Thursday, November 24, 2011

Paso Garagiste Part 3! well.....ummm.....

Ummm, I had wanted to have Paso Garagiste Part 3 of the blog up by now, but with work, life and preparing for Thanksgiving, it's all gone to pot.

So....in lieux of Part 3, I'm sending a Happy Thanksgiving message out to all of you! I'm so thankful to live in the Paso area and work in the wine industry where we're all all like a close knit family. Not to mention the fact that we have access to such fabulous wine & food. This is the good life, and I hope my blog reflects the good times we all have together here. I have to admit, it will be hard for me to ever leave this area.

So yay - Happy Thanksgiving to all! By noon, I planning to be high on bubbles and hopefully passed out from eating all the holiday goodies before anyone else can get to them. You gotta be quick with the crowd I hang out with :)

Viva la Dia de Gracias!!!! (I don't know if that makes sense but it sounds close enough.....)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Paso Garagiste Festival - Part 2

No intro this time - I'm going to jump right in where I left off:

Can you imagine the scene: Christian was delayed and running late with the wines for the second seminar. The first seminar is ending as the Cypher team arrives. We get things set up and start to hear how Christian wants us to handle the barrel tour and "Whoa! What??? You want me to pour at the event? What-When-Where-Why? Can I run away? Ack! What's a girl to do?"

OK. I realize at this point I'm considered an old tasting room hag/wine pourer wench and can handle this just fine. It's just that it makes the blog a wee bit more fun if I try to set up the drama.....I hope you understand....

barrel sample bottles
Anyhoo, let's get on to the details about the second seminar with Christian from Cypher Winery & Ryan Render from Rendario Vineyards. It was all about tasting wine to see what effect the oak from the barrels has on the wine. We're talking about oak from different areas (French, American, Hungarian, etc) different coopers (folks who make the wine) & different grains. Everyone in the class had two glasses, and I was one of four pourers that went down the aisles pouring Wine A and Wine B so people could go back and forth and compare the differences between the two wines. As we were doing this, Christian and Ryan talked about the different oaks and comparisons, walking people through what this oak or grain does to the wine so that people could really taste and understand it.

I do have to admit, I was so busy running around pouring wine that I didn't really listen to the details about what Christian & Ryan were saying - sorry! That said, I do remember Christian explaining why you use different oaks, grains and toast levels to add complexity to wine. Basically, he said, "If you don't use the variables in barrels to add complexity to wine, it would just be like only doing the missionary position for the rest of your life." I immediately said, "That's why I love this man!"

Here's a fabulous shot of Ryan & Christian doing their thing:


Now as I was pouring, I had to deal with this nasty, rowdy table that kept heckling me through the event. I bet most of you at this point could rightly guess that it was SAM from Cypher Winery. Yes, SAM LOVES to cause a scene wherever she goes and this was no exception. But don't worry, I gave them hell right back & held my own by making them pose for a picture on the blog. On the left is (passed out) Jericho from Twist Salon, then SAM and her friend Dennis, who is trying to convince SAM to pour wine into his mouth...oh dear.....


And I have to feature this pretty hilarious photo of Christian with his right hand assistant winemaker, Katie:


I'm guessing that they're saying: "Fuck you all you losers who didn't buy tickets to the fabulous Paso Garagiste event. It SOLD OUT Bitches!"

Now I have no idea if that's what they're really saying but I'm here typing, drinking bubbles, and somehow it seems appropriate.

So all the pouring during this class and the clean-up after simply took it out of me. I was pooped and it was only 1pm! What's a girl to do? Head over to the Cass Catering Truck and get fabulous tacos prepared by the amazing Chef Jacob (whom most of you know has been on the blog multiple times...) Jacob and his sidekick Ben prepared excellent butternut squash tacos for me that had cream fraiche and tangy salsa on them. Super good, and just what a girl needed to fuel up and keep going.

Here's Chef Jacob creating his taco masterpieces:


I love you, Jacob!!!

So this blog is short and sweet, with the next blog focusing on the main event: Sarah running around trying to check out as many wineries as possible. On this next blog, I will announce my favorite new winery find.

