But before I start....on April 15th, while working at Cypher, a couple (who are in our wine club) came in to taste on their way to their house on the coast. He is a cpa so I said to him, "It's tax day! Why aren't you working??" - HA! Of course, as he said, any of his clients who wanted to do their taxes had done them already. Now he was on vacation time and needed a well deserved break. We were chatting about lots of things including wineries in Edna Valley. Chris and Michelle specifically recommended Chamisal as they are wine club members there too. So that's why we headed straight to Chamisal when we entered SLO wine country. But I digress.......
So we get to Chamisal (think Sham-wow! for pronunciation) to see the most quaint and adorable tasting room. Jen, who is a lab technician for Chamisal was pouring for us. Here she is!
So we went through the wines - good God are they amazing! I have to say I've been to many wineries and Chamisal - in my not so humble opinion - is one of the best. We started off with the stainless steel chardonnay which was a beautiful, creamy version of stainless steel chard - nothing like I've ever had before. Then came the Califa Chard which is a blend of their best barrels and best clones. Simply incredible. It had a gorgeously smooth/velvet feel with hints of butterscotch and carmel. By this point Dana and I were in awe when Jen brought over the....
Califa Pinot Noir. This may well be the best pinot I've tasted in my life. It's one of those wines where you have to stop talking to folks and just focus on the wine to take it all in. I savored every drop and was secretly hoping that Jen would just come by and pour more for me!
Here's a photo of both the Califa (which means pretty one) Chard and Pinot:
So usually when I go to a winery, I take a sip or two of the wine, then dump the rest as I don't want to take in too much wine too quickly. But no way was I going to do that with the Chamisal wines! I savored every sip and drank all that I could! :)
Oh wait - who is that guy that just walked in who looks a little familiar? I look at him, he looks at me and we both say, "Where do I know you?" It was Chris, the wine club member from Cypher who told me about Chamisal! And his wife, Michelle was there too. They were with a few friends wine tasting for the day. My goodness, what are the odds that we would run into them at the place they recommended to me?
We had a ball chatting about Chamisal and a few other good wineries in the area. I was sure to tell Andrea, the tasting room manager at Chamisal that Chris and Michelle were the reason boyfriend and I were there today. And now I'm telling you today how good Chamisal is. Literally, you could buy any bottle from them and not be disappointed. Jump onboard to be wine club with these folks. You won't regret it.
Boyfriend & me with Chris & Michelle:
Andrea (the Chamisal Tasting Room Manager) & me:
We left with a bottle of the stainless steel chardonnay and are planning to open it on Easter with some seafood. Yay!
KYNSI WINERY
So we asked Andrea from Chamisal where she recommended we go next. "Kynsi!"she said. So off we went.
Kysin winery is a tiny production place - only doing about 3,000 cases a year. The story of their winery is a neat one. Here it goes:L
When the owners bought the property, it was overrun with gophers. I mean, REALLY overrun. So much so that when you walked, the ground might collapse beneath you from all of the gopher tunnels. The gophers were also tunneling beneath the foundation of the building and causing trouble there so you can imagine.
The owners were committed to not using poisons or traps, etc. They wanted to do something natural/sustainable. They found out that barn owls, when they have a nest, can end up capturing 40 gophers a night! Goodness. So they decided that they want to rescue some barn owls that needed a home. Well....barn owls are so territorial, they are always re-released at the place where they were found. The rescue folks recommended that the folks at Kynsi just put up an owl box and wait to see if a pair would move in. So they did and sure enough, after a few weeks, a pair moved in! Soon they started a nest and had babies, and literally after just one breeding season, the gopher population was under control. Amazing how nature can right itself so quickly when given the opportunity to get back into balance. So in honor of the barn owls, they owners named their new winery "Kinsi" which is Finnish for Talon - the talon of the superstar owls :) Here's their label:
Kalya and Allison tasted us through their wines and we had so much fun! I really like the Hutash wine - a beautiful red....but I have to admit I forgot what grapes - oops! Actually, we had so much fun chatting with Kalya and Allsison that boyfriend and I lost track of time and I missed an appointment in Paso Robles. I can't believe I did that but at the same time we were having so much fun at Kynsi that we just didn't want to leave.
Here are our new BFFs - Kayla and Allison:
Great job Krynsi on choosing sustainable pest control for your gopher problems. As an advocate for rescued roosters for sustainable pest control, I salute you! :)
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