Sake Tasting

Monthly tasting at work – the theme this month was sake, and was most educational. We learnt how to read the label on a sake bottle, about the grade of the sake is partly determined by the percentage of rice left over after polishing (it’s amusing how the Japanese tend to downplay the grade of their sake, while winemakers try their utmost to upsell), about how sake isn’t meant to be aged (presumably because there used to be a law that taxed the sake once fermentation started), etc. Apparently, there isn’t too much literature out there (relative to wine) describing sake, and Bill SJ, the really awesome guy who leads our tasting, exhorted us to help him describe the tastes of the four different sakes we sampled (maybe not quite the correct word, since we got generous pours of that stuff; dangerous!).

Pinot Days Chicago

I learnt today that the best way to pick someone up at a wine tasting event is to show up with a clipboard that is also a wine glass holder. I must have had as many people come up to me to exclaim about my clipboard as the number of wines I tasted – 50.

The wines at Pinot Days were predominantly from the California, which is to be expected I guess because the event is run by the Bay Area Wine Project. They did have representation from Burgundy, by Fine Wines, which was the first table we stopped at. Alas, I didn’t like any of the wines. There were all too tannic and too tart in the finish. Jon suggested that those might be food wines, but I couldn’t see myself enjoying them even with a big juicy steak. Bleah.

There were some fine Californian wines that we liked, but overall, these wines were big and brash; some tasted more like a lush Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvingnon… I found myself more drawn to the Oregon Pinots. Indeed, my favorite was the 2009 Cornerstone Cellars Oregon Pinot Noir. Its floral and spicy nose was like a breath of fresh air. It was unbelievable.

Mostly, we wandered around from booth to booth at random. We found some gems that way – tiny producers with less than 1000 cases in production.

Some favorites:

August West
Their 2010 Russian River Valley was really tasty. And I appreciated that they brought a vertical tasting of the Rosella Vineyards (Santa Lucia) Pinot Noir for us to taste. We tasted the 2006 through 2010. The 2010 was still young, but had lots of potential, judging from how nicely the 2006-7 came out.

Belle Glos Wines
All their bottles are hand dipped in wax, which makes for a very distinctive appearance. I tried the 2009 Clark and Telephone, the 2009 Alturas (favorite of the lot), and the 2009 Taylor (only 1000 cases; not distributed in Chicago).

Goldeneye Winery
This is owned by Duckhorn, which also makes Paraduxx and Decoy. We stopped by the booth before 430pm (the tasting ended at 5pm), and was just in time for the last pour of the 2007 Andeson Valley. Pretty tasty… the price point is between the lower end Decoy and Duckhorn.

Gypsy Canyon Winery
This was a treat. The owner makes only 300 cases of the Santa Rita Pinot Noir, which was silky and had a beautiful long finish. She also gave us a small pour of the 2010 Angelica Ancient Vine, a dessert wine made from Mission grapes. It was delicious – like liquid creme brulee. She makes only a barrel a year of this (50 cases).

Native 9 Wine
The winery is so named because the winemaker/owner is a 9th generation Californian. They are small producers (less than 300 cases for 2 of their pinots). We tried the 2009 Altra Maria, the 2008 and 2009 Santa Barbara. Loved the 2008 Santa Barbara.

Sanford
Smallish producer. We tried 3 wines from them, and I loved the 2007 Sanford & Benedict.

A Syrah Tasting

At literally the last minute, I managed to get off the waiting list for my company’s monthly wine tasting. Syrah this time!

We’ve been drinking and buying too much Syrah lately (probably as a result of going to Paso Robles and then Seattle) – and not nearly enough Pinot Noir it seems!

Best wine: 2008 Syrah from Goedhart Family Vineyards “Bel’ Villa Vineyard”, Red Mountain, Washington, $29. It was spicy with a strong backbone of tannins.

Best value: 2008 Syrah from Bradgate Stellenbosch, South Africa, $14. Huge perfume, and super inky – almost black. Not as smooth or complex as the slightly musty smelling 2007 Corbieres Chateua Grand Cres, “Cuvee Majeure” from Corbieres France, but a great steal vs. $26.