Viva La Paso Garagiste!

Monday, November 14, 2011

PASO GARAGISTE!

Wow. Paso Garagiste. Held at Windfall Farms on Saturday. We've all been talking about this so for so long, it was hard to believe the day had finally arrived. But arrive it did - and wow! What a fabulous event! The day was simply amazing. I think the event exceeded all expectations for everyone involved. This was a festival for the history books.

Now to remind everyone, the Paso Garagiste Event was created and organized by an amazing group of people: Stewart McLennan, Doug Minnick, & Dan Erland Anderson, along with the fabulous Lisa Dinsmore. All have a passion for wine and specifically passion for wines from the Central Coast. The team brought their many talents from their varied backgrounds together to create the fabulous event - and this event truly is a welcome addition to the "typical festival schedule" for the Paso area.

So here we go - onto the blog!:

As I approached Windfall Farms in the morning, I was stunned - yet again - by the beauty of the place. It is a 724 acre piece of property that is still used as a thoroughbred breeding & training facility. The buildings are incredible - most are made of brick and have fabulous steeples - which make you think you're in England. The views on the property are simply stunning - and since we're in Paso, the property is surrounded by vineyards.

Here are a few shots of the property:





Quite stunning, huh? What a fabulous choice for the first ever Paso Garagiste festival!

I arrive around 9 am and everyone is running around setting things up. I was lucky as my job for the morning was to be the personal assistant to the winemakers who were speaking at the seminars. For the first seminar that would be: Justin from Saxum Wines, Neil from Tablas Creek & Lone Madrone, & Terry from Adelaida Cellars. Then the second seminar/barrel education class would be lead by Christian from Cypher Winery & Ryan Render of Rendario Vineyards. So my job was greeting them when they arrived, setting them up with coffee & water, and chatting it up with them. Hard job, eh? :)

So I know Neal, Christian and Terry already, but I haven't had the opportunity to meet Justin before. I mean, my goodness, his James Berry Vineyard wine won "Wine of the World" (yes, the WHOLE world!) in 2010. Now I always jokingly say, "I hate Justin Smith. He's an amazing winemaker. I hear he's an extremely nice guy. He is gorgeous. His wife is gorgeous. His kids are gorgeous. Even his dog is gorgeous. " At this point, my friend Stew would interject - "Yeah, I've even met the dog. He is pretty gorgeous." I'm totally joking of course but I was super excited to finally meet the man himself - and yes, he truly is a really nice guy.

So the first seminar beings with Stew asking Neal, Justin & Terry questions about life in the wine world. Here's shots of the action - I love Neal's grin & beanie:



Stew asked great questions covering topics such as this year's harvest, what's it like to balance family life against the harvest season, describe a varietal (that Stew chose) & their vision of how to grow that varietal and make wine, etc. the best way possible. Terry's varietal was Pinot, Justin's was Syrah, and then Neal's was....wait for it....Tannat, of course! Oh, that made me very happy as I think you all know by now, I'm obsessed with Tannat.

The class went really well - lots of jokes and laughter, excellent questions & answers, and Stew even opened it up for questions from the audience. Really fun.

Afterward I was able to snap a photo of the panel all together. Here it is from left to right: Neal, Terry, Justin, Stew & Doug:


Now before the event had happened, we were all a little concerned about making sure Justin wasn't swarmed after the talk as he needed to take off to continue working harvest.  In fact, we had heard a joke about someone just wanting to touch him, to make sure he was real. I told Justin the story and asked if I could get a photo of me touching his arm, proving he was a real human being and not just a supernatural hologram. Here is the fabulous photo:


That photo completely cracks me up!

