What R you doing today?

[jswordy]

Gun season opens on 11/5 - archery season is already open. Deer are small in S. TX (80lbs field dressed) but I like hunting in short sleeves.

Yep, it has been 75-80 in TN and that means for the archers, processing has to be quick. Here's our seasons. Dry and not enough fronts predicted to make them move. We'll see what happens.

 

[ibglowin]

Made it up to Paso today but not before stopping off in SLO at our favorite Pinot Noir winery in the Edna Valley, Tolosa! They pretty much just start pouring anything we ask for basically these days. On the list, off the list, Single Vineyards, Futures, Barrel Samples..........

We make sure to eat lunch before hand and after this we head to the hotel for the evening. Amazing Pinot's and Chardonnays.

They were crushing the last of their fruit today. Tomorrow we will attack Paso Robles for 3 days!

 

[ibglowin]

Started the day off yesterday with a before lunch tasting at Turtle Rock in Tin City. Joined blind once I found out the winemaker is/was the assistant winemaker at Saxum and the fruit was sourced from the same vineyards. Yep, they just received their first 100pt score from Jeb Dunnuck. Everything was completely off the charts good. We picked up not only my 6 bottle allocation but left with another half case including another bottle of the 100pt 2019 G2 that had to be approved by the owner himself no less. Not a bad way to start the day!

Retirement does not suck!

 

[ibglowin]

Yesterdays post lunch tasting appointment was another club pickup/tasting at Denner!










Denner is considered one of Paso Robles best kept secrets, but maybe not much longer. Wine Spectator named it's Dirt Worshipper as #18 of its Top 100 wines of 2019. We probably should have hit Denner 1st and Turtle Rock 2nd in retrospect. Very hard to compete with Turtle Rock. We took home our Fall allocation of 6 bottles as well as a few bottles of the just released Cab Sauv which was a winner for sure 90% CS 10% PV.

 

[ibglowin]

Yesterdays pre lunch tasting and club pickup! EPOCH (Epic) Winery! As they say you can't drink all day unless you start in the morning!














These wines are all just massive and made to lay down for years. They were pouring 2019's and they all were still really tight as a drum IMHO needing lots of air. The winemaker is Jordan Fiorentini and she knows her stuff for sure. We picked up our club allocation as well as a couple other bottles plus they refilled the EPOCH growler which we purchased last Spring and refilled it with a new wine they made for this club offering a ZIN blend. I bottled the Grenache from last spring and drank the last bottle a few weeks ago and it was still excellent. So keeping these in a full growler for a few days until we get home seems to work just fine. Price works out to about $20 a bottle for some really great juice.



Funny side note as we arrived our server greeted us and welcomed us, asked where we were visiting from and we relied the usual "northern New Mexico" and she looked at us funny and then said "where in northern NM"? We laughed and said just outside Santa Fe, she looked at us funny once more and said "where exactly just outside Santa Fe"? So we replied with Los Alamos finally and her mouth dropped. So come to find out her husband (remarriage of 6 years) is a retired "labbie" and she is an avid road cyclist and has stayed several times in White Rock and even ridden the "loop" several times around from Los Alamos to Bandelier to White Rock and back up to Los Alamos. So it was one of those small world incidents where you compare people you know and places you have been.

Even weirder is that this is the 2nd server this visit with ties to Los Alamos, NM. Our server the other day at Tolosa has a daughter who lives in Los Alamos, NM and her and her husband run the local bike shop in town. Kinda feels like we are playing "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" only the Los Alamos version!

 

[jswordy]

Yesterdays pre lunch tasting and club pickup! EPOCH (Epic) Winery! As they say you can't drink all day unless you start in the morning!

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These wines are all just massive and made to lay down for years. They were pouring 2019's and they all were still really tight as a drum IMHO needing lots of air. The winemaker is Jordan Fiorentini and she knows her stuff for sure. We picked up our club allocation as well as a couple other bottles plus they refilled the EPOCH growler which we purchased last Spring and refilled it with a new wine they made for this club offering a ZIN blend. I bottled the Grenache from last spring and drank the last bottle a few weeks ago and it was still excellent. So keeping these in a full growler for a few days until we get home seems to work just fine. Price works out to about $20 a bottle for some really great juice.

