For how many times Neil and I have watched Sideways, we’ve never been to the region to try the wines. We made a point to take a trip to the Santa Rita Hills AVA this summer to follow the Sideways tourist map. We were calling it our Sideways Wine Tour and it would begin outside of Santa Barbara and end in San Jose with us stopping every day or two along the California Coast.
When Neil and I drink wine, we do it for the total experience of the wine. We love to smell it, taste it and think about the flavors. There are days when Neil does ask me, “Can we just drink this one?", to which I say “No", but he puts up with me. This is a collection of wines that made a pretty significant impression on us, enough for us to extend our tasting over multiple days. Do you subscribe to the theory that wine that was opened yesterday can’t be good any more? Many folks will tell you that certain wines need to breathe for a couple days or at least will agree that the flavors will change. That’s what this entry is all about, the evolution of flavors. Maybe this will inspire you to “Savor the Flavor” too?
We arrived to the Sol Rouge Vineyard last night. We are excited about all the wine opportunities that this experience will provide! We are already scheduled to help bottle the wine on Monday morning so stay tuned for an entry regarding that. There will also be tasks to be done in the vineyard which Maria is super excited about.
book written by George M. Taber, Time Magazine writer
I am a wine enthusiast who loves to learn, that’s what drew me to this field. When I first started out a few years back, I watched about five “wine movies” to get started with some wine knowledge. It still surprises me how much you can pick up when you really want to learn. One of those movies that I always go back to is Bottle Shock. When I saw the book Judgment of Paris — California vs France and the historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine at the library, I figured it was worth a read since I already had a loose idea of the story. I never realized I would end up enjoying the book so much that I constantly had to keep taking notes!
We received this cheese from some friends because they knew we loved to pair Wine and Cheese! Thanks Sabrina and Geoff! We had heard about Mt. Tam cheese on a recent trip to Cowgirl Creamery. (http://www.cowgirlcreamery.com/) So we consulted our wine and cheese pairing list and looked for a wine that would pair with a soft cheese similar to Brie.