Dinner at the Resort

Well, after a full day of wine tasting, we made it back to the Worldmark Windsor by about 5pm. We settled in for the evening and I prepped the food for dinner. The room has a fully stocked kitchen and an outdoor grill. I had bought a flank steak at the store earlier in the day and prepped it by cutting it into 3 portions and pounding them out a bit with a meat mallet. I just used a little salt and pepper on each side and set the grill to high (the grill wasn't very powerful). I sauteed some onions and garlic in some rendered bacon fat, then added a cup of the DeLoach Nova Zin and half a cup of balsamic vinegar to make reduction sauce. I simmered that until it thickened. We had some garlic bread to go with it. Everything was delicious and we really enjoyed cooking with the same wine we drank with the meal. I usually use a cheaper wine when I'm cooking, but I think we could tell the difference here because of the simplicity of the sauce. Tomorrow we plan to head out to the coast and hopefully get to do a nice run in one of the park areas.

Raymond Burr

We finished up the day with a tasting at Raymond Burr. The tasting room here was a little smaller than most but what it lacked in size, it easily made up for in charm. There were many pictures of the actor on the walls as well as some other interesting photos. The tasting room servers were very accommodating and clearly enjoy their jobs. The wines were all very nice, our favorite being the 2004 Cabernet Franc ($38). The 2005 Chardonnay ($28) and 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon ($38) were also very enjoyable. The port was a treat as well.

Mill Creek

After the disappointing Rabbit Ridge, we stopped at Mill Creek. We planned to have a snack here too and it turned out to be the perfect place. We bought a package of salami to go with the Humboldt Fog cheese and crackers we already had. Before eating however, we did yet another tasting and were very impressed with what Mill Creek had to offer. We ended up buying two bottles of their Gewurztraminer ($16) to take home to have with our Thanksgiving dinner (it was great). We also bought a bottle of their Merlot ($22) and another half bottle to have with our snack. We liked everything we tried here and will definitely visit again. I noticed three menus on the wall from the White House and asked about them. A very nice lady (one of the owners) told me that they have been served at several White House dinners. She explained that wineries don't find out about these dinners until after the fact. What happens is that the White House will buy the wine from a local distributer and after the meal, they will send the menu card to the winery. I wish I had taken pictures of the menu card, that way I could try to recreate the meal.

Rabbit Ridge

From Porter Creek, we headed down the road to try some of the wineries we missed last year. We passed by Hop Kiln, which is just as the name implies, an old hop kiln. We recommend stopping here for a good tasting and picnicking in an interesting environment. We continued down the road past Arista and De La Montanya, which are both very nice smaller production wineries. We made the mistake of stopping at Rabbit Ridge. The server there told us that they would be closing in 6 months but if you are around before that, just keep driving. All their wines are from Paso Robles, which is a wine region to the south that we actually really like, especially for their Zins. The server seemed almost bothered by our presence. The wines here are very inexpensive and rightfully so.

Porter Creek

After picking up a few groceries and grabbing a bite to eat, we started our afternoon tastings at the Porter Creek Winery. The tasting room is very small and buggy. They make some less common wines here, like Viognier, which was pretty nice. We ended up buying a bottle of the 2004 Pinot Noir. Nothing else really jumped out at us and the clutter, bugs and disrepair of the tasting room took away from our experience.

DeLoach

From Harvest Moon, we drove up the road to DeLoach. This is one of the larger wineries in Sonoma and their wines can be easily found at supermarkets. The tasting room is large and open and you really get that big production winery feel. We liked the 2006 Green Valley Pinot Noir but didn't think it was worth the $45 price tag. We ended up buying a bottle of the Nova vineyard Zinfandel for $32. For a wine that wieghts in at 15.5% abv, it was well balanced and had a hint of that mocha taste we like from a Zin. This is the wine we had with dinner which I'll post in another entry.

Harvest Moon

Well our wine tasting started off on the right foot. We walked into this small winery's tasting room to a packed house. The girls at the Worldmark Windsor told us to ask for Anthony to assist with our tastings, they seemed to have quite a crush on him. Evidently Anthony is on vacation so Randy assisted with our tasting. He just happens to be the owner and winemaker here and is clearly very happy to no longer be a San Francisco Accountant. It's really nice to see someone so enthusiastic about their work. Harvest Moon specializes in their Zinfandels, which were nice, but a little light for our tastes. We however did throughly enjoy their dessert wines and Gewürztraminers. We purchased a half-case of the Late Harvest Zin futures after tasting the unfiltered wine. It was really neat to get to taste the unfiltered wines next to last year's vintages. We also got to try an unreleased Ice Wine which should turn out very nice once finished. We look forward to visiting Harvest Moon again and recommend it to anyone who enjoys some nice Zinfandels and dessert wines.

Trip to Sonoma (Brewery visits)

November 9, we headed for Sonoma for some wine tasting and sightseeing. We stopped at two breweries in Santa Rosa that we visited last year. The first was 3rd Street Ale Works. They didn't have as many beers on tap this year but their quality is still top notch. I think their Annadel Pale Ale is one of the more drinkable, well-balanced beers I've had. Their Bodega Head IPA is really good too. If anyone knows what hops are used in it, please let me know. From there we walked across the street to the Russian River Brewery and like last year, we ordered the sampler. There were 14 beers to try this year which could be a bit overwhelming. Of note was the beer made using only Bravo hops, a new strain that I've never had before. They impart an almost bubblegum flavor to the beer. It wasn't fruity or sweet and I'm definitely going to try these hops out at home. Russian River really pushes the limits in some of it's brews. They focus on making authentic Belgium ales including their Sanctification, and Deification which both make use of brettanomyces. They have a wine like taste with strong sourness. Also, the bartender really knew her beers. We definitely recommend tastings at both breweries.

OkDoberfest getting closer

Well, Terri and I ran the St. George Marathon last weekend and she qualified for Boston and I finished so we both met our goals. Now we can focus on the upcoming party.

I went through the brewing equipment that Terri's cousins gave me and found some pretty cool stuff. Along with the 2 old school 5 gallon kegs, there is an assortment of goodies that I didn't have. One of the interesting and useful pieces is the counterflow bottle filler. I guess you use it to fill bottles with already carbonated beer from a keg. This can come in especially useful to bottle a few to save from each batch.

Terri and I went down to O'Sheas and George helped me get everything I would need to use the kegs. I bought a new 5lb CO2 bottle and regulator and some new hoses. I had plenty of ball-lock quick connects already. I decided to keg both batches for the party to make it a bit easier to transport and serve. Also, I should be able to better control the carbonation this way as one of my concerns last year was that I over-carbonated the beer.

OkDoberfest

Getting ready for the big party. I have an IPA in the secondary and just brewed the OkDoberfest yesterday. I'll try out my new kegs on that one to cut down on the time needed to carbonate.