View attachment 94802

Funny side note as we arrived our server greeted us and welcomed us, asked where we were visiting from and we relied the usual "northern New Mexico" and she looked at us funny and then said "where in northern NM"? We laughed and said just outside Santa Fe, she looked at us funny once more and said "where exactly just outside Santa Fe"? So we replied with Los Alamos finally and her mouth dropped. So come to find out her husband (remarriage of 6 years) is a retired "labbie" and she is an avid road cyclist and has stayed several times in White Rock and even ridden the "loop" several times around from Los Alamos to Bandelier to White Rock and back up to Los Alamos. So it was one of those small world incidents where you compare people you know and places you have been.

Even weirder is that this is the 2nd server this visit with ties to Los Alamos, NM. Our server the other day at Tolosa has a daughter who lives in Los Alamos, NM and her and her husband run the local bike shop in town. Kinda feels like we are playing "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" only the Los Alamos version!

So... Buncha drunks in Los Alamos! Check!

 

[ibglowin]

So... Buncha drunks in Los Alamos! Check!

Absolutely. LOL Something about Q Clearances, Building Nukes on a tight schedule, being married with no family close by = highest per capita wine/beer/liquor sales for any Kroger store in the USA!

 

[ibglowin]

Yesterdays post lunch wine tasting at Jeffry's Wine Country BBQ in Paso........





We decided to add on a new winery that has been getting some great press as of late Nenow Family Wines. They were named the #4 Best New Winery in the USA for USA Today this Summer.

https://www.10best.com/interests/drinks/best-new-winery-winners-2022-readers-choice-awards/
NFW is a small family owned and operated winery that only produced like 700 cases last year and this year doubled production to 1500 cases and are already selling out on several wines. They had about 6 wines on the list with most being the usual Rhone blends. $25 tasting fee waved with 2 bottle purchase. Drew Nenow is the head winemaker at ONX Wines in Tin City. He decided it was time to go out on his own a couple years ago so he is now splitting his time between 2 wineries and trying to raise a family with two small children no less.
















Wines were all very good but........ Come to find out you can't become a member of every winery in Paso or you will be in serious financial trouble! We purchased a couple bottles (cherry picking the best). A Viognier which was ( a first for me) had been put through MLF! Didn't think I would like it but it was actually very good. Not over the top with butter but it had a nice creamy mouthfeel and was a favorite at the table along with the 99 Steps (95% Syrah 5% Viognier) which the fruit came from the G2 vineyard (Think Saxum and Turtle Rock) so this wine was the hands down winner. Drew must have some connections to Justin Smith at Saxum to get his hands on fruit from this vineyard. G2 seems to be the Red Mountain of Paso Robles. Very special place for sure. All in all another fantastic day in Paso and another amazing day to........

Be retired!

 

[Mcjeff]

Yesterdays post lunch wine tasting at Jeffry's Wine Country BBQ in Paso........

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We decided to add on a new winery that has been getting some great press as of late Nenow Family Wines. They were named the #4 Best New Winery in the USA for USA Today this Summer.

https://www.10best.com/interests/drinks/best-new-winery-winners-2022-readers-choice-awards/
NFW is a small family owned and operated winery that only produced like 700 cases last year and this year doubled production to 1500 cases and are already selling out on several wines. They had about 6 wines on the list with most being the usual Rhone blends. $25 tasting fee waved with 2 bottle purchase. Drew Nenow is the head winemaker at ONX Wines in Tin City. He decided it was time to go out on his own a couple years ago so he is now splitting his time between 2 wineries and trying to raise a family with two small children no less.

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Wines were all very good but........ Come to find out you can't become a member of every winery in Paso or you will be in serious financial trouble! We purchased a couple bottles (cherry picking the best). A Viognier which was ( a first for me) had been put through MLF! Didn't think I would like it but it was actually very good. Not over the top with butter but it had a nice creamy mouthfeel and was a favorite at the table along with the 99 Steps (95% Syrah 5% Viognier) which the fruit came from the G2 vineyard (Think Saxum and Turtle Rock) so this wine was the hands down winner. Drew must have some connections to Justin Smith at Saxum to get his hands on fruit from this vineyard. G2 seems to be the Red Mountain of Paso Robles. Very special place for sure. All in all another fantastic day in Paso and another amazing day to........

Be retired!

Looks like a really good time. Definitely jealous Thanks for sharing!

 

[jswordy]

Absolutely. LOL Something about Q Clearances, Building Nukes on a tight schedule, being married with no family close by = highest per capita wine/beer/liquor sales for any Kroger store in the USA!

I just saw on last night's news that NM has the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths among working-age people in the nation. Umm, congratulations? I wanna MOVE THERE!