Was disappointed by the 2008 Syrah Reserva from Tamaya Limiary Valley Chile, which felt limpid with zero structure in comparison. It was too sweet.

Wine Tasting in Woodinville, Washington

We were so excited at the prospect of wine tasting in Washington… but the question was, where would we go? There are 11 different appellations in Washington, and 10 are located east of the Cascades mountain ranges, as far as 3-5 hours of driving from Seattle. Yakima is the closest appellation east of the mountains, but we weren’t familiar with the wines from there, and Walla Walla and Columbia Valley were too far given our schedule.

Thank goodness for Woodinville. The Woodinville wine clusters began with the establishment of Chateau Ste. Michelle in 1976, whose production now dwarves that of all other wineries in Washington. There are over 80 wineries in Woodinville. Some of them are cellar doors with vineyards in the eastern appellations (Puget Sound is the appellation west of the Cascades, and none of the winemakers we spoke with think much of it – for now). Many are small production wineries (~1000 cases) whose owners may hold other full time jobs. Consequently, most of the wineries are only open for tasting on Saturdays, or open by appointment on Sundays (thankfully, that fit neatly into our schedule).

Woodinville is a veritable oasis of excellent wines. There were too many wineries to choose from, so I used the reviews over at Cellar Tracker to help with my research. I came up with a list of 15 wineries to visit; we only managed to hit half on the list, but visited others on the enthusiastic urging of the winemakers we met.

Wineries/Cellar Doors we visited:
1. Tempest Sol
Winemaker Gus White poured for us. We tried all his currently available vintages: 2008 Eos, 2007 Helios, 2010 Viognier, and the 2008 Aglianico (intriguing choice of an Italian varietal), as well as a 2009 Cabernet Franc and 2009 Syrah that were still sitting in the tanks, waiting to be barreled. We enjoyed chatting with Gus, who works full time at Microsoft developing the Kinect, and part time on this “hobby”. He told us he’s been making wine for the past 8 years, and started Tempest Sol a few years ago. His wines are mostly sourced from the Yakima AVA.

Bought – 1x 2008 Eos, 1x 2010 Viognier

2. Cuillin Hills
Winemaker Derek DesVoigne poured for us. He focuses on making Rhone and Bordeaux varietals, and we tried all 6 of his current offerings. His wines are sourced primarily from Stillwater Creek (Columbia Valley), Sagemoor Weinbau (Columbia Valley), and Meek Family Vineyard (Yakima). Of all we tasted, we really liked the 2008 Shackled Syrah and the 2009 Instigator Syrah. The latter had lots of tannins on the mouth, dry but smooth, with a smoky and meaty mouth feel.

Bought – 1x 2008 Shackled, Columbia Valley

3. William Church
We went to William Church on the recommendation of Gus, and what a solid recommendation that was! They make about 3500 cases there, so it’s about 3 times the size of Cuillin Hills and Tempest Sol. Unlike the other two wineries, we were served by volunteers here. We tasted the 2010 Viognier (wonderful bouquet! LOVED IT!), 2008 Bishops Blend (delicious), 2007 Sur La Meh (Beautiful! Totally in love with this one!), 2007 Cabernet Savuignon from Columbia Valley, 2008 Malbec, 2008 Two Spires (nice sweetish finish), and the 2007 Syrah.

It’s a pity, but we didn’t end up buying any from the winery. We were headed to Canada the next day, so we were mindful of not going over our legal limit as to the number of bottles we could bring in or come back across the border with. We thought we would have enough time on the return trip to buy more. Guess there’s always online shipping!

4. Sparkman Cellars
To be honest, my recollection of this winery is somewhat hazy. We were served by a couple girls, one of whom had just started her first day on her job and was thus almost as clueless as we were about the wines. But they were friendly, and we enjoyed their 2008 Wilderness Red Blend, which is a blend of Cab, Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. And we learnt that the Red Mountain AVA, whilst the smallest and newest appellation, makes some of the best wines in the state.

