After leaving the party, we headed over to SAM's house (you should know her by now, one of the owners of Cypher winery.) We were there snacking on Farmstand 46 mac & cheese (I kept telling myself, "No, there's no fat in this. It's really quite low calorie.")
Then of course SAM did what SAM always does: She pulls out a crazy game for us to play, just to mix it up so that we all have fun. This time it was Jenga. We actually kept the game going so long we were all like, "Please crash! We need to go to the party!" Here it is right before we finally killed it:
Then we cruised over to Windward Vineyards where the Pinot & Paella Festival "After Party" was being held. Woo hoo! (Hey folks - remember for next year: You have to BE INVITED to this party. Don't be trying to crash the after party next year because of this blog or I will hunt you down...)
This is the gorgeous afternoon light over the vineyard as we arrived:
We walked in to see Christian (the other owner of Cypher Winery) hanging out & chatting it up with Mr. Hip Marc Windward himself:
Now above the bar at Windward is the below wood carving. This image is used as the "logo" on the Windward wines. An artist did it for Marc & Maggie - it's like a combination of a wine God, a wind God, inspired by a certain wine owner :)
By chance, does the wood carving look like anyone familiar?
Marc is actually holding a very special bottle. He had been to dinner at the house of someone with a massive wine collection. The man asked what wine Marc would like with dinner, and Marc (jokingly) said, "Well, of course any Old Burgundy would do." The man went down to his cellar and brought up a 1980 Romannee-Conti! Marc almost hit the floor. Not only was this a 1980 Burgundy, but it is from an extremely small producer - not many bottles of this wine are out there. It was an *amazing* experience for Marc to be able to drink the wine as he has always wanted to try it. Marc said, "It was absolutely fabulous." For me personally, I think the best part of the story was when the man said, "I have a few of them." Marc almost hit the floor again! What a great friend to have, Marc - HA!
Marc was able to keep the bottle and has it in a special case behind the bar at Windward. He of course loved getting a photo shoot with his special bottle :)
Here's the scene at the party:
As well as a shot of all of the wines being served, thanks to all of the folks who attended the event:
Here's a gorgeous shot of Marc & Maggie of Windward Vineyards - the two that helped start this whole Pinot & Paella event to begin with:
And lastly, here's a shot of my main crew: (from left to right) Marc, SAM, Stormy (SAM's hilarious beau) and Michelle:
Now I know y'all want to know more about the details of this party - How many tequila shots did SAM have? Who drank the dump bucket? (Oh yeah, that's right - there wasn't a dump bucket. No one was wasting these wines....) But you know what? I'm taking a stand here: What happens at Windward, stays at Windward. Believe me, I have plenty of crazy photos that no one will see but me...unless you want to pay me bucko bucks for them, then I'd be more than happy to let you see them. Just call me.
In the end, the best paella for the Pinot & Paella event (as voted on by the public) was by Maegan from The Neon Carrot. Now she was already out of food when we arrived so Boyfriend & I never got to taste her paella. That said, she and I chatted it up at the after party, and soon, I'll be going down to the Neon Carrot in San Luis Obispo so that I can do a blog on Maegan and her restaurant. (This will be on my "What's Hot in Paso" Blog - although, technically it would be, "What's Hot in SLO" - although it never really gets very hot in SLO.....) So though I've failed you for now, I will make up for it one day :)
Hooray for the Pinot & Paella Event! And a big thanks to Anna @ Windward for giving Boyfriend & I the media passes as well as helping me out with details on this blog :)
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