Now if you know me, you know I've been on a quest to try as many wines as I can from the Paso area, searching for the great ones. Though I've been exposed to some amazing wines, I have never fully been able to answer the question of why certain wines are so spectacular and why most wines are simply bad. I told Justin about when I first had Herman Story Wines, I was on the floor, completely blown away about how amazing they were. I had heard Herman Story wines were similar to Justin's so..... I asked Justin, since he is considered one of the best winemakers of the world at this point, what is it that he does that makes his wine so amazing? He laughed and said he couldn't really answer that as there are so many factors that go into it. But he said that he and I must have the same palate (did you hear that? Justin said I have his palate!) and that he makes wines that he loves, and he's lucky enough to achieve that. I talked about James Berry Vineyard and he did say, as so many winemakers do, "It really does start in the vineyard. I do as little as possible to not interfere with the wine - and make sure I don't screw it up!" What a humble answer from such a talented guy. I told him I still think it has something to do with the fact that he's surrounded by fairies & butterflies and he lives in some magical world. Just saying.....

Next up: we'll talk about Christian & Ryan's seminar that was an educational class on wine barrels - how different barrels affect the taste of the wine. That said, I'm running short on time and will save it for the next blog. For now, I will leave you with this photo of Christian from Cypher Winery:


No explanation - just go with it.

Next blog hopefully coming soon!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Kickoff Garagiste Event!!!!

Today was the kickoff to the Paso Garagiste Event that will be held this Saturday at Windfall Farms. If you don't know what the event is, you're lame. I don't mean to be mean, but yes, you'd be lame.

The Paso Garagiste Festival is the first festival of it's kind, highlighting Garagiste Winemakers from the Paso Wine Region. Garagiste is a French term meaning "Garage Winemakers" and the festival highlights winemakers who make 1,500 cases or less. Most don't have tasting rooms so this is a FABULOUS opportunity for them to show the world what they are all about.

The event will be held this Saturday at Windfall Farms from 2-5pm for the Grand Tasting of over 40 wineries - OMG! This is going to be TOO much fun.

So to get back on message: Tonight was the "launch off" event of the Garagiste Festival featuring the Women of Paso Garagiste: Maggie from Alta Colina, Stephanie from Giornata, and Amy from Ranchero Cellars. All three ladies poured two of their fabulous wine at 15C - many locals and industry folks were out to support the event.

I walked in to meet Amy from Ranchero Cellars who poured me her Viognier - what a yummy Viogier! In fact, I don't really love Viogniers but Amy's was great!!!  Here's Amy & I - we tried to get her bottle/label in the photo but didn't quite succeed:


Then I got to see Ms. Stephanie of Giornata (as well as Broadside & Il Campo.) The Giornata Vermentino is one of my favorite wines of all time! But tonight, she was pouring two reds - and I got to try the Barbera. FABULOUS! Really bright fruit, yet light like a Pinot. Great job, Giornata!


And then....tah da!! Here's Maggie from Alta Colina - the Rhone King (or Queen, shall I say.) Look, I admit, I'm a HUGE fan of Alta Colina and I'll be doing a full blog on them soon. But for now, check out Maggie balancing three bottles of wine along with Maggie from Windward Vineyard:



Ok. On to Stew. One of the founders of the Paso Garagiste Festival. He created a trophy for the winery who supported the Garagiste Festival the most. It has a wood base that is 120 years old, representing Paso Robles. Then it has granite over the top of that representing the Earth. Then it has a metal valve that represents industry - and all of the hard work it takes to be a winemaker. Someone will win this award on Saturday - and I will of course let you know who wins :)

Here's Stew with the award he created:


And here's the main crew partying out back at 15C during the event - people were calling it the "afterparty" within the party! Lisa Dinsmore is there - she's been a fabulous help in putting the whole festival together.


So Sarah will be @ the Paso Garagiste Festival blogging away. But what else will Sarah be doing? She'll be the assistant to the winemakers for the day!! We're talking Christian from Cypher Winery, Neil from Tablas Creek & Lone Madrone, Terry from Adelaida and ...wait for it.....Justin from Saxum Wines!!!!! I'm super excited and have been practicing my best "get out of here paparazzi!!!" moves to protect the winemakers :)

Can't wait to see you all for the Paso Garagiste Event - hooray!!!!!

