Davenport Orchards and Winery 2012

Some of you may remember my trip to Davenport Orchards and Winery last year the weekend I went to pick grapes.

Well I went back for more again this year. And this time I dragged the Scotch Man along with me.

Here we are at the vineyard!



We spent about three hours picking grapes off the vine with the other volunteers and seasonal workers. Look at all the grapes we picked!

Ok, so the Scotch Man and I didn't pick all of these. We probably only contributed three or four bins out of the total forty-nine.

After they fed us lunch (along with a complimentary glass of wine!) we got to watch them load all of the grapes into the de-stemming and crushing machine. They put us back to work helping out. I got to swap out bins to catch all of the stems and other trash came spewing from the back end of the machine.

I got a little messy.

Ok, so this might be a bit embellished for effect, but I did get pretty messy. The guys working there took some extra gunk off the machine and made me rub my hands in it before we took the picture, hehe.

After we finished working, we went back to the tasting room and tried all of the different wines they had for tasting. The Scotch Man bought a bottle called Jazz Man, and I got one called Matrot - which is made with Norton grape, the same type of grape we were picking today.

Overall it was a long, exhausting day, but the weather was amazing, I got to see a lot of awesome stuff, and I  got to spend the day with my man. He did a good job helping out. Here he is helping mash the skins back down into the fermenting liquid.

I can't wait to drink the bottles we got today. And I can't wait to go back in a couple of years to get a bottle made of the 2012 Norton we helped pick this year.

Heron - 2009 Mendocino Merlot

This bottle of Merlot I opened while talking on the phone to an old friend of mine that I don't get to see very often anymore. He scoffed at my choice of Merlot and made a recommendation of a wine that he regularly drinks that I promptly forgot (and still can't remember - something about sisters). I see he still hasn't posted it on my recommendations page, even after a long tangent of him trying to log into his own Blogger account while we were chatting.

I forgive him. For not visiting my site, for thumbing his nose at my choice in wine, and for only talking to me for two hours in the last six months.

I'm a pretty good friend. Once you're friends with me, you're pretty much stuck with me forever. I'll always be here waiting.

Merlot, in general, I've discovered are pretty dry. This one had the typical dry burn, and no noticeable flavor afterward. I've decided that that's what makes a good wine to me. If I can still taste some of the grape, or some other flavor, through the dryness. I know there is probably a good wine term for that, like finish or something.

I've been drinking wine for long enough that I feel like I should have a better idea of what I like and what I don't, but I am still learning. So far it's been mostly blends that I've liked them most, but every blend is different.

Heck, I've found that even different brands of the same kind of wine are different. It's so hard to settle on something I'm really happy with.

Although why settle on one? There are too many wines out there to try. My work has only just begun!

Columbia Crest Grand Estates - 2008 Merlot

My sister stayed with me for about three weeks at the end of the summer as she transitioned from one great life event to the next. I was happy to have her, in spite of my initial reservations. I should have known we'd be fine. It took three years living together for us to drive each other crazy, and this was only three weeks.

I had gotten so used to her being around, actually, that I found myself a little sad when she told me she had found a job and an apartment and would be moving out within the next few days. So we cracked opened a bottle of wine to celebrate and commiserate.

The bottle I chose was the Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot from 2008. I've tried a couple of different bottles of the Columbia Crest, and while this particular bottle wasn't too bad, it wasn't nowhere near as delicious as some of the other bottles of theirs I've tried.

I'm not sure I'm much of a Merlot fan.

So while we drank, we filled out these "Rate that Wine" forms Luigi gave me for my birthday. They have silly rating systems like "murky as a polluted lake" and "medley of vinegar" and "harmoniously tongue loving" or my personal favorite "will also linger in my dreams" to describe each part of the wine. Using this form you can give the wine a 1-5 on label, color, clarity, nose, body, flavor, and finish.

Of course neither of us really knew what we were doing, but overall we both rated it about a solid 3 out of 5 overall. My sister, who isn't a fan of red wines, noted that her overall impression was "meh, not bad for a red."

And as we drank, we became somber and philosophical, and talked late into the night.

A week later she was gone, and I finished the rest of this bottle on what would have been Mom's birthday, feeling sorry for myself that we lost her the day after she turned 56, two years ago.

A melancholy bottle of wine, it was.

Five Rivers - 2009 Pinot Noir

I bought this bottle at Cork and Barrel's closeout wine sale (the one I bought six bottles and spend $70 at) and I have to admit the sole reason I bought it was because the label was pretty.

Popping the cork was a pleasant surprise, as well, as it is inscribed with the word "Goddess." The wine itself was pleasant but nothing extraordinary. It didn't keep as well as some bottles: after a week it had gotten a bit bitter to drink. Probably a drink in one setting bottle, if you can.

This bottle I drank with the Scotch Man at his place, and the main story here is that I am still adjusting to having his son, the little Jedi, around full time. Some nights after trying to keep that kid entertained I am in serious need of a glass of wine.

Could having three kids be why my folks always drank a beer or two every night? I wonder sometimes. I often thought it was just a holdover from their college days (Mom was pregnant with me when she graduated) but now I'm not so sure.

I also wonder what our kids will think about us drinking wine (and Scotch) almost every night. Just like my parents, I wait until the kid is in bed to pop the cork, but the collection of wine bottles rivals the collection of beer cans my folks collected over the weeks. We had a great big black trash can that we collected the cans in for recycling.

Right now I just collect the wine bottles because they are pretty. My collection is large, however. I need to start recycling them and only keeping the really nice bottles.

But I'm going to start keeping all of my corks. Especially this one, since it says Goddess on it.

Lagar de Robla - 2008

A little on the dry side, but still easy to drink. I actually was quite distracted while drinking this bottle. I drank it each night we watched the Olympics, which made me feel both lazy and inspired at the same time.

In my wine infused euphoria, I swore that I was going to become a runner. Watching those runners run, just watching their bodies, was amazing and beautiful. I was just in absolute awe of the gymnasts, hurtling themselves through space, and the swimmers wiggling their bodies as if they were fish. The most painful night, a night I had more than one glass, we watched the BMX races. Ouch! Those wipeouts are violent and epic. Of course, the Scotch Man watches the Olympics just to see the accidents, so he enjoyed it way too much.

The rest of the bottle was finished while I watched the Scotch Man play the videogame Bioshock. It's a first person shooter, but it's heavily laden with story, and has a fantastic 20s horror feel to it. I couldn't tear myself away. Several nights he'd turn it on and I'd forget what I was even working on. It was fun to get a bit buzzed and watch as the story unfolded and things kept getting more and more disturbing.

So, as I mentioned, this wine was less about the wine and more about drinking wine while being entertained and amazed. I remember it being good, but nothing that blew me out of the water.