Wine, wine and some more wine

The weekend away at Russian River for Barrel Tasting weekend was lovely. We rented a place on the river from Russian River Vacation Homes called River Dream. On the whole, the place was really nice. It is much more spacious than it appears in the pictures. Kitchen was nice, deck was nice, having a gas fire made things easy. But... ah, with a rental house there is always a but... the beds were very soft. I think they were using the memory foam type mattresses, but if they were they weren't the good ones (not like SP's). Of the 3 beds, two lodgers complained. Also, the site says wifi, but we almost never had a usable signal. The biggest complaint, though, is that the site says the place sleeps 8, if you use the pull-out couch off the living room. But the couch was unusable. AS ended up sleeping on the couch without it being pulled out (it was a love seat size) and MM slept on the wicker couch in the living room. They had a tough time of it, poor things. Other than that, the place was nice and we all enjoyed the weekend there. I would consider renting the place again, but not for more then would sleep in the three bedroom and without any expectation of wifi.

Saturday was our day of tasting. I purchased gobs of wine... we hit quite a few vineyards, starting further north than we usually do: Korbel (where we picked up our tickets), Dutcher Crossing, David Coffaro, Mazzoco and Quivira. I bought several bottles at Dutcher Crossing, one at David Coffaro (I would have bought futures there, but you had to buy by the case and it was just too much), and a ton of stuff at Mazzoco (per usual). I ended up joining their club because I wanted to buy some of their Maple Reserve, but only club members could buy it, so there you go. The plus was I got to taste to reserve wines they weren't actually pouring that day, one of which goes for about $125/bottle. It was a very nice, smooth Zin, though MM turned his nose up at it. By the time we got to Quivira, I could no longer taste anything and just hung out outside with EI. In total, I think I came home with 10 bottles. Not too bad. I look forward to drinking each and every bottle I purchased. :-)

We had two nice dinners together, too. Friday night AS and I prepared dinner (simple pasta and sausages). Saturday night, MM's friend R, who had joined us for the day, cooked up some extremely tasty Chicken Karange (sp?) with rice and broccoli, finishing it off with her insanely delicious rum cake. Yum. Word. Of course, no weekend would be complete without beef, and despite all the food a big bit of tri-tip ended up on the grill and served up with breakfast this morning.

Overall, it was a very good weekend, what with it being my first trip since the fall and my first time really drinking again. I truly was missing wine.

Now I must prep for a week with the folks. Dad and Adele arrive Tuesday.

Wine the Cure for the Common Cold?

One of my devoted readers suggests wine is the cure for the common cold. I wish that were true, because then I would be a 100% back to my old self! Regardless, wine is much loved among me and my friends. Below, four of my fellow tasters.




R&A took the lead on purchases when, at Quivira, they bought a case of futures! That put my 10 bottles to shame.

Colds Suck but it won't keep me from the Wine!

In case you had any doubts, let me assure you that having a cold and going away for the weekend is not necessarily a good combination. But despite feeling icky most of the weekend I am having a good time. Right now we are all crawling awake slowly. MM, EI and MH stayed up late chatting (though I have been informed that MH was actually asleep on the couch), but I had a headache that just wouldn't go away so I ended up in bed early. It's weekends like this that I start to contemplate my age a bit more than I might have in the past.

We don't have any plans today other than to laze about. The weather is still beautiful. Maybe I'll find some energy later to go into town and walk around doing a little weekend shopping.

Yesterday we did have fun wine tasting. We went to about 4 vineyards: Hop Kiln, Rochioli, Mazzoco and Quivira. R&A drove up and joined us, as did a friend of MMs, so there was a total of 7 of us. After the first two stops we picked up some food stuffs in Healdsburg and then had a very nice lunch at Mazzoco. By the end of the day I had purchased about 10 bottles of wine. Everyone seemed to have a good time and the weather was perfect. If I hadn't ended up with a headache, it would have been a 100 percent success. I will put up some pictures a little later as I can't seem to upload any right now.

The evening was spent bbqing on the back deck while I tried to nap my headache away. Everyone but me participated and we had a nice dinner together. MMs friend even baked an apple cobbler from scratch, which we are all enjoying this morning as breakfast! Mustn't let any of it go to waste!