At the prices marked on the barrels, I would leave a poor man.Despite the Corona Virus scare, my wife and I went to the "Behind the Cellar Door" event in Amador county this weekend. In a weekend of marathon wine tasting, note taking, and some spitting, we managed to hit 13 Wineries, including many new to us. We took 2 other couples with us and had a great time. Unless you're local, many of the places we went are not widely known. Here's a list where we visited (see if you recognize any!)
Il' Gioiello (One of our long term favorites-)
South Slope Vineyards (New kids on the block, really good Barbera and Syrah)
Rombauer (Great Sonoma Producer, new second property in Amador-outstanding Zinfandel)
Dillion (super small family place--purchased Syrah futures there-really good price/quality)
Karmere--(Mob scene, good barrel tasting, great Barbera)
Bray-(Nice Tempranillo and several interesting ports)
Feist--(Available some Costcos)
Uphill Vinyards (Enjoyed the Primitivo)
Le Mulet Rouge (winery on Red Mule Street, hence the name, very nice wine/food pairing)
Drytown Cellars (Surprisingly excellent winery hiding in plain sight. I've been going up to the area for 20+ years and this was my first stop-will likely join the wine club)
Morse-(Probably rare back East, and most production goes to the Wine Club, but maybe THE BEST Amador winemaker-)
So over 2 days, this was a pretty full effort! Got to try a lot of new wineries, bought some nice wines, and several futures (which I virtually never do), and visit several new places for us.
The barrel tasting at Drytown:
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At the process marked on the barrels, I would leave a poor man.
$12/bottle (actually a little less) I would have been glad I was flying Southwest Airlines. Two bags for free so my wife and I only have carry-on.So the price you can't see, if you got a case of each one, you got 4 cases for $550. So we did that and will split between 4 of us. The Reserve Barbera and Syrah were especially good, all were terrific.
Sorry to hear that AJ, we have a health care facility getting ready to start and I bet they wish they had given us the go ahead sooner so they could be open for business.
Just got back from the Eastern Winery Expo. Signed up for one session on yeasts which discussed what they referred to as ambient fermentation (natural), non sac yeasts and Anchor yeasts by Scott Labs which had multiple strains that react at different times. They primarily discussed the Alchemy line. I bid on a silent auction and won a 500 gram pack of HD S135 Fermentis yeast. It's a fast fermenting red wine yeast. I have no use for 500 grams so if anyone wants to research it and wants some let me know. I'll vacuum pack it and send it. All in all it was a lot of fun and very informative and I had a chance to play a new golf course.
The more I learn about high end winemakers the more I’m noticing say they go native. proven high quality grapes have a lot less risk involved, starts slow allowing maceration, and actually heard one winemaker say it’s “honestly just easier for his tiny crew and one less thing to worry about.”
I’d think going sac to non-sacc to anchor would require a whole lot more monitoring/testing/control then a home winemaker can realistically give. (Although I do Think I’m gonna get the YAN test kit this year) That multi yeast deal Probably let’s them lengthen the time a good bit I bet and really max out the benefits from yeast selection. Cool stuff.
Btw- Hope ya didn’t hack up those new fairways too much!
Giving the Foodsaver a workout today. Stocked up on meat and need to split everything up and freeze. Got enough charcoal for a couple weeks. Only thing we need to worry about at this point is milk and fresh veggies. Hunkering down...
And TP????
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