 

[BarrelMonkey]

Yesterdays post lunch tasting appointment was another club pickup/tasting at Denner!

I used to be a member here - loved their Rhone varietals though I must confess I wasn't a big fan of their cabernet sauvignon (Mother of Exiles, I think they call it?)

 

[BarrelMonkey]

I made a tirage bin today! I'm planning to make sparkling wine (Blanc de Noir) from one of my 2022 pinot noir lots. I have a source for glass (champagne bottles, obviously) but it's bulk glass - no cardboard boxes. I think my bin should hold 6 or 7 layers of bottles with 16 bottles per layer, so around 100 bottles. That should be plenty for my (hopefully) 15-16 gallons of wine.

 

[vinny]

We knew it would happen, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

From 75+ degrees two weeks ago, to this...


The fun part is it doesn't go away till April. Even if it doesn't snow for 2 months we will still be white.

Decided to put up the winter garden in defiance. We cheat and put in live lettuce and green onions from the store to get a jump. This will keep us stocked with lettuce, chard, kale, basil, parsley, and cilantro for the winter. Makes a big difference over a long white winter.

 

[ceeaton]

We knew it would happen, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

From 75+ degrees two weeks ago, to this...

Yikes, my Son is in the USAF around the Fairbanks area, it's 5*F there right now. 77*F here, guess it is our second summer. He's due to visit in a couple of weeks, will probably feel tropical to him. It's supposed to cool off for the last half of the month, but I doubt we'll get any of the white stuff.

 

[sour_grapes]

Today I finally bottled 9 gallons of a Bordeaux blend from Washington State grapes, after ~18 mos. in the carboy. It was 1/3 Cab Sauv., 1/3 Cab Franc, and 1/3 Merlot, from Rattlesnake Hills (Cabs) and Walla Walla (Merlot). They were purchased from Wine Grapes Direct (group buy organized by one one of our members ). Better than a sharp stick in the eye!

 

[vinny]

A little overdue racking today. First for the back 3 and second for the front. All made late may/early June. Back 3 are my chem free experiments. I was gonna add pectic enzyme to get then clearing faster, but I'm in no rush, I'll check back in 3 months.

None are amazing, but for carrot and dandelion I am quite pleased. Time will only improve them. 5 months since I transfered to secondary with no kmeta in the chem free ones, I added it today, but none showed any signs of oxidation.

Just proof that wine is forgiving.

 

[winemaker81]

My son & I racked the barrels and bottled -- ~16 gallons of 2021 FWK Super Tuscan and 2021 FWK Rhone-type blend (Syrah, Petite Sirah, Merlot). Then we cleaned the barrels, racked-n-homogenized the 2022 Grenache and Tempranillo, and filled the barrels with the respective wines.

Additionally we racked-n-homogenized the 2022 Rhone blend (Mourvedre, Petite Sirah, Syrah), and the FWK Tavola Merlot with Grenache pomace. We ran out of time and steam, so the FWK Tavola Merlot with Tempranillo pomace did not get racked. I'll do that tomorrow.

The Grenache is very good, although light (typical for Grenache). The Rhone blend tastes good up front, but the aftertaste died quickly. I eyeball blended 80% Grenache / 20% Blend in a glass -- WOW!!! For a young wine, the blend is really good. We are both excited about that one! A year in the barrel should do even better things to it.

The Tempranillo is good, but seconds to the Grenache/Blend. That's ok -- it's still going to be a success.

EDIT: It's no surprise why GSM is so popular!

 

[sour_grapes]

Dang, my beloved Phils went down meekly in Game 6. Houston was just the better team. The Phils made mistakes when you couldn't do so, and the 'Stros did not.

 

[vinny]

I'll be going to town once I get the truck thawed. -16 Canadian today. We've had a couple days of steady flurries. She's here to stay!

I have been contacting you guys from the early 2000's with blazing rural internet speeds that will load an image a day. I bit the bullet and ordered Starlink after a few dismal days of pitiful service. Its at the depot in town, so off i go.

Then onto the snow covered roof for an install... I could have definitely timed that better. At least its shingled and not tin!

 

[cmason1957]

Congrats on the StarLink purchase and installation. Do be aware, they just announced today that if you use over 1 TB of data in a month, your speed will be degraded.

"This announcement comes off the back of a recent article by ArsTechnica, showing that Starlink's median download speed has dropped to 62Mbps in Q2 of 2022 as the network struggles under the load of increased subscriber numbers,"

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/11/07/226237/starlink-is-getting-daytime-data-caps