2 posts tagged “wine tasting”
I uploaded some photos from the wine consumption journey.
2. Noggle Winery: The winemaker (Mike) and his wife. Their wine barrels are all behind us in that barn. This is the winemaker that invited us into his kitchen/tasting room to try his Cabernet Sauvignon. His home had an absolutely beautiful view.
3. Ceago Winery: The winery's on lakefront property and their dock was built so that people could boat over to the winery to taste/party. Ceago has a 2003 Zinfandel, which I picked up, that was awesome. My mom made me pose.
4. This is the view outside of our timeshare's condo. My parents were complaining about the power lines... I think it added a little bit o flava.
5. Anderson Valley Brewing Co.: So what do you get when you cross a bear and a deer? These guys sell to Trader Joes, so I was already aware of their beer... I had a few pints anyway :D
6. Roederer Estate: This winery is owned by the french company that bottles Kristal. So go here and for $200 less you can get the same champagne as Kristal (sparkling wine since it's not made in Champagne, France). I don't think we got anything from these guys... but the chick behind the counter was a devout lesbian and a lot of fun to talk to.
7. Some random view on the way to Mendocino county. It was a beatiful drive.
As a 21st birthday present to me from my parents' friends, the Cooks, I went wine tasting up in Mendocino County and through Anderson Valley with them.
We started our journey at LAX and took the shortest plane flight I've ever been on. I'm used to flights to Hawaii or to the East Coast. Not these land hops where you spend more time waiting for the plane to take off than you do in the air. We land in Sacramento around 9 am and head out to get to the time-share that the Cook's share. On our way out we hit up a couple of tassting rooms. The first was in town rather than at the winery/vineyard, which isn't uncommon but not as cool. We tried their wines then left. The next one we hit up was a winery called Noggle. We see the sign and figure, "what the hell?" We follow this road to Noggle, which turns into a dirt road about 200 yards into the drive, and figure that the sign must be wrong since there is no way anyone would advertise for a winery that is such an adventure to get to. We were wrong and pull up to Noggle. Since this whole world of wine is so virgin in my mind, I didn't think anything differently about the fact that there was no winery... just a vinyard next to a barn, next to a house. The wine maker comes out and invites us into his tasting room. Most people would call it a private kitchen, but I guess he doubles it into his tasting room. Apparently he's usually just a grower for various wineries but since he had such an aboundance of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape, he decided to bottle some of his own... hence his lack of a legitimate tasting room. So we hung out with him and his wife in their kitchen tasting his Cab as his two sons watched to ball game on TV and I played with his cat... her name was minnie.
The rest of the day involved some 'real' wineries in their 'real' tasting rooms and very little food in my stomach. I was feeling tipsy to say the least.
Sunday and Monday consisted of the same adventures in wine tasting, just more booze at lunch and dinner, and even more booze before I hopped on the plane to head back home. My mom found me in the airport's bar with a beer and two shots of Jack... I think it scared her a bit... but fuck it... I'm not driving, if the plane crashes, at least I was too drunk to care, and flying while intoxicated makes it more interesting anyhow.
I might post some shit I wrote up in wine country... I just have to remember to do that...
It was a great weekend. I'm almost finished with my break's reading and I found that my parents and their friends drink a lot when the kids aren't around (I'm not considered a kid anymore I suppose).
I work the rest of the week. Joy. I'm thrilled...
Cheers
adam
