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Passport Saturday 4/15
Apr. 18th, 2006 04:30 pmI went wine tasting in the Santa Cruz mountains with Wyatt and another friend. It was a good day... it didn't rain and we evaded all the mini landslides frosting the hills. Plus, we tasted plenty of good wines, as well as a scattering of less-good ones.
First off we headed towards Clos Tita... a rare day they were tasting at their winery. Or, that was the original plan. In reality, we had trouble locating them, called... and got the message they'd relocated to Santa Cruz. Oh well. On to Roudon-Smith, McHenry (tiny place; the bathroom was in grandma's OLD house, which was a wee bit traumatic for me)- we all liked their wines, and then we detoured into Santa Cruz itself to visit Pelican Winery; one of our number favored whites, and they have lots... though they were actually tasting about six wines of all sorts. Still, Wyatt managed to snag a taste of a vintage they were almost out of ... and actually bought their last bottle (as well as a couple piece by an art nature photographer, which were lovely). So that was fun. The tiny store was crowded.
On a whim we stopped at tinier yet Alexander Winery, which not only had several tasty wines, and two entertaining women behind the counter (one was particularly free-spirited and curvy), but they made GIN! Sarticious label. They had a tiny bottle run set up. So of course we tasted the gin. It had a very flowery start (more than I tend to prefer in truth), but a really nice juniper berry finish, and it really stayed in the mouth. Be a fine gin for many light cocktails. It was a blast to find a local gin maker. The gin wasn't available in the wine shop, but is available around this area.
We concluded with the long-sought-but-usually-closed-too-soon Zayante.
It was a very good way to spend a day; good company, good booze, good scenery... Even including Burger King for lunch!
First off we headed towards Clos Tita... a rare day they were tasting at their winery. Or, that was the original plan. In reality, we had trouble locating them, called... and got the message they'd relocated to Santa Cruz. Oh well. On to Roudon-Smith, McHenry (tiny place; the bathroom was in grandma's OLD house, which was a wee bit traumatic for me)- we all liked their wines, and then we detoured into Santa Cruz itself to visit Pelican Winery; one of our number favored whites, and they have lots... though they were actually tasting about six wines of all sorts. Still, Wyatt managed to snag a taste of a vintage they were almost out of ... and actually bought their last bottle (as well as a couple piece by an art nature photographer, which were lovely). So that was fun. The tiny store was crowded.
On a whim we stopped at tinier yet Alexander Winery, which not only had several tasty wines, and two entertaining women behind the counter (one was particularly free-spirited and curvy), but they made GIN! Sarticious label. They had a tiny bottle run set up. So of course we tasted the gin. It had a very flowery start (more than I tend to prefer in truth), but a really nice juniper berry finish, and it really stayed in the mouth. Be a fine gin for many light cocktails. It was a blast to find a local gin maker. The gin wasn't available in the wine shop, but is available around this area.
We concluded with the long-sought-but-usually-closed-too-soon Zayante.
It was a very good way to spend a day; good company, good booze, good scenery... Even including Burger King for lunch!