Bought – 1x 2008 Wilderness Red Blend

5. Patterson Cellars
There was a party helping to bottle the wines when we visited, which was fun to watch. We tried a bunch of wines, my favorite being the 2007 Woodslake Cabernet Franc. We’d tried a couple prior to Patterson’s and found theirs the most outstanding of the lot: Great representation of Cab Franc with its tobacco and raspberry notes and peppery finish.

One great thing about Patterson – theirs is the best shipping policy we’ve seen to date. $10 shipping charges for any number of bottles you buy!

Bought – 2x 2010 Chardonnay, 1x 2008/2009 Due Ann, 2x 2007 Woodslake Cabernet Franc, 1x 2008 Syrah Sirah

6. Baer Winery
Lisa, one of the owners, poured their tastings of the 2008 Arctos and the 2010 Shard for us. I’d heard of Baer from the Wine Discount Center when they sent out a newsletter featuring Baer’s 2008 Ursa. Funnily enough, she had just returned from Chicago, where she sold the last of her 2008 Ursa to the Wine Discount Center.

Leroy Redford of Flying Dreams makes their wines for them.

7. Flying Dreams
We were pointed to Flying Dreams by Gus of Tempest Sol, who told us that Leroy Redford, the winemaker, used to be a professional ballet dancer before he turned to wine. Leroy poured for us, even though we came knocking minutes before he closed. He sources his wines from a bunch of different vineyards, including Stillwater Creek (Columbia Valley) and Sagemoor Weinbau (Columbia Valley), like Cuillin Hills.

We especially loved his 2009 Syrah, which was especially smooth with explosions of berries and spice in the mouth. We got two bottles which Leroy autographed with a thick golden-tipped felt pen.

Bought – 2x 2009 Syrah

8. Pomum
Because Jeff was so excited about Leroy’s Tempranillo, Leroy pointed us to Pomum, the other winery in the area that focuses on Spanish-styled wines. The owner of Pomum is a Spanish architect. They’re not usually open for tastings on Sundays, but Jeff sent them an email and the sister of the winemaker, Ana, opened the doors for us and treated us to generous pours. It was fun chatting with her, about wine and everything else under the sun. We were there for close to an hour before we realized we had to hurry if we wanted to taste anything else.

Jeff liked their take on Tempranillo with the 2008 Tinto, though I found it to be a little harsh on the tannins. I preferred the 2007 Shya Red Bordeaux blend, which was smooth and lush on the tongue, with a long and sweet finish.

9. Janiuk
The Januik compound is sprawling, compared to the prior wineries we’d visited. The tasting room was elegantly designed, with high ceilings and glass doors that framed the one side while the other side opened to a gallery where visitors could look down into the expansive wine making facility that joined the building. It was packed with people too – not quite as bad as in Napa, but we had to wait for a bit to get a tasting.

While we prefer going to the smaller wineries so we would have a chance to chat with the winemakers themselves and understand more about their unique wine making process, we couldn’t fault the wines at Janiuk’s. The Januik branded wines are sold alongside the Novelty Hill brands, since winemaker Mike Januik makes those wines as well. For $7, we could choose 4 of the Novelty Hill/Januik wines to taste, or for $10, we could taste 4 of their reserve wines. We chose the latter, and were blown away by the 2008 Champoux Cabernet Sauvginon, as well as the 2008 Reserve Red. But the price tags seemed a little too steep, particularly when we factored in the shipping taxes. In the end, I bought 3 bottles on behalf of my boss, but passed for ourselves.

10. Dusted Valley
What a find! We lucked out in the tasting – they’d just had a Stained Tooth Society (the wine club) Syrah tasting the evening before, and had some leftover reserve and library wines to taste. We had such a blast going down the range of Syrah, from the different appellations. It was most interesting to see how the wines from the same year differed from the various appellations. Perhaps it was because we’d just sampled 5 different Syrahs in a row, but the 2008 Wahluke BFM Merlot jumped right out at us. It was such a luscious mouthful of goodness!