Rose Rockoff - Wines & After Party

In the last post I announced the winners & all the wines of the Rose Rockoff, but I was to much of a wimp to get you the details as I was too tired. But today, I'm bright eyed & bushy tailed and will give you the full low down!

There was a tie for the winner of the Rose Rockoff Event. The winners were: L'Aventure Cote A Cote Rose & Chamisal Grenache Rose. That said, the top six of my favorite roses are ALL winners in my eyes as they made it to the top six out of 35 or so. There is no second place - all of these are great roses. So though I'm naming the two "winners", I want you to know about each rose as they are ALL great wines. So here we go:


The Cote A Cote is 64% Mourvedre, 26% Grenache & 10% Syrah. It had a strongly intense Mourvedre nose - meaning the earthy "barnyard" quality that you can get with mourvedre. Though mourvedre isn't my favorite varietal in a rose, this is probably the best rose I've ever had in my entire life. I mean, the quality! Amazing job, Stephan. What I loved about it is that yes, you tasted the mourvedre, but it was light, and gave a cool mourvedre "kick" at the back of the palate. Robert, the Tasting Room Manager at L'Aventure had told me that this rose was left only five minutes on the skins - wow! Such a beautiful rose - everyone was so sad to find out that it is sold out. But remember it for next year!

L'Aventure 2010 Cote A Cote Rose $30
http://www.aventurewine.com/

The Chamisal Rose is 100% Grenache. The first thing I noticed about this rose was its color - a gorgeous cranberry. It is a clean/crisp rose with a tartness & spice that I love at the back of the palate. It had quite a creamy, elegant mouthfeel with a touch of sweetness which, as I always say: "helps to make the medicine go down." :) It was also bright at the front of the palate - feeling like raspberry/cranberry. Chamisal had two different clones of Grenache for the rose - both chosen for their red fruit and spice. The rose is not available in the tasting room, but you may still be able to order online. Email them & ask!

Chamisal 2010 Estate Rose $22
http://www.chamisalvineyards.com/


The La Grande Cote rose is a joint venture by Guillaume Fabre (winemaker for Clos Solene as well as the assistant winemaker for L'Aventure) and Erich Russell (Viticulturist.) The blend is 49% Mourvedre, 32% Syrah and 19% Grenache. I love the nose on this rose! So beautiful - tons of tropical fruit. But what I love most about this rose is how dry it is. I mean, it is literally BONE dry. In fact, that's a big part of the reason why I chose to have this rose as part of the tasting as it is really hard to find a bone dry rose from the Paso area. It is very light on the palate so I started the tasting with this rose - and everyone commented on how fabulously dry it is. This is the rose that the "cocky bunch" thought was a L'Aventure, but it wasn't! It was La Grand Cote. And I have to admit, going into the tasting, my favorite was Chamisal...and I knew everyone would love the L'Aventure Cote A Cote...but the night of the tasting, La Grande Cote was my absolute favorite! I think it was because it is on the lighter side and super dry - and since I'm such a bubbles girl now, I loved the crispness of this rose.

La Grande Cote 2010 Rose $25
http://clossolene.com/ (Just e-mail them to ask about it!)

The Terry Hoage Bam Bam Rose is 50% Syrah, 25% Grenache & 25% Cinsault. The Bam Bam Rose is a HUGE rose! It's on the heavier end for me - even the color almost takes it to a red wine vs. a light colored rose. It's almost a chewy rose that is a bit tart and to me - tastes like fabulous cranberry. Not tons of fruit but has great minerality. It's funny - because of the color, I almost would have thought that it was a big earthy/barnyard/funky mourvedre based rose that I wouldn't like - but not so! It's pure, beautiful, clean fruit - an all around great rose!

The 2010 Terry Hoage Bam Bam  ($20) is sold out, so be first in line to try the 2011 version!!
http://www.terryhoagevineyards.com/

The L'Aventure Estate Rose is one of the first roses I ever tried that I truly loved. The blend is 70% Syrah & 30% Cabernet. I remember trying it at the winery on a cold day, and not really loving it. But we still bought it and took it home with us. A few weeks later, the weather was 90 degrees, and we popped this baby open - OMG! Then I realized why everyone loved this L'Aventure Rose! It's pretty intense and to me has gorgeous, luscious flavors of guava, kiwi & watermelon.  Simply a fabulous rose - a must have. And great news - it is still available!

