winter barrel tasting 2009

for one? i tasted few barrels.
they were tasting from the barrel at Sleight of Hand, Va Piano and Tertulia.

none the less, fun was had.

wine highlights of the day?
Sleight of Hand Gewurtztraminer. i like the '07 but others favored the '08.
Dusted Valley Cabernet Sauvignon a new release this fall and its delicious.
Tertulia Mouvedre Rose. i love mouvedre and i love rose. i loved this rose.

other notables included the bordeaux blend in the barrel at Va Piano and the Semillion at Chateau Rollat. the Renegade at Sleight of Hand was tasty at its price point, the Barrel Thief Blend at Dusted Valley was tasty and the ice wine at Tertulia was also a crowd favorite.

it did not feel busy, as it has on other years, although the weather was nice. i heard Fall Release weekend was becoming the big sales weekend, while Barrel Tasting was mostly just that—tasting. hm.

either way, it was excellent to get out and get loud in a big suburban with a group of friends and dedicate a day to tasting the valley's offerings. the day was misty, over-cast, with bouts of blue sky. quite excellent.

tasting notes

this past weekend was spring release, a wine event i have yet to take advantage of. until now.

over the course of events saturday and sunday, i found myself at: rulo, waters, dusted valley, nicholas cole, waterbrook and reiniger. (as well as the marc, sapolil, and t.maccarones.)

this time around i found that i preferred the following:
waters viogner
dusted valley's stained tooth syrah and cabernet franc
graeagle and juliette by nicholas cole
melange blanc and reisling by waterbrook
helix syrah
reiniger's ash hollow syrah and carmenere

this summer i think i will be concentrating on crisp, fruity whites and stepping back from the rose that i loved so much last summer. which will probably be awkward since it seems very in right now. guess i'm unique?

i can taste five wines in a row and not be able to name a single flavor, scent or impression to save my life, but then something sparks something in my consciousness and i think "Ooooo..." so perhaps my palette isn't the best in the world but i can recognize something once in awhile. that's not too bad i'd say.

my only other thoughts of note are that nothing tasted like dill this time around, nothing at rulo stood out for me this year besides the art, nicholas cole gave some really paltry sized pours to be honest and that the town was busy, which was excellent.

an unproductive weekend

spent the weekend wine tasting and not gardening, so unfortunately i don't have a lot to say.

my seedlings aren't nearly as big and beautiful as anything out at the farm or in the stores but i am hoping that they will pull through. i might collect milk cartons to make some impromptu cloches to aid my case once i get them outside.

last night we found a beheaded baby chicken.
my thoughts on this are:
1. i hope it was the same one that i couldn't retrieve from behind my neighbors fence (thus minimizing my loss.)
2. i hope it wasn't any of my three cats. (other cats are more difficult to control, but i don't want to have a killer in my house.)

quite frankly though, at this point, with this many chickens, i'm not too heart broken over the loss of one. mostly just frustrated that it means they need to be on lock-down.

making small steps towards the backyard of my dreams...

winter barrel tasting

...some notes of my delicious weekend.