Sideways Slo3 (November 29th, 2006)

"Who loves not wine, women and song, remains a fool his whole life long"
Martin Luther

We were up bright and early on Monday morning, preparing for a new adventure in wine tasting. We started out by eating breakfast at the Apple Farm Restaurant. Take my advice skip this place on the breakfast. Nothing was all that great, especially the potatoes. How can you get breakfast potatoes wrong? These were dry and bland, I had to take a drink every time I took a bite, just to swallow.

Anyhow, we were off and here is a quick run down on the tasting rooms we visited.

EDNA

This was the first tasting room we went to, and in hindsight, I was glad that we made this our first stop. We were the first ones there at 10:00 in the morning; there are not too many wine bibbers out trying to get a drink that early, unless they're at the convenient stores. The tasting room was gorgeous and modern. It was a wide-open room with immense windows that overlooked the vineyards, so that one could see the yellow and orange hued grape leaves cascading over the hills. The young girl working the tasting room was very pleasant and full of information that she didn't seem to mind imparting to us.

The wine was nice and full of flavor. It was here that we first learned about the taste and aroma of wine; in that, flavors are not infused (most the time) into the wine, they are slight hints that one associates with the wine. Kellee was excited because she could actually detect a subtle hint of graham cracker in one of the wines, and that was one of the flavors listed.

Saucelito
The next stop was a much smaller scale tasting room. We walked in and felt cramped and the hostess tried to appear hospitable, but was not as warm as the person whom we just had a conversation with about edna wines. Although, I enjoyed their Reds much more than the bigger production Edna, I was dissatisfied with their room and services. I didn't buy any of their wines for these reasons, but after sampling all the others I do believe I enjoyed their pinot noir the best.

Tangent
This tasting room was an old school house that the owners had converted over. It sat on top of a hill overlooking all the vineyards; the scenery was breathtaking. Tangent had a patio next to the tasting room, so after Kellee and I had done some tasting, we bought a bottle of their pinot gris along with some cheese and sausage and sat down to take in the view. This place is another spot that I highly recommend!





Salisbury
Kellee and I had to break from the wine tasting for a while so we went and had lunch and then a little rest. By mid-afternoon we were ready to go again! This time we ventured over to the Avila Beach area. This place was another old school house that was converted into a tasting room and art gallery. The wine was decent, but again the server was not all that warm, however he did give us another glass of wine while we checked out the gallery.

The Gallery was phenomenal. This was partially due to the art pieces that were on display, but it was also due to the very nice and down to earth woman that ran the gallery. She told us all about the pieces on display (a series of paintings covering Ballroom Dancing), the artist, and how they actually had ballroom dancers perform on opening night. I think her passion for the art rubbed off on me and kellee, otherwise it would have just been paintings. She was the winery owner's wife.

The other cool thing that set this tasting room apart was that we had the oppritunity to meet the owner and head wine maker. He was an older gentleman of the highest quality. When I told him that we were on a small vacation for our anniversary, he smiled and congratulated us on our success and then went over to the not so warm host and had him give us a bottle of chardonnay. A very nice gesture.

Kesley See Canyon
This was my favorite spot of the trip. We pulled up to the address located and to both our surprise the tasting room and winery were located on someone's property. I mean to say, that it was right next to their house where their children's play equipment was strewn about the lawn that the peacocks were roaming around in. In front of the tasting room was a playhouse next to a vat of grapes ready to be crushed. One of the presses was also right in front of the store, and to our delight they were about to crush some of the grapes.

The door was closed and the lights were off when we walked up. I was somewhat relieved at this point, after going to tasting rooms that ranged from the exquisite to the quaint I was not looking forward to spending my time in this whole in the wall. However, even the people in the grand Edna wineries raved about the apple wine here. So any how we were about ready to leave when a little old man came cruizing up in a golf cart.

"You kids want to go in and taste some wine, huh?" said the frail man.

It turned out that this was really the best wine we had tasted all day. The central coast is known for their pinot noir, however this winery was the only one we found that offered a port, which was really tasty. As I said before, Enda wineries know what they are talking about…the apple chardonnay at this place was off the hook! And this coming from a person that generally likes the dark reds.

The man was an exceptional down to earth host; he showed us pictures of the boat he used to operate and give tours out of, and was eager to tell us that his boat was used in the movie Perfect Storm. It was here that we bought the most wine from. We found it comical that most of the wine we bought was sweet dessert wine. At a tasting, you go from white to red to a dessert wine. It is usually 5+ tastings, all ending with the dessert wine. We found that after savoring several wines and then tasting something like a Muscat, our taste buds were overwhelmed with the sweetness and goodness of the dessert wine.


Wine press

















picture in the tasting room.


















Tolosa
This was the last place we went, and it was like heading back to the beginning. By this time it was late afternoon and there was a crowd forming. In Tolosa there were already 3-4 couples tasting at the bar when we arrived. The place was new and modern like Edna's, however they didn't have any windows to admire the view. They did have a glass window that looked down into their warehouse, so you could watch the wine making process in action. Also, they had a nice patio that one could go and sit if you really wanted to be surrounded by the beauty of the vineyards. By that time it was late and I was wined out. All the tastes were beginning to blend and I couldn't really taste the difference any longer (unless it was drastic like from white wines to Reds). Tolosa was grand and beautiful; I was just a little bummed that it was so late in the day and that I was too burnt out on wine to enjoy this tasting room. Still, overall and I would give it high marks.



wherehouse

















smelling glasses



















A full day of wine-bibbing.

There you go! That was our first taste testing experience. For a quick trip on short notice, it was worth it and I would love to do it again sometime. I am thinking that I might venture out into Temecula country for my next excursion; possibly in the spring. If you are interested in joining us, let me know.