Gotta love Dusted Valley’s wine club. Winemaker and co-owner Corey explained that when he’d been looking for wine clubs to join back in the day, he’d been frustrated by the lack of choices offered. Most wine clubs choose your selections for their members, giving them not much of a choice in what wines they want. When Corey and his brother-in-law Chad formed their own wine club, they decided to let members choose what they wanted (which makes it more difficult for the winery to manage inventory). Thus, twice a year, members get a full say in what they want to drink. Which worked out perfectly for us in this case. We picked out a mixed case of primarily Syrah, and 3 bottles of that tasty BFM Merlot, to split with my boss. And, as an initiation gift to the Stained Tooth Society, we were presented with toothbrushes. Hah!

Bought – 1x – 2009 CV STS, 2x 2008 CV Rachis Syr, 3x 2008 Wahluke BFM, 2x 2005 Smasne Syrah, 2x 2006 WW Birch Cre, 2x 2006 CV Reserve Syrah

11. Chateau Ste Michelle
Jeff dubbed it “The Mothership”. It’s a sprawling estate.

12. Goose Ridge
Medium-sized winery… make wines using a small amount of their grapes; the bulk of them they sell to other wineries. Really delicious wines for the price – something must be said for economies of scale!

Bought – 1x Chardonnay, 1x Pinot Gris

Wine Tasting in Paso Robles

Our singular most memorable vineyard experience took place in Paso Robles, although funnily enough, no actual wine tasting was involved.

We were finishing up our wonderful meal at Artisans on Friday evening, when I looked over at the dinner plates of the couple next to us and started salivating to see the enormous and juicy looking scallops that the gentleman was enjoying. So I started up a conversation, and before long, we learnt that they were the neighbors of the B&B we were staying at, and that their 20 acre plot of land included 10 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, 6 aces of Syrah, and 4 of Merlot. We chatted easily through the rest of their meal, and before we left, were invited for a tour of their vineyard the next morning.

The lovely couple were the Rasmussens, and their vineyard is the Rasmussen Vineyards, currently still a private family owned production. They’re still waiting for a final permit before they can start making and selling wine on the property. In the meantime however, they are bottling the bulk of their wines over at Midnight Cellars, while keeping a few barrels as garage wines.

We were excited at the opportunity for a private tour, and so early next morning, popped over for a visit. While the cellar and future tasting room is located at the bottom of the hill on their property, Larry and Elaine, when they make their weekend trek up to Paso Robles (Larry is still a partner at his architectural firm in Ventura), stay at the top of the hill in a beautiful contemporary glass studio that Larry designed. Next to the studio is a standalone building built into the slopes of the hill. We wound our way down the stairs into the main room, where we entered into an airy room with full length glass windows that open up to the view of the valley below. There was a murphy bed disguised as a cabinet, and a walk-in wine cellar. Larry drew out a bottle of his 2007 Kissed Syrah, a garage blend that his son Niles had made, and gave it to us.

They also brought us down to the cellar and tasting room at the foot of the hill, where they wanted to give us a sampling of the wines still sitting in the barrels. Alas, they couldn’t locate the wine thief. But, they did find a bottle of their 2002 Syrah, their first ever labelled wine, as well as a half bottle of their 2006 late-harvest Syrah garage wine that they had made as sort of an afterthought, from the super ripe grapes left on the vine at the end of the harvesting season. These, they pressed too into our hands.

We’ll have to find a way to thank the Rasmussens for their welcome and generosity when we get back, but it seems that in Paso Robles, such friendly behavior is more the norm than anywhere else. Perhaps it’s because the region is not as developed and commercialized as Napa Valley further up north, but most places we went, the people working the tasting room were delightfully warm, and took the time to chat with us. Back in March, when our friends visited, they had also surrendiptiously bumped into the owner of Denner at a restaurant, and were also invited to stop by the winery for a visit the next day.

Winemakers Porch in Paso Robles

Check out Paso Robles, our friends urged, you’d like it. We did, and what an excellent suggestion! Of all the wine regions we’ve visited, Paso Robles was surely the most memorable, if not for the wines, for the generosity and friendliness of the vineyard owners.

