Conn Creek Wine Tasting
Yesterday was the private wine tasting that I had set up at Conn Creek in the Napa Valley.
Jayme and I left Sacramento a little late (about 10:45am), so we didn't make it to the winery until noon. We showed up and were greeted and immediately poured a glass of chardonnay. After a few minutes, we were taken back into the private, industry-only barrel tasting room. There, we talked about a lot of the different areas in Napa, and tasted at least a dozen out of the barrels. Our wine guide (I don't know what to call him officially) drank all the wines with us, and we all developed a nice strong buzz and spent probably a good two hours in the barrel room tasting and chatting.
Then, it was time for Jayme and me to blend our own wine. We used a barrel thief (a device that is used to take wine out of a barrel to taste it as it is fermenting/aging) and blended a variety of wines in our glass and tasted them, and then decided on which blend we liked best. We then tried to duplicate the blend in a bottle that was then corked and beautifully labeled by Jayme. We now have our own wine that we can drink some 6 months down the road (it has to age in the bottle for a while).
We headed back into the main tasting room where we tried a lot of the wines that were actually bottled and available for purchase, and the three of us (our guide was still drinking with us) proceeded to get good and drunk.
Right around the time the tasting room was closing, a group of four ladies came in. One was older and wearing a ton of turquoise jewelry and a leopard print outfit. She was accompanied by her two daughters, one of which was so pregnant she looked like she would pop (she was their driver), and the other was celebrating her birthday. The fourth person was the granddaughter, who I can't imagine had a very good time watching her grandma and mom (or aunt? I'm not sure which sister's daughter she was) get drunk. We struck up a conversation with them and decided it would be fun to take pictures with the older lady. So we did. Haha.
Jayme also insisted on taking a picture with Katie, a nice woman from Kentucky who works in the lab for the winery actually making the wines.
Jayme and I were pretty drunk at this point, and she struck up a conversation about traveling with Carol, the 79-year old woman who works in the tasting room. I chatted with our guide for a while, but about what I don't really remember. Haha. Jayme and I both were drunk enough to start pouring our own wine off the tasting bar. Our guide kinda looked at us a little funny when we did it, but he was drunk too and didn't really seem to care. Haha.
We had originally planned on tasting at other wineries, but we wound up spending 4 1/2 hours at Conn Creek and didn't have time to get to any others (not that we needed any more wine after Conn Creek, anyway).
We left the winery around 4:30pm and drove into St. Helena to pick up a bite to eat at Taylor's Refresher, a little fast food stand that has been in the valley for 50+ years (by fast food I mean Napa fast food ... it wasn't just your every day burgers and fries, but they had stuff like really tasty bleu cheese burgers, gazpacho, and other kinda fancy fast food). Jayme and I both remember eating there while growing up.
After our bite to eat we headed up to visit my grandma. Jayme fell asleep when we got there (we both had been up for a really long time), and I sat and chatted with my grandma for a while. We had dinner, and hung out up there until just after 11pm.
We headed home and made it back a little after 1pm.
It was a really fun day.
Pictures follow.
Tasting bar
The "industry-only" barrel tasting room
One of the barrels with the vineyard AVA information above it
Our wine tasting guide ... DavidMikeAdamorsomethinglikethat (we don't recall his name, haha)
Jayme making a funny face
Jayme making the wine labels for our bottles of wine we blended
View out one of the doors of the barrel tasting room
The little old drunk lady who came in and showed off her arm injury
Jayme with the little drunk lady and her granddaughter
Jayme and me (pretty drunk at this point)
Jayme, me, and the drunk lady
The three drunks
Jayme and me
Mmm, wine
Katie, one of the lab people who actually makes the wine
Jayme and Katie
Jayme and I left Sacramento a little late (about 10:45am), so we didn't make it to the winery until noon. We showed up and were greeted and immediately poured a glass of chardonnay. After a few minutes, we were taken back into the private, industry-only barrel tasting room. There, we talked about a lot of the different areas in Napa, and tasted at least a dozen out of the barrels. Our wine guide (I don't know what to call him officially) drank all the wines with us, and we all developed a nice strong buzz and spent probably a good two hours in the barrel room tasting and chatting.
Then, it was time for Jayme and me to blend our own wine. We used a barrel thief (a device that is used to take wine out of a barrel to taste it as it is fermenting/aging) and blended a variety of wines in our glass and tasted them, and then decided on which blend we liked best. We then tried to duplicate the blend in a bottle that was then corked and beautifully labeled by Jayme. We now have our own wine that we can drink some 6 months down the road (it has to age in the bottle for a while).
We headed back into the main tasting room where we tried a lot of the wines that were actually bottled and available for purchase, and the three of us (our guide was still drinking with us) proceeded to get good and drunk.
Right around the time the tasting room was closing, a group of four ladies came in. One was older and wearing a ton of turquoise jewelry and a leopard print outfit. She was accompanied by her two daughters, one of which was so pregnant she looked like she would pop (she was their driver), and the other was celebrating her birthday. The fourth person was the granddaughter, who I can't imagine had a very good time watching her grandma and mom (or aunt? I'm not sure which sister's daughter she was) get drunk. We struck up a conversation with them and decided it would be fun to take pictures with the older lady. So we did. Haha.
Jayme also insisted on taking a picture with Katie, a nice woman from Kentucky who works in the lab for the winery actually making the wines.
Jayme and I were pretty drunk at this point, and she struck up a conversation about traveling with Carol, the 79-year old woman who works in the tasting room. I chatted with our guide for a while, but about what I don't really remember. Haha. Jayme and I both were drunk enough to start pouring our own wine off the tasting bar. Our guide kinda looked at us a little funny when we did it, but he was drunk too and didn't really seem to care. Haha.
We had originally planned on tasting at other wineries, but we wound up spending 4 1/2 hours at Conn Creek and didn't have time to get to any others (not that we needed any more wine after Conn Creek, anyway).
We left the winery around 4:30pm and drove into St. Helena to pick up a bite to eat at Taylor's Refresher, a little fast food stand that has been in the valley for 50+ years (by fast food I mean Napa fast food ... it wasn't just your every day burgers and fries, but they had stuff like really tasty bleu cheese burgers, gazpacho, and other kinda fancy fast food). Jayme and I both remember eating there while growing up.
After our bite to eat we headed up to visit my grandma. Jayme fell asleep when we got there (we both had been up for a really long time), and I sat and chatted with my grandma for a while. We had dinner, and hung out up there until just after 11pm.
We headed home and made it back a little after 1pm.
It was a really fun day.
Pictures follow.
Tasting bar
The "industry-only" barrel tasting room
One of the barrels with the vineyard AVA information above it
Our wine tasting guide ... DavidMikeAdamorsomethinglikethat (we don't recall his name, haha)
Jayme making a funny face
Jayme making the wine labels for our bottles of wine we blended
View out one of the doors of the barrel tasting room
The little old drunk lady who came in and showed off her arm injury
Jayme with the little drunk lady and her granddaughter
Jayme and me (pretty drunk at this point)
Jayme, me, and the drunk lady
The three drunks
Jayme and me
Mmm, wine
Katie, one of the lab people who actually makes the wine
Jayme and Katie