Lake Lopez and wine tasting

I like vineyards, tasting rooms, camping, nature, and hanging out with good people. Fortunately I know some good people to do all of these things with! We missed our usual 4th of July camping/river trip this year, but magically (actually, I truly believe I manifested it to be) a space opened up for us on another big-group-of-friends camping trip a couple weeks later. We had such a great time! Only a few pictures, because there was so much time NOT DOCUMENTING, but instead just enjoying. Here are a few...

Winter Roadtrip

It was a quick trip up the coast as a surprise for the husband's birthday. We packed a lot in! Buellton, Paso Robles, Lompoc, Santa Maria and Santa Barbara hills.

Started off with lunch at a fantastic place in Buellton called Industrial Eats. Beyond delicious food, seasonal ingredients, deli counter as well. The chef offered to make us something to our liking off of the menu, with guidance, but we basically custom ordered our breakfasts. Amazing, and if we had had more time, we would have tasted some wine next door at once-a-favorite Alma Rosa. They have a new-to-us, cool and relaxing tasting room. Next time, mañana, mañana.

Next up we drove to Paso Robles. Stopped off at Niner because we've always liked their affordable wines, and it was on the way to our tasting appointments at Denner and Villa Creek. Somehow we are members at the exclusive Denner, which is super nice, but frankly a little too upper crust for me. And not at Villa Creek, which I love. Must rectify this. Villa Creek wine is fantastic and they just updated/upgraded their tasting room. At first I was concerned that it wouldn't have the same charm that I look for in a tasting room. I like it when the room is pretty much an afterthought to the wine-making, a cleared out shed, dogs roaming around, counters made from barrels and driftwood. But never fear, the Villa Creek tasting room is an update while still maintaining its rustic charm. It's a very handsome room, comfortable, hip, and dogs are still roaming about!

Later that night we had drinks and dinner with our friends at Villa Creek, the restaurant in downtown Paso Robles. I love it here, and it was a perfect evening of delicious food, wonderful company, and many great beverages. Funny, I don't even remember having any wine with dinner.

The next day we had breakfast at Las Robles Cafe, a couple of pork tacos as a base for more wine tasting. We bee-lined to Lompoc after finding out that a recent wine discovery, Holus Bolus, just opened a tasting room there. Then to both Foxen tasting rooms (where we are members) before lunching at Cold Spring Tavern with Tri-Tip sandwiches, beer and bluegrass. We fit a lot into 2 days!

Sometimes I forget how great Southern California is. How within 2 hours, you can be in wine country, or the dessert or mountains, skiing, surfing, hiking, tasting wine, tasting tequila in Mexico, etc. I need a trip like this every now and then to remind myself how lucky I am. And how beautiful January can be.

Wine tasting

We hosted a wine tasting at our house! The purpose was to get through some of the bottles we had been hoarding for a couple of years, and share them with our wine-appreciating friends. We themed up and tasted 9 Zinfandels. About 6 years ago, we were really into going to vineyards and wineries, visiting little tasting rooms up and down California, and having nice little getaway weekends. We ended up returning from one of these trips with more wine than we could store efficiently. We bought a wine fridge, AND got an offsite storage facility for the overflow. We kept up and bought more and more, and one day I realized that our entire wine fridge only held Zinfandel. It turned out, I was sick to death of Zinfandel too! So a lot of the Zin sat, especially offsite because it was easy to forget about.

Keven made this cheese snowman - all edible!

Over the years we had whittled down some of the Zin, but still had enough to host a tasting for about 11 of us. We didn't want the tasting to be too structured, but enough so that people could taste and learn and enjoy (and not just get drunk, though that happened too). We did a blind tasting, covering up the labels and numbering them. We figured it was easier to remember you were on number three, instead of relying on remembering a name you had never heard of before. All in all, the night was a success!

Lots of cheese and crackers that night

Caduceus

We went wine tasting over the weekend at Silverlake Wine. The tasting was a special event with the winemaker from Caduceus Cellars, in other words: Maynard from TOOL! We tasted five wines, all from the vineyards in Arizona. They also had delicious food pairings from Heirloom LA. Great way to spend a Sunday. I may have to plan a trip to Arizona, just to see this operation first hand! And to visit the new tasting room at Caduceus.

Wine and cheese for dinner, watching Lost in Translation...

Wine Tasting

The last two weekend's of cooking class were actually on Wine. We tasted wine at 9:30 a.m. I'm not going to pretend like I've never drank that early. But, you know, I've never set an alarm, washed my face and gotten ready to drink that early.
I've gone wine tasting at vineyards in Paso Robles, Los Olivos, Santa Ynez Valley, Napa, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, Temecula, Spain, Oregon.... I have hosted and attended wine parties, frequented local wine shops, planned vacations specifically to taste wine. In other words, I have had some wine tasting experience. But NEVER have I tasted like I did over the last two weeks. And learned so much. A few things I learned and will do differently on future tastings...


Weekend one- Taste with the whole mouth.
Wash it left, right, under tongue, over teeth, and roof of mouth.
Nose should penetrate the plane of the glass opening when sniffing.
Store white wine AND red wine at same temperature.


Weekend two- Wine is an ingredient. Cook with it. Use it as accompaniment with food.
Food and wine should go together and bring out the best in each. Not be a detriment, nor pull out bad flavors or make anything taste less fresh or delicious.
Taste wine by itself. Taste each part of a meal or food by itself.
Taste wine again.
Taste food altogether. Then wash it down with wine.
Think, discuss, share. Repeat.

Parallels

Only three classes in and I'm already thinking a lot about land, agriculture, weather, cultivation, harmony, nutrients, bodies of water, bees, etc. These things dictate what happens in food culture. When learning about the food and wine regions in France and Italy, I couldn't help but be thankful for all my travels around Southern California. When the teacher was going over fruit trees, and herbs grown in a particular region, I envisioned California's Central Coast and valleys we have visited and tasted wine. Sure enough, along with grape vineyards, I typically see rosemary, thyme and sage bushes, persimmon and pepper trees, and fruit stands selling almonds, cherries, etc. It was like when the teacher was talking about certain areas, I already knew what went together, harvest-wise, taste-wise and agriculture-wise from observing similar regions in California. It made me grateful, as well as hungry for a roadtrip! I can't afford Europe right now, but maybe I can pool together enough for doggie daycare, gas, wine-tasting fees and a motel!
Wine club idea: pick a spot in California, find out its parallel, and find the corresponding region in France or Italy (or wherever) and confine the tasting region to these places..