Located about 3.5 hours south of San Francisco, Paso Robles today is perhaps the Sonoma of 10-15 years ago. The wine scene is fast developing, and currently, there are over 200 wineries in the region. Most of them are still small production, family owned wineries, although about 6 months ago, Fiji Waters came in and bought out Justin Vineyards, one of the most highly reputed wineries in Paso Robles.

We rolled into Paso Robles late on Friday afternoon, having driven in from San Francisco. Our place for the evening was the lovely Winemakers Porch, a B&B on a working vineyard perched on the top of a gently rolling hill overlooking the grapevines. The B&B is run by Marlowe and Corrine, and they named the vineyard after both their middle names. While they sell most of their wines to other wineries, they keep about 4 barrels to make their own garage wines, which they shared with guests. As part of our stay, Marlowe gave us a wine and barrel tasting, and before we left, thrust two bottles of their wines for us to bring back with us. I’d highly recommend the Winemakers Porch to anyone else wishing to make a visit to the area; if waking up to the sun rising over the golden-hued grapevines isn’t enough, there’s Corrine’s phenomenal breakfast on their back porch to look forward to every morning.

The first morning, we first tucked into a bowl of freshly cut oranges and grapefruit marinated in Grand Marnier (what better way to kick off a full day’s tasting in the vineyards?). For our mains, we had a generous serving of the fluffiest waffles drenched in maple syrup and topped with peaches and blueberries, along with sides of sausages and an egg.

For our second breakfast, we had hot apple strudel fresh from their oven. The layers of crust were thin and crunchy, absolutely heavenly! That alone would have made my day, but then we also got a serving of ham and egg quiche with rosemary potatoes. We both cleaned our plates, and the enormous servings helped see us through the rest of the day until evening.

Evidently, the B&B is very popular as a destination for couples to get engaged at, because while we were there, there was just one such proposal from the couple staying across the hallway from us. Hehe. According to Corrine, there have been 4 proposals over the past 6 years, and one of them took place right underneath the huge tree in the top picture.

A Syrah Tasting

The day had started off as gorgeously cool and sunny. But as we headed up north to Eric and Abby’s for a Syrah blind tasting, a thick blanket of fog suddenly descended upon us. It was so dense that we couldn’t see 10 feet in front of us, and could only make a faint blur of the cars’ tail lights. Lake Michigan, to our right, was completely enveloped in white.

Although Eric had planned for an outdoor tasting in his backyard, the sudden dip in temperature sent us fleeing back indoors. After some chit chat and a chilled glass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, we wrapped the 4 bottles we had all contributed in aluminum foil and started tasting.

Hehe, I correctly guessed the regions of all the wines! The group favorite of the night was the J.L. Chave Sélection “Offerus” St.-Joseph Rouge from Rhone, with earthy notes and smooth tannins. Our second Rhone bottle was the J.L. Chave Sélection “Mon Coeur”, which blew us away its sheet pungent aroma. It was so strong! I had to check to make sure it wasn’t the stinky cheese I was standing next to. Miguel really liked it though. I would have enjoyed it more if the nose was a little more subtle, because it was so beautifully rounded and soft in the finish.

The third bottle, a Halter Ranch 2008 Syrah that Miguel had brought back from Paso Robles, had an incredibly sweet nose, especially when drank in sequence after the Mon Coeur. It reminded me of the aromas of caramelizing sugar over a candle. Tons of vanilla in the body too…In Mig’s words, it was a “bodacious” wine. I think I would have enjoyed it more had I not just tasted the Offerus and the Mon Coeur.

The final blind tasting bottle of the evening was Eric’s Copain mailing list wine, a 2006 single vineyard wine. In nose, it was most similar to the Offerus, though we easily guessed that it was a New World wine for it’s much fuller body of ripe fruit.

By then, it was probably past 10pm. Everyone had a pleasant buzz going. We ought to have ended the evening here, but nobody protested when Eric busted out another Syrah, a 2006 Dumol Russian River Valley. It was good, and I’d rate it between the Offerus and the Copain.

It was a very delightful way of passing an evening, though I paid for it the next morning; we ended up leaving only when it was half past 12. Still, I’m happy to be doing wine tasting with small groups of friends again.