L'Aventure 2010 Estate Rose $25
http://www.aventurewine.com/

Last but not least is the Clayhouse Adobe Pink Rose. The blend is 38% Mourvedre, 32% Syrah & 30% Cabernet. It is quite a light rose, so we poured it as # 2 in the line up. It has a bit of sweetness to it yet most folks would consider it dry. To me it has flavors of kiwi & watermelon along with a strawberry aftertaste. It was almost tangy & zippy! A FABULOUS rose for the pricepoint of $15.

Clayhouse 2010 Adobe PInk Rose $15
http://www.clayhousewines.com/



So yay! That's the lineup as well as all the details about the roses from my fabulous Rose Rockoff Tasting Event. (I'm not getting cocky, am I??) But I wouldn't have been able to hold the event without the help of all the wonderful folks at 15C in Templeton. Here's a photo of the crew with a couple of extras added in:



From left to right: Ali (the owner of 15C), Lisa Ortman (owner of Ortman wines), Carly (works @15C), Alex (from Tablas Creek who crashed the photo), Holly (who works at 15C) and Loshel (who works @ 15C - notice how he is texting while I'm taking the photo....) and in the front is my buddy T who works at 15C as well as Cypher Winery.

Thanks guys! You all helped make the event a great success!

One of my favorite things that happened that night is that in some way, somehow, 15C became a disco night club as they were getting ready to close. I mean really, truly - T plugged his ipod into the stereo system and woo hoo - we were jammin. That's when Michelle and I heard "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga and off we went. We both LOVE Lady Gaga and have to sing along with her whenever we can. The way it began was Michelle sauntering up to me singing "I've had a little but to much - oh oh oh oh" and I was well on my way. What I love about Michelle and I is that we shared the song - I'd sing "What's going on on the floor" and she's sing "I love this record baby but I can't see straight anymore" and that was us! Thank God I was beyond tipsy otherwise I never would have been up for it - too funny. BTW - if you know us, we also did a legendary gig singing Bad Romance. It's on video somewhere...I'm still trying to figure out how to destroy the tape....

I'm ending with this fabulous photo of Maggie (from Alta Colina) and I having a ball at the dance party:



I think Maggie's face sums it all up right there :)

Woo hoo! That's it for the Rose Rockoff Blog! A big thanks to 15C for hosting the event, and a big thanks to all who attended the event. Up next: a bubbles tasting event for the holidays and a Grenache tasting for my birthday in Febraury. I'm super excited! I think I'll make a habit of this as it is too much fun :)

Thanks to all of you who were a part of this first tasting event. Rock on! :)

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The Rose Rockoff Event - 15@15C!

Eight months ago, I started my quest to do a blog on the "best of the best" roses in the Paso area. Yes, EIGHT months ago. But finally, after running from winery to winery (thru rain, thru snow, thru sleet - oh wait, it was summer...) I narrowed my favorites down to the top six. Then to take it to the next level, this past Saturday, I hosted the "Rose Rockoff" event where us "regular tasting room folk" got to choose #1 out of my top six.

What was absolutely hilarious for me is that it was held on probably the coldest night of the year so far! We were out on the back patio at 15C - with a heat lamp that actually did keep us pretty darn warm - yet it was still a freezing night. But we proved that you can drink rose anytime, anywhere - no matter how cold or warm it is! It was perfect :)

What is ironic is that when I first started in the wine industry, I hated roses! I had never found any that impressed me. I was working with my dear friend, Michelle at Cypher Winery, and she LOVED rose. In fact, I have dubbed her the "Grand Dame of Rose." She got me hooked on the rose bug, and really was an inspiration for this blog. So thanks, Ms. Michelle! Not only did you get me hooked on rose, but you & Ali got me hooked on bubbles.......

