November Visitors Part DEUX: The Bacchanalia

A usual, we're catching up on the Blog... This one's been waiting to be published for a while now... Enjoy! -J-y-J

Justin and Bridget arrived on Wednesday/Thursday while I was away on business in San Diego, but I arrived back on Friday just in time for some revelry at our favorite Friday Night hangout in Lafayette- Diamond Dave at Petar’s Restaurant. To understand the cool factor of this- you really have to read this article and watch this:

I was exhausted, but James and Caitlin and I got everybody pumped, we got our dancin’ shoes on and headed out.

We pretty much partied the night away, but I lost steam around 1:00 am and asked if we could all head home.

We slept in most of the morning on Saturday but we went over to show Bridget and Justin the Farmer’s Market and buy food for dinner while Bryan finished his packing. We bought some cool cheese called “Quark” and some tasty veggies to go with our rotisserie chicken! Yum! The thing on my head is a LEMON!

Bridget and Justin cooked a feast while James and I took Bryan to the BART and sent him on his way to start his backpacking adventure in New Zealand. SO Jealous!!!

We had an early night on Saturday in preparation for the Bacchanalia that was to ensue on Sunday.

Now- we’ve learned a few things about marathon wine-tasting in our 6 months of living in close proximity to the wine country:
1- It is an Olympic Sport that requires preparation, training, stamina and dedication
2- The wine map is essential, but it doesn’t show ALL the wineries on it.
3- You can only go to between 4 and 6 wineries in one day if you really want to enjoy the wine.
4- Start in the late morning and plan to stop at a vineyard for lunch that has picnic facilities.
5- James and Jess have to “flip for it” to see who will be the Designated Driver. The DD gets to taste at the first place and then enjoy watching everyone slowly devolve the rest of the day- which is also enjoyable, just in a different way.
6- Drunken flirting with the wine-baristas usually gets you extra pours…
7- The winery owners don’t care how much you drink as long as you don’t break the glassware or act like an idiopt.
8- Bring your own cheese and crackers and other snacks.
9- You can share a tasting flight- this allows you to a) pay less and b) try more wine
10-While everyone else is tasting- the DD should be schmoozing with the vineyard/winery owner.

Justin and Bridget were very impressed with my skills doing this last one. Whilst they were inside tasting with James, I in my role of “friendly Designated Driver” struck up a conversation with an older man sitting outside the Tasting Room drinking a Pepsi. He and I started talking, about what I don’t remember, but he asked me if I had ever been there before and I said no and he said “Well, you should let me give you a tour of the place!” It turns out he owned the vineyard and his kids ran the place- so we walked all over the grounds to the Pond where he had hired stonemason’s to lay flagstones with different images symbolizing the stages of life, the pergola where his daughter will be married later next year, the olive grove and pressing facility, the chicken coop, the raised garden, the courtyard with outdoor pizza oven, and my personal favorite- the outdoor kitchen and pool area where he later invited us to join him while we ate our snacks (see Tip #8) and told us of his early life, his purchase of the land and house for $75,000 back in 1970 and his current travel and charitable pursuits.

We sat for a good hour with him and listened and shared. It was wonderful- THANKS BOB!! The winery is called Harvest Moon, and we quite literally “stumbled” on it. We'll be back.

We used the wine map to start out a tour of Olivet Road wineries- we began at the European company-owned Deloach Vineyard where the nice barista offered us probably 9 different wines to taste- he just kept pouring! It was a good place to start.

Then we moved onto the next family-owned Hook and Ladder winery- the family who owned this had once owned DeLoach and sold it off due to family problems/finances- as we later learned from Bob. Bob told us that most of his grapes went to DeLoach for years but now they make their own wine. After the stimulating conversation and three generous winery barista’s the triplets were feeling the wine, so we stopped at a fourth winery called Martinelli Winery where we had a good tasting followed by a photo op outside the winery door for Justin and Bridget… followed closely by James saying “hold me Justin!”

We decided that it was time to switch to beer after that…

Everyone was in high humor when we headed to Russian River Brewing Company to end the day with a tasting of hoppy brews- sobering us up a little before dinner at our favorite place “Flavor” in Santa Rosa.

Needless to say- everyone was passed out in the car on the ride home and tucked into bed safely by 9pm.

We said our goodnights and I my goodbye’s (I had another flight out to San Diego on Monday morning at 4:30 am)- but it was a fantastic visit and we can’t wait for more people to come visit so that we can perfect the sport of wine tasting with friends!