It's a New Day!

No - this blog post isn't about the song by Will I Am. It's about a new day in the life of well, me!

Today was my first day of working at Halter Ranch Vineyards in the Adelaida Hills of Paso Robles. I'm so excited as there are lots of really neat things going on at Halter (including a brand new, state of the art 70,000 square foot winery opening July 1st!) so we're all going to be quite busy. But one of my favorite things about the Halter is that it's a huge estate vineyard property so you get to have your hands in a lot of parts of the business. Though I'm in the tasting room, I got to hang out in the vineyard today and tomorrow I'll get to work in the employee vegetable garden too!

Halter is currently expanding their tasting room as an interim space until about 18 months from now when they open the "mothership" tasting room - that will be insanely gorgeous. Since there's so much construction going on, we were pouring off the back porch of the 1885 Historic House on the property. Here's fellow employee Sarah looking adorable at the bar:

Then here's a photo of my buddy Seth & I - Seth is the tasting room manager at Halter. We're doing cheers and drinking the bubbles I brought to celebrate my first day :)

What I loved most about today is that there we were, pouring outside on such a gorgeous day, with chickens roaming around us begging for food, being surrounded by fragrant lavender with honeybees flitting about - but the best part were the baby blue jays!

In the tree next to us, a mommy bird was feeding here babies. Look at the incredible shot that I got:

Can you see them? When Mommy & Daddy come with the food, the babies would start SCREAMING - so loudly that we'd all stop in the middle of the tasting and watch the parents do their thing. There was a bit of a "hole" in the tree so we could see a lot of the action. Here's the mommy on the roof - she was working so hard!

But I freaked out when one of the cats on the property figured out there were babies in the tree and tried to go after them. Oh boy, did we all kick into action! Before we left for the night, Seth set this up around the tree to try to be a type of deterrent so the cat wouldn't go after the babies tonight. We wanted to do more, but it was all we had. Fingers crossed that they'll be OK.

So wow - it's a big change for me but I am thrilled to be at Halter. I'm so sad though to leave all of my buddies at Cypher Winery - I'm just so thankful to everyone there as I loved working there & they really helped give me a start in the wine industry - and good Lord was it fun!! But hopefully I'm not losing my buddies there but rather just gaining new buddies - and in the end we'll all still meet and hangout at the 15C Wine Bar! :)

I'm sure there will be many more posts about Halter and the exciting things going on there. Stayed tuned........

For Bill...

My boyfriend Dana's Father, Bill was buried in Reno, NV this past weekend. Bill was in his eighties and his death was expected, though it is never, never easy. My heart goes out to Dana, Dana's Stepmom, Sonia, her son, Eric and all extended friends & family.

Since it is Memorial Day, I wanted to pay tribute to Bill on this blog as this blog is everything that Bill was about: good friends, good laughs, and lots of libations!

The below blogpost on "Sideways All Over Again" is dedicated to Bill as I know it would crack him up. He'd love seeing Dana & I having fun - and anything about Hollywood movies always put a smile on his face.

Old Blue Eyes, we miss you. This one is for you :)

"Sideways" All Over Again

So after Boyfriend and I had a fabulous time at Epiphany in Los Olivos, we trotted down the street to go do our favorite thing: sit at the bar at the Los Olivos Cafe, have a glass of wine along with one of their gourmet pizzas. Ah, what a life.

In case you don't know, the Los Olivos Cafe was the setting for the big "dinner" scene in the movie   The film centers around one wine connoisseur who takes his non-wine connoisseur friend out on a wine tasting trip through Santa Barbara wine country. The dinner scene is where the two guys meet up with their two female love interests and drink probably six bottles of wine between them. Wow. That's heroic.

So as boyfriend and I approached the Cafe, I took boyfriend into the alley as I needed to make one thing really clear to him. I said,

"I'm not drinking any fucking merlot!"

Dana didn't understand this as he actually likes merlot, but because I had so much anger about it all, he acquiesced.

Chris was our fabulous server for the night who made sure that I didn't even have to look at any merlot bottles. I think he was nervous that I might smash them. On top of that, we were such high-maintenance clients he had to start drinking just to get through the evening with us.

Maybe I should just rename Chris "Miles" since Miles (in the movie) chugged red wine like this while running down hill (yes, hint hint - trying to tie in the movie again.)

So after Boyfriend and I got through about three bottles of wine, I started to drunk dial my brother. All I remember is yelling at him that I wasn't drinking merlot, and laughing so hard that I couldn't hardly speak while I was trying to tell him about my "Save the Cocks" campaign. Ah, the foggy memories.

Ta-Da! Boyfriend and I will take a bow now, thanking all of your for indulging us with this little "Sideways" reenactment.  Man, between the excellent wines at Epiphany and a hilarious time at the Cafe, we sure had a fabulous day. Thanks, Boyfriend - I sure love to be with you!

One last shot of the gorgeous Santa Barbara County Vineyards as we were driving home. Wow. What's amazing is that this photo isn't retouched in any way. What colors....

A big thanks to Chris & everyone at the Los Olivos Cafe
2879 Grand Avenue Los Olivos
805.688.7265  www.losolivoscafe.com

I Had an Epiphany So I Went to Epiphany!

OK folks: I visited Epiphany in Los Olivos a couple weeks ago and am just finally getting around to blogging about it (I'm back-blogged, you know.) I am *so* thankful I went! Epiphany was recommended to me by Bret (who works at Robin's in Cambria) and his wife, Maria (who works at Eberle.) I trust their opinion as they used to live in the area so I made sure I stopped there while I was in town.