OK - focus Sarah - don't be distracted by bubbles. Here we go:

Boyfriend and I were running late to the event as we both had crazy Saturdays at work. Tho to note: the name Boyfriend currently represents "Formally Known as Boyfriend" until further notice - meaning the position of Boyfriend on this blog may be up for grabs. But in the meantime, Dana, as my best friend, is happy to play the part for the sake of the blog :) 

So as I said, we got there late and had to do the set up. I needed to taste through all of the roses again to get the lineup for tasting - from light roses to the heavier roses. Keep in mind, the last time I had some of these roses was months ago so I had to refresh my memory on what was what. In the middle of this, folks kept showing up and wanting to say hi and I had to yell at them to go away so they wouldn't see the bottles - it was pretty funny as most folks didn't believe me and kept coming so I really had to kick them out. The best was Addie who wouldn't listen at all and came in for hugs with her eyes closed so she wouldn't see the bottles - too funny.

Here's the lineup of the roses. We labeled them A to F, from lightest to heaviest roses, trying to make a nice transition from varietal to varietal:


So I of course, had to do a little talk about the madness of my eight month rose blog. It was going well until a Mr. Bobby Fox and a Mr. Glenn Milton decided that they needed to heckle me - tho of course it was pretty hilarious. At one point, Mr. Bobby yelled - "Get on with the tasting already!" Ok Bobby, I know you needed to get your drink on, but seriously? hahahahaha

Tho I bored Bobby (just kidding, Bobby!!) I talked about why I started this silly little blog and how sometimes I wondered at the point of it all.....but because of this blog, it was a great excuse to get all my friends from the area together for this tasting so, woo hoo! I also talked about how lucky I felt to have met so many people in just the last year via the Paso Wine Industry and how all the folks in attendance were a type of "family" for me. Beyond that, I talked about the last eight months of me trying to get to all the wineries I wanted to get to to try their roses, and why I chose the ones I did. Ok - so I did run about the mouth a bit but come on - this is my Rose Rockoff Event that I've been waiting eight months for! My only regret is that I didn't have everyone introduce themselves so at the next event, y'all better be ready.

Here we go: the lineup was six roses to be tasted by 15 local tasting room folks - the main 15@15c. Boyfriend and I were an extra two. Ok - I realize that really makes 17@15 but...whatever. 

Here's a photo of my dear Addie and I promoting 15C. Addie's name is really Adelaida - after Adelaida Road & the Adelaida hills. You can't get more wine industry than that!


And before we get going - a big thanks to Ali & everyone at 15C for hosting the event for us! It was a great space to hold the tasting event & we really appreciate all of your hospitality.

So we start with the first rose. It has a fabulous nose, and is totally dry. Really clean and crisp. My buddies Garrett, Addie & Alex all said, "We know which one this is - it's a L'Aventure." I said, "Oooo you cocky, cocky people. It's not a L'Aventure - just wait till you find out what it is!" They were like "Nooooo! It's really not a L'Aventure??" So I had to get a photo of their cocky little selves being told that they were wrong - soooo funny!


We then tried the next rose, which was still really light, but more on the sweet side. From there, the next rose had quite an earthy funk on the nose (as it was mourvedre based) but had a beautiful, elegant taste about it as well as great finish. The next rose was dry and had a clean grapefruit/guava taste. The next was bigger, yet with a tad of sweetness and even a little spice. The last rose was HUGE and almost lent itself to a red wine. Whew! That's a lot of tasting!

Here's a photo of my dear Bobby Fox and T as they were exhausted from tasting all the wine, but as you can see, were also expressing their love for each other :) I personally think T was dreaming dreams of the upcoming grenache tasting...but we'll talk about that later......