Holy cow, it’s mid May already

What I’ve been up to:
Lots of wine – started wine tasting early on Friday afternoon, at the company’s monthly tasting. This time around, we sampled wines from the Loire Valley. Not bad, but nothing that jumped out at me and said, BUY! Which is good, considering that we now have over 80 bottles stocked up at home. Wish I had a wine cellar… then I can really start collecting in earnest. Anyway, in the evening, we headed over to the Rs for a tasting of Zinfandel. Jeff and I brought along 2 bottles of Carlisle that I had snapped online (they were amazing btw, not in your-face-sweet, but restrained, and smoky). It’s hard to find Carlisle in stores, and it was thanks to Miles’s tasting that we tried it before. Miles and Sue brought a bottle of Primitivo, the sister grape to Zinfandel, from Italy. The Rs popped open two other bottles of Zin, a Ridge (always trustworthy with its bombastic fruit and ultra smooth tannins), and a Grigch since Grigch, the winemaker hails from Croatia, thought to be the birthplace of Zinfandel. We rounded off the evening with a bottle of Sergio Prosecco, which, on the one hand, woke up our tastebuds a little, but on the other, sent us nearly over the edge.

Leaving the Rs at past 3 in the am, we stumbled into bed, and stayed there for the next 11 hours. Urgh. All those grand plans to drive up to Michigan to hike and camp, or to Devil’s Lake for some hiking fizzled into nothingness. We barely had enough energy to rehydrate with some hot and soupy pho. In the evening, L+M managed to persuade us up to their place to test out their new teppanyaki. Had to drag ourselves over, on stomachs not fully digested from the pho. But once there, the company and conversation energized us, though we wisely abstained from more wine, or whiskey.

Sunday was completely washed out. Well it continued to rain outside, but plans to get in some climbing fell on the wayside. While Jeff napped intermittently throughout the day, I lounged on the couch, half watching and listening to opera while reading my latest Navy Seal book (I’ve been cramming up reading on military books ever since the company fortuitously engaged Marcus Luttrell, a Navy Seal, to come speak, just weeks before Seal Team Six closed in on Osama).

What I haven’t been up to:
Exercising. Bleah. I need to motivate myself and get in more cardio workout. You’d think reading about the Seals’ insane training is motivation enough. But it’s so much more fun exercising vicariously no? Hopefully the weather turns nice finally, so I run out of rainy day excuses, and go on bike rides and hikes.

What I’m looking forward to:
Getting out the next two weekends, first to Kentucky to climb, then to Boundary Waters in Minnesota for my 3-day canoeing trip.

New Zealand in Pictures

Our journey in the South Island began on Christmas Day. The five of us – Jeff, his brother Joe, my brother, and TPR – drove southwest towards Te Anau, stopping by the gorgeously blue Lake Tekapo for lunch

On the second day, we went on a cruise to Milford Sound. They said the Sound looks the most gorgeous when it’s raining, so dozens, if not hundreds of waterfalls come cascading down the vertical rocks. Well, it rained… and then pretty much continued to rain for the next few days.

Breathtaking view of Queenstown atop Coronet Peak where we attempted to hang glide on the third day. Alas, the winds and the rain were not in our favor…

… so we went paragliding instead

On the fourth day, our full day canyoning was cancelled, because it hadn’t stopped raining, and the waters in the gorges was too high. Look at the jetty by Lake Wanaka in this picture; it’s underwater

So we went wine tasting at Rippon Vineyard instead… I think this is one of the most beautifully set vineyards ever!

We also climbed up Mt. Irons, where we were afforded 360 views of Wanaka, before the rains closed in on us again

But in the afternoon the sun finally came out and those detested storm clouds dissipated. Look at the gorgeous views!

On the fifth day, we drove further west until we hit the West Coast

Signed ourselves up for a tiring half day trek up the Franz Josef Glacier

Everyone loved the experience though

On the sixth, we went black water rafting off the mining town of Greymouth to see some glow worms. Fun times, though not the blood-pumping, thrilling ride down rapids in the heart of the glow worm caves that I had imagined

And then it was already the 7th day, also new year’s eve. Cloudless blue skies greeted us as we launched off into the waters of Queen Charlotte Sound towards our kayaking adventure

…Where we had the best meal of the trip (South Island is not known for its culinary delights; we feasted on diets of mainly burgers) – fresh mussels and clams just plucked from the ocean floor!

