very cool.

They gave away one of the terrific trademark hawaiian shirts John wears, this one of a very limited edition and of great personal meaning. A very lucky lady won, she was so thrilled!

A BBC film crew was there to shoot footage for a show, having just come from their interview w/ The Lasseters on the patio at the Napa Rose, they'd had lunch at Cafe Orleans earlier in the day.

JL spoke so enthusiastically about the various changes coming to DCA, especially Carsland understandably. Growing up in nearby Whittier (which he mentioned 3 times) and having worked at DL this progress is obviously supremely important to him personally. It was inspiring to see and hear just how passionate he is about the future coming soon to DCA, the excitement and pride he has for it was absolutely palpable.

Hearing him speak about winemaking -the time, patience and processes -confusing it with filmmaking a few times too, was also enthralling. Doing it as a family is also paramount to both he and his wife, particularly as she noted, "because John works so hard and is away from home quite alot". She is just a doll, the support she radiates is simply too terrific.

On the film front, he walked into the event wearing an UP baseball cap and told me afterwards that he is so very proud of Pete Docter and his film. I asked him if he'd be doing some wine tasting while in France for the film's premiere opening at the Cannes Film Festival. Boy, did he smile! He graciously signed Cars and Toy Story artwork for me before heading off to autograph some wine bottles for other attendees.

One last note, it was quite funny to have his farewell words at the event interruppted by one Mike Wozowski and the Pixar Play Parade heading towards us at the Golden Vine Winery patio. "Drowned out by my own characters!"

Nancy & John Lasseter



JL expalining the history of their family crest wine labels



The glorious Rosé.



Terrific photo renderings of the newest addition to Lasseter Family Winery



Before the event started JL wandered up to greet me and Laurie, the terrific CM I met in line and explained the story behind the shirt he was wearing. It's design was comissioned by his wife for the surprise 50th 1/2 birthday party she threw him (six months after his actual birthday!) The Spooner-designed shirt features details of JL's life - Luxo Jr., Ollie's train, scuba diving, a hidden Mickey and many more!





Cheers!

[Aladdin]

how exciting! thanks for letting us know about your encounter!

[migy21]

Great photos. Thanks for the share.

Aside from Rose what else can you recommend? I love wine tasting!

[ALIASd]

Their 2005 St. Emilion style red blend, Sonoma County (Merlot, Cab, Malbec, Cab Franc) and the Rhone style red blend, Sonoma Valley (Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre) were also wonderful, particularly the latter of the two. They were all part of an overall quality experience, enjoy.