Everyone took their time, tasting through the wines and figuring out which was their favorite. They rated the wines, turned in their cards, and I had to total them all up. But before I announced the winner, we had to get a photo of the whole group of tasters:


The 15 tasters were:

Lindsay, the Tasting Room Manager @ Thatcher Winery along with her boyfriend Nick, who works production at Vina Robles
Lindsey Burrell from Halter Ranch Vineyards (where I currently work)
Addie from Epoch Winery
T (short for Tajin) from Cypher Winery
Alex from Tablas Creek
Garrett from Calcareous Vineyards and his girlfriend Jesse who is working production at Meridian 
Michelle - the Grand Dame of roses who works at 15C along with her husband Stew
Bobby Fox who does a bunch of stuff in the wine industry, including working at Venteux now and again
English Glenn who works at Venteux
Maggie whose family owns Alta Colina
Taryn from Jada Winery
Jason from Calcareous

Ok, drumroll please....the winner is....

ACK! It's a tie! The winners were:
The Cote a Cote Rose from L'Aventure & Chamisal's Grenache Rose. 

The fabulous runner's up were "La Grande Cote" by Guillaume Fabre & Erich Russell, Bam Bam by Terry Hoage, L'Aventure Estate Rose & Clayhouse Adobe Pink. More on these wines to come.....

Wow! What's interesting is that the two winners were my favorites going into the event so I am so glad that they both won - how fun to have a tie! That said, my favorite for the evening was a different rose...I'll tell you why soon...

But here's Ms. Addie after we announced the winner:


And here's the other fabulous "fashion" photos of the evening:

Myself with Ms. Michelle - the Belle of the Rose Blog - 


Myself with the darling Alex and the fabulous Mr. Glenn with the sexy English accent - 


Sarah with Addie, Nick & Lindsay - my fellow hardcore rose tasters -


Plus a great shot of "Formally Known as Boyfriend" & I with Garrett and his girl, Jesse:


Next up I need to go into more details about each of the roses on the blog as well as the story of how 15C suddenly turned into a dance club on a Saturday night. That said, I'm pooped and will have to do Part 2 of this blog tomorrow. But.....I will tantalize you with anticipation to make sure you check in to read Part 2: What's the details on the other wines listed for the tasting? What was Sarah's favorite for the night? Did Sarah & Michelle sing bad Lady Gaga karaoke at the dance party? Only if you tune into Part Two will you find out :)

Cheers to the Rose Rockoff!!!!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Rose Rockoff - This Sat @ 15C!

Hi all,

So if you know me, you know that I've been hunting down the "best of the best" roses in the area since this spring. In fact, I'm sure most of you are sick of hearing "I need to taste that for my rose blog!" I know...I know.....Apologies as even I am tired of hearing it.

But really & truly, this has it been a lot of work! There's never enough time to really get to run around & try what I want, and certain wineries are only open limited hours, so it's been really hard to run around and get to try the roses. But after about 6 months, I've tried 35+ roses, and have picked my top 6. Drumroll please......

Well.....come to think.....yada yada - yeah, I'll do a blog about each of the roses and why I think they are so fabulous. Good. - but BORING! Can't I do more? Heck ya! So, I'm about to step it up a notch and keep the party going:

Now that I've picked these top six, I'm putting them up to the test of my fellow industry folks & friends. I'm hoping to have the "Fifteen @ 15C" - 15 friends from the industry who will blind taste these top 6 roses, and then pick the winner. ALL are winners in my eyes, yet at the same time, how fun to choose the best of the best!

So this Sat night at 7pm, on the back patio of 15C in Templeton, we'll be holding the "Rose Rockoff" in order to pick "The Best Rose in the Paso Area" - off of my standards, anyway :) What I love about this is that the panel will be made up of us "regular" tasting room folk who would never be asked to be part of a panel like this. Well this Saturday, we WILL be the panel - yay! This will be a lot of fun - and a great way to get us industry folks together for a mini-industry party. At the party, I'll reveal the top six roses from the area, but will follow up with a blog on it all - and the winner will get a special blog done on their winery.

So come one, come all! Join us Sat night @ about 7pm for a lot of fun. "The Rose Rockoff" - if you've seen the movie, Tenacious D, you'll know what I mean :)

15C
1121 Rossi Road
Templeton - in the Trader Joe's shopping Center
805.434.1554