Carol Widman "Carol Widman’s Candy Company"
The original Widman tradition of handmade quality candy spans four generations, originating in 1885 in Dubuque, IA with William Widman I. Four generations have allowed the Widman family to develop a special quality of product and unique use of ingredients, including our famous “Chocolate Covered Potato Chips” or "Chippers".
Chef Enzo Febbraro - D'Acqua Ristorante - Washington DC
Chef Enzo Febbraro is the well-respected executive chef at the politically acclaimed D’Acqua Ristorante. His experience and skills are far-reaching, providing an outstanding basis for producing world-class meals that dazzle diners, time and again. He has helped D’Acqua remain the culinary home of many of Washington’s politically elite, including senators, congress members, and First Lady, Laura Bush, as well as many White House staff members. He has also personally cooked for the past two presidents.
Lou Kapcsandy President/ Owner - Kapcsandy Family Wines
Our family – Lou, Roberta and son Louis Jr. – purchased the property in May, 2000. This vineyard was known to us for many years from Beringer's winemaker’s Myron Nightingale and Ed Sbragia. The wines from State Lane vineyard continued to be highly sought after. The 1995 State Lane Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon was awarded 95 points by the Wine Spectator as the top Cabernet Sauvignon in California. Robert Parker has consistently rated the wines at 90-plus points. In 2001, we teamed up with legendary winemaker Helen Turley and her viticulturist husband John Wetlaufer. We conducted comprehensive investigations of soils profile, physical properties, soils chemistry, geological formation and drainage. To our amazement and pleasure, we discovered a unique vineyard with multiple micro-geological conditions. We have great respect, admiration and love for this very special land in Yountville, CA, and decided to redevelop the vineyard for its utmost potential and produce world-class red wines under our family label.
Vince Ferragamo - quarterback NFL and CFL
born in Torrance, California - an American football quarterback in the National Football League and Canadian Football League. He played for the Los Angeles Rams (1977-1980 and 1982-1984), Buffalo Bills (1985) and Green Bay Packers (1985-1986). After leading the 9-7 Rams to road victories over the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1979 NFL Playoffs, Ferragamo started for the Rams in Super Bowl XIV, in which the Rams led after three quarters of play before being overwhelmed by the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-19. Ferragamo enjoyed his best statistical season in 1980 in which he threw for 30 touchdowns, tied for second most in the NFL. The Rams again made the playoffs, but were defeated by Dallas, 34-13 in an NFC Wild Card Playoff game. On December 26, 1982, Ferragamo threw for 509 yards in a game against the Chicago Bears, at the time the second highest passing mark in league history behind former Ram Norm Van Brocklin. It was the third time in league history that a quarterback had passed for over 500 yards in a game, the first by Norm Van Brocklin (554 yards) and the second by Y.A. Tittle (505 yards). Subsequent to his return, Ferragamo led the Rams back to the NFL playoffs during the 1983 season behind the running of rookie Eric Dickerson. After beating the favored Cowboys in Irving in the wild card matchup 24-17, Ferragamo and the Rams were drubbed by the defending Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl-bound Washington Redskins by the score of 51-7. He has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice, once in 1980 and again in 1981. Ferragamo currently owns a real estate business in southern California-and is about to launch a private label company, Ferragamo-Migneco Vineyards, featuring fine quality domestic and imported wines. He is also the chairman of the Vince Ferragamo Foundation ( www.vffoundation.org ) a charitable organization that focuses on raising donations for children's organizations such as the Special Olympics and the Ronald McDonald House.
Robert Balzar - Wine Expert
The man responsible for awarding the coveted Holiday Magazine Restaurant awards has been a wine writer for more than 65 years. He has also been a retailer, an artist, an actor, a restaurateur and even a flight instructor, during World War II. He is also a Buddhist monk.Robert Lawrence Balzer has always been surrounded by Hollywood celebrities and in 1978 he teamed with producer Duke Goldstone and director - writer Dennis F. Stevens to produce a number of wine programs and commercials featuring the leading wineries of France and California.As of this writing he has a daily radio program on K-Mozart (105.1 FM in Los Angeles) and is still leading wine programs on cruise ships.Robert Lawrence Balzer was also the first serious writer-journalist in America. His love affair with wine began with Repeal, about the time he graduated Stanford and joined Balzer's, the family gourmet market on Larchmont Boulevard, just south of Paramount Studios, not far from the heart of Hollywood and mere miles from Beverly Hills. Customers included Cecil DeMille, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingrid Bergman, and Marlon Brando.In 1936, at the age of 24, Robert Lawrence was put in charge of the market's wine department. At the time, he knew nothing about wine, but soon learned. California wines were beginning to find their way onto retail shelves, after Prohibition's 13-year dry spell.Balzer put out a customer newsletter praising the wines stocked on the shelves of the Larchmont store; Almaden, Inglenook, and Paul Mason. Will Rogers Jr., a classmate at Stanford, was intrigued by Balzer's writing and in 1937 asked him to write a wine column for his newspaper, the Beverly Hills Citizen.After writing the first of his 11 books on wine, Robert Lawrence began branching out. He started writing for Travel Holiday magazine, which published his articles for more than two decades and until recently Balzer was the person responsible for granting the coveted Holiday Magazine Restaurant awards. In 1964, he began writing a weekly column for the Los Angles Times Magazine. A few years later, he launched Robert Lawrence Balzer's Private Guide to Food and Wine, quite likely the first wine newsletter in America.Robert Lawrence also has a spiritual side. Since the early `50s he has studied Buddhism, at one time at a temple in Cambodia where he was ordained a teaching monk. Indeed, teaching may be his greatest passion. Over the years winemakers have made regular pilgrimages to speak to Balzer's classes, which have developed an almost cult like following among students.At his annual birthday parties, those lucky enough to be invited mingle with owners of the world's greatest wineries, who fly to Southern California, and the City of Tustin, for the event.