We camped at Davie’s Bay… not quite the wilderness we’d imagined, but it was nonetheless Joe and TPR’s first time and I think they enjoyed the experience, minus the irritating bees and sandflies. Nobody managed to stay up till midnight for the countdown though… we decided we could count down Chicago time instead

What a difference a day makes – the next morning, we had to battle strong winds and waves to get back to Picton. At certain points, I was almost half bent over in my kayak, punching the winds to move my paddle forwards

So imagine our in-credulousness when, cold and sore after kayaking and in need of some serious pampering (Jeff and TPR were fantasizing about spas), we wound up at this incredible vineyard house at Korohi Vineyards. The sun had come out, the house was enormous and we had our own rooms, and a beautiful garden in front of this huge plot of vines. What more could anyone ask for? I cranked up the opera on the stereo which links out to the deck, and kicked back with a hot mug of tea. What a way to herald in 2011!

The next day, we went nuts on a wine tasting adventure in Marlborough. Well, at least, Jeff, TPR and I did. Joe and my brother lasted 4 wineries with us, where we tried at least 25 wines, before they bowed out. The three of us spent the rest of the afternoon in a delightful haze at 3 other vineyards, where we tasted at least another 25 more wines. We especially loved the view from Seresin (in the picture), and its flagship wine Rachel

Pretending we were vineyard owners for a day

In the evening, after our one gourmet meal of the trip, Gibbs Restaurant which was recommended by our hostess at Korohi Vineyards, we settled down into the couch with glasses of wine and LOTR’s Return of the King. Around midnight, we trooped into the garden, and lay back on the grass to wonder at the constellations.

And the milky way! My brother took this picture, which the hostess Linda of Korohi Vineyards liked so much, she wants to use it on her website too

And then we were at the tail end of the trip… time to leave the paradise that is Marlborough. We stopped in Sedon, at Yealands Vineyards, for a last tasting

The drive back towards Christchurch was breathtaking

And we passed by a large seal colony near Kaikoura

We stayed on a farm this evening… well actually, it’s more like a B&B dressed up as a farm for visitors like us eager for a farm-stay experience.

They kept all of 200 sheep

My brother took leave of us on the 4th, for Auckland, where he is to continue his Kiwi adventure. The rest of us signed up for the campy but expensive LOTR tour to Edoras, where we could play with replica swords from the movies

Can’t complain about the views though!

That lump of rocks in the background is the capital of Rohan in the movie

And therein marks the end of our epic South Island adventure. After I’d visited New Zealand 18 years ago as a kid, I’d longed and wished and fantasized about one day moving there. But the magic that NZ had held over me has now dissipated. I guess after so many years living in the city, I’ve come to appreciate the conveniences and diversity of city life. I care too much for the good food, the arts, and just the energy and drive of people in the city. I think at this stage in my life, I’m much too young to want to slow down and just admire and smell the flowers. That, and the fact I was going bonkers with having to eat yet another burger.

A Zin Tasting

From 2010 Dec El Circo Cheapo (and a couple pics from Miles' Zin Tasting)

Props to Miles for organizing the Zinfandel tasting at his place last night. We had a blast – 5 types of Zinfandel (4 from Stateside and a comparison Rhone bottle), loads of finger food, and even a raffle! Haha I won myself a Shake Weight!

Anyway, favorite wine of the evening: Carlisle Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. We had two bottles of that, compared to three of everything else, and everyone couldn’t help but keep returning to it. Amazing punch of blackcurrant goodness that just went on and on and on in your mouth. Crazy smooth too. The Cosentino Cigarzin came in second; best value for the night. I liked the Orin Swift’s Saldo too, but it had a slight tinge of bitterness at the end if I had it without food. With slices of hard mozzarella though, it went down like a dream.