I always look forward to my #winechats on twitter and Laura is a fellow “winelover” that I’ve been chatting with through the years. She lives in Cleveland and its always nice to catch up when we have those monthly wine gatherings.
Do you have a twitter account? Do you like wine? Have you ever done a twitter chat? Twitter chats take place for around an hour and a bunch of people get together to discuss a monthly topic. It’s all text, well, except for the #pinksociety chat. They have videos, crazy memes and usually a dance party portion. A very fun way to get together and drink pink wine! I’ve been part of the #pinksociety since it’s inception and another cool part of it, is that you can win prizes, which brings me to today’s #WineAndCheeseFriday entry.
This wine and cheese pairing began with a cheese. We first tasted the lavender goats’ milk gouda cheese in the Amsterdam Cheese and Liquor Store in Sint Maarten. They surprised us by mentioning that Gouda cheese can be stored for up to 6 weeks unrefrigerated since it is a hard cheese. That was all we needed to hear; we purchased multiple wedges of Gouda cheese to bring back to the US with us. The lavender cheese would be used in a future pairing and the rest would be souvenirs for family. Yeah, we consider cheese a souvenir ?
We were able to visit a second tasting room, during our visit to Carmel by the Sea. Coincidentally, this was another brand we learned about from the Pink Society. Scratch Wines was the featured guest, only days before we arrived in California. Carmel by the Sea isn’t a very big town but Scratch was just down the road from Holman Ranch. During the chat, I had found out that this tasting room is in a shared space with an art gallery, what a great idea! There wasn’t anyone else in the tasting room when we arrived so we had a private tasting with Ally, who happily shared some cheese recommendations to try with the Scratch Wines.
We first learned about Holman Ranch during a #PinkSociety #PinkParty (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23PinkSociety%20%23PinkParty) in June. I was fortunate to try out their Susan’s Saignee Rosé during the chat. As I swirled and sipped the wine, I found out more about the 400 acre ranch in Carmel Valley. One of the questions was about the tasting room in Carmel by the Sea. Not only are there many tasting rooms to enjoy in this town, it’s also “by the sea” and beautiful. Well, I was convinced to include Holman Ranch’s tasting room in Carmel by the Sea in our Sideways Wine Tour. We left Paso Robles, driving along route 101 up the California coast, and along the dark and windy roads until we arrived at our cabin in Carmel By the Sea.