Yesterday Jay and I hung out with Dave and Andrea (Andrea is my business pardnah!) and headed out to wine country to Pope Valley Winery. We didn't know too much about this place except that they had decently priced wines, it was a small winery way out in the middle of wine country (closer to Napa) and the tasting was $15 for an all day tasting and barrel tasting.
We arrive (after speeding through twisty, windy roads in Dave's little race car)to this beautiful place to lush, green trees, about to turn and vines filled with grapes! The tasting room off to the left was no bigger than my bedroom and definately nothing fancy, but it was cozy and the tastings portions were a bit more than most of the tastings I've been to. Upon arriving to the tasting room where we check in, a large sticker of a known celebrity name is slapped on your back by a funny woman wearing a shirt that says "The liver is evil and must be destroyed!". Your job is to find out who the celebrity is by asking people questions and once you get the name right, you can wear it on the front of your shirt. Great drinking game!
I ended up being Tom Cruise. The word "Scientologist" gave it away.
Better yet, how would you like to be this guy! His sticker says "Jeffery Dahmer" on it!:
Once we checked in, we walked back to an area where they were cooking up BBQ with an enormous amount of food. I felt like I had just been invited to my friend's back yard for lunchtime barbeque and unlimited drinks!
After eating, we were then whisked off for barrel tasting. This was interesting as it doens't look like wine. More like pink lemonaide and pineapple juice. I can't really explain what it tasted like, except very sweet.
On to the tasting room where we tasted 6 different wines from white to red. And in the end, they let us sample the Zinfandel Port that our friends were raving about. It was quite tasty!
I really liked their Chenin Blanc and Syrah so I bought some of that. Nice thing is that the wines were reasonably priced at $20 and under.....unless you buy the port which is worth the $35.
Throughout the day, we could pick the grapes from the vines and place them in the tub for the grape stomping which happened later in the day. Here are some episodes from that! And of course I jumped in and stomped!
All in all, it was a good time! And then the karaoke came out so we had to leave. Many a toasty wanna be disco singers got up and sang their hearts out while enjoying BBQ, good wine and people. Even one of the owners just started breaking out his bud light collection. He reminded us of a thin Uncle Jessie.
I liked this winery and the folks running it. I'm just not impressed by stuffy, over priced tasting rooms. Bottom line is if the wine and presentation is good (and fun!) I'll be a life long customer!
Now, I must rest my belly today as I have over stuffed it from BBQ and good wine. And those damned chewy chocolate chip cookies!
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