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- Feb 9, 2010
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There are days where I just do not know where I get the energy.
Last Saturday was one of those days...
Woke up at 5:30am (Force of habit) after going to the fireworks the night before with friends (did not get to bed until 1am),
Ran errands: Picked up mail, changed oil, went to bank, grocery shopped, got hair cut, and several other things. Was back home by 10am.
Cleaned house, blew off the deck, washed and scrubbed deck table and bar, Scoured the grill..
Cooked: Prepped for dinner. Menu was a Cajun style clam soup, grilled pork tenderloin (marinaded in a little olive oil and old bay seasoning) with rice pilaf and asparagus, and a strawberry tart with crème anglais.
Straightened up the winery and my man cave. Had all this done by noon.
Having the luxury of 15 minutes of "free time", I managed to sip through my first cup of coffee of the day.
Fifteen minutes later my brother and father showed up (right on time) with 2 three-foot long Italian subs for lunch.
Bottled a small 200 liter tank (18 cases) of 2013 Chilean cab. (without sounding like I am bragging, this stuff is fantastic). Two of my friends also showed up to help so we managed to finish up around 2:30.
I had one person on the bottler, one topping each bottle off, one on the corker, leaving me to supply bottles to the bottler (rinse each on in k-meta and place on bottle trees) and to dry/box up the corked bottles. Dad supervised the whole operation.
In other words, I got a wonderful aerobic workout for about 2 hours. It may sound like I am complaining, but I was actually having a lot of fun doing this and so was everyone else.
When the bottle trees got a little empty, the bottler would yell "Need bottles!" and I would stagger over and say (in my best Igor impersonation) "Yes master, and after I get your bottles could you perhaps give me that beating you promised me? You know how much I like a good beating." .
By the time we cleaned and tidied up the winery, it was about 3pm. My two friends went home leaving just me, my older brother, and my father. We sat in the man cave and did some nice sipping. I broke out one of my 1993 cabs, but sadly it was well past its prime and tasted like colored water. Oh well, at least it was not oxidized!
My father started getting nostalgic, he kept saying "If only you great-grandfather could be here". I can not tell you how much that comment meant to me! Dad has early Alzheimer's and has good days and bad days. Saturday was one of his good days. Said a little prayer and thanked God for one more good day with my Dad.
We settled in and I tossed on a movie (bottle shock), but we got so much into our conversations, that we really did not see any of it. Several bottles later, and it was time to start cooking dinner (5:30)
Mom shows up for dinner at 6pm. Ate our way through the nice 3 courser, and mom then took dad home. My brother spent the night and we settled in for a few more glasses and some really nice cigars. We called it a night around 1am.
Sorry for the long winded post. Sunday came and I had this awesome feeling of accomplishment. It is hard to describe, it is almost like calm, peaceful feeling where I feel like I can completely relax knowing that I earned it. Anybody else get this "accomplishment high"?
Last Saturday was one of those days...
Woke up at 5:30am (Force of habit) after going to the fireworks the night before with friends (did not get to bed until 1am),
Ran errands: Picked up mail, changed oil, went to bank, grocery shopped, got hair cut, and several other things. Was back home by 10am.
Cleaned house, blew off the deck, washed and scrubbed deck table and bar, Scoured the grill..
Cooked: Prepped for dinner. Menu was a Cajun style clam soup, grilled pork tenderloin (marinaded in a little olive oil and old bay seasoning) with rice pilaf and asparagus, and a strawberry tart with crème anglais.
Straightened up the winery and my man cave. Had all this done by noon.
Having the luxury of 15 minutes of "free time", I managed to sip through my first cup of coffee of the day.
Fifteen minutes later my brother and father showed up (right on time) with 2 three-foot long Italian subs for lunch.
Bottled a small 200 liter tank (18 cases) of 2013 Chilean cab. (without sounding like I am bragging, this stuff is fantastic). Two of my friends also showed up to help so we managed to finish up around 2:30.
I had one person on the bottler, one topping each bottle off, one on the corker, leaving me to supply bottles to the bottler (rinse each on in k-meta and place on bottle trees) and to dry/box up the corked bottles. Dad supervised the whole operation.
In other words, I got a wonderful aerobic workout for about 2 hours. It may sound like I am complaining, but I was actually having a lot of fun doing this and so was everyone else.
When the bottle trees got a little empty, the bottler would yell "Need bottles!" and I would stagger over and say (in my best Igor impersonation) "Yes master, and after I get your bottles could you perhaps give me that beating you promised me? You know how much I like a good beating." .
By the time we cleaned and tidied up the winery, it was about 3pm. My two friends went home leaving just me, my older brother, and my father. We sat in the man cave and did some nice sipping. I broke out one of my 1993 cabs, but sadly it was well past its prime and tasted like colored water. Oh well, at least it was not oxidized!
My father started getting nostalgic, he kept saying "If only you great-grandfather could be here". I can not tell you how much that comment meant to me! Dad has early Alzheimer's and has good days and bad days. Saturday was one of his good days. Said a little prayer and thanked God for one more good day with my Dad.
We settled in and I tossed on a movie (bottle shock), but we got so much into our conversations, that we really did not see any of it. Several bottles later, and it was time to start cooking dinner (5:30)
Mom shows up for dinner at 6pm. Ate our way through the nice 3 courser, and mom then took dad home. My brother spent the night and we settled in for a few more glasses and some really nice cigars. We called it a night around 1am.
Sorry for the long winded post. Sunday came and I had this awesome feeling of accomplishment. It is hard to describe, it is almost like calm, peaceful feeling where I feel like I can completely relax knowing that I earned it. Anybody else get this "accomplishment high"?
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