Boyfriend & I walked into Epiphany and immediately met Jonathan (the Tasting Room Manager) who was the most amazing host. We started off with the 2009 Grenache Blanc and I had to stop, pause and take it all in as it was so lovely. I thought this was my favorite Grenache Blanc ever until Jonathan told us the 2010 was just released and that we could try it. OMG - how can you choose between these wines? They are both perfection in my mind. I was raving about them when Jonathan mentioned, "We got all of our Grenache Blanc cuttings/root stock from Tablas Creek." OK - now I know (partly) why the wine is so amazing. Can't I ever get away from these Tablas Creek "amazing wine guys?" It's like they're omnipresent!

The 2010 Grenache Blanc is a "party in your mouth" as coined by Boyfriend. It's totally apricot with bright acidity, yet a round, full flavor. Jonathan said it was "dangerous" as it's one of those wines you can drink all day.

So let's talk about the backstory on Epiphany. They are owned by the Fess Parker Winery. Epiphany was started as a "personal passion project" by Eli Parker and Ashley Parker Snider. They wanted to focus on high-end, limited production wines with an emphasis on Rhone varietals. Around 1999, Epiphany planted Rhone Varietals grafted from Tablas Creek as well as other vineyards and viola! Things got rolling.

The winemaker for Epiphany is the awesome Blair Fox, who actually has his own winery, Blair Fox Cellars, also in Los Olivos. In my not-so-humble opinion, Blair is a genius when it comes to winemaking. Watch out Mr. Fox, we'll be crashing your winery soon and will be looking for an interview with you!

Now back to the wines. I've been on a hunt for the best of the best pink wines so I was thrilled to be able to try the Epiphany 2010 Grenache based rose'. Absolutely beautiful. It actually gives you a "back of the palate pop" which was quite a surprise! Flavors of light, clean watermelon, strawberry, kiwi & guava abounded. This one will definitely make it to my rose' list.

Jonathan also opened up for us a stainless steel dry Riesling. I can't even begin to say how nice it is to find a gorgeous, stone dry Riesling that's made in California. What a treat! What I don't understand is why we didn't bring a bottle (or two or three) home with us. Oh well. We'll just have to do the beautiful drive down to Los Olivos again. Poor us :)

Here's the amazing Jonathan!

Rather than going on about all of the wines (though they are all fabulous & deserve attention!) I'm going to highlight Epiphany's flagship wine: their Petite Sirah. This wine is their most popular wine and has earned many accolades. In 2005 & 2006, it won Double Gold in the San Francisco International Wine Competition with unanimous decisions! That is beyond amazing.

Right now in the tasting room, they are pouring the 2007 Petite Sirah which hasn't been judged yet as the San Francisco International Wine Competition won't be held until June 17th-19th. How exciting! Good luck to everyone at Epiphany. In the meantime, I'd recommended running down there and buying it up while you can :)

The special treat for us at Epiphany was that Jonathan had the '04 Petite Sirah open for us and we got to try it. Wow! Thanks, Jonathan - you made us feel like kings & queens.

Of course I'm always looking for the best photo opportunity, so here's another shot of Jonathan, pouring from a magnum bottle. Well, not really...but it's nice to be able to dream, isn't it? Though if we had cracked it opened, Boyfriend and I would have had to crash on the floor at Epiphany as we would have never been able to drive home - HA!

I have to say a huge THANK YOU! to Jonathan for showing us such an amazing time at Epiphany. As an industry person, I have to say how nice it is to be teated so well at another winery. Jonathan took a lot of time with us, poured us through their wines so that we could get the "full" experience of Epiphany, and shared a library of information with us about the wines & winery. You can obviously tell by Jonathan's positive attitude that he enjoys working there. In fact, he said, "This is the best job I've ever had in my life!" Now that's quite a statement. That said, when you find out that Epiphany only produces 4,500 cases, but has 2,000 wine club members in a wine club that's only four years old, you know something special is going on at that place. Two bottles, two times a year - how nice is that! Sign up - you really can't go wrong.

That's why I had to take the following photo - with Boyfriend's permission & approval of course:

I was just so thankful to find such good wines at this winery, I couldn't help myself! When wine tasting, you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince. But at Epiphany, I found two princes in Jonathan & Blair Fox. Thanks, guys!! (And a big thanks to Jonathan's wife for understanding why I had to do this photo - ha ha)


Epiphany Cellars is located at:
2963 Grand Avenue in Los Olivos
805.686.2424 www.epiphanycellars.com

This is the gorgeous building on Grand Avenue where you'll find Epiphany. What a great place to work!

Next post: My visit to the "Sideways" Los Olivos Cafe. This is where it really gets interesting :)

A Twist on a Quote....

Since I started the blog, I've found it hilarious that now I'm always watchful for opportunities to blog. I suddenly run to get my camera to capture the photo op, and immediately start crafting how this can play out as a blog post. To this regard, Richard Bach said,

"Live each day as though it were a carefully recorded piece of the past."

But I think I've come up with my own take on that. I say:

"Live each day as though it were a carefully recorded piece of my blog."

Uh oh. I think I need help. Maybe I should start the new blog: addictedtoblogging.com

Wine Fest @ Cypher!

This is a pretty wimpy blog about Wine Fest but that's only because I worked all day and am exhausted. So this is all you get (Ha!):

First off I walked in to see Mike looking hot! I've never seen him in a tie before - he's usually in plaid with his worker boots as he has his own vineyard & family winery - so this was a shock! But doesn't he look good? I knew from the moment I saw him he'd get waaaay more tips than me today :)

I was thrilled to walk into the winery to see that Christian was going to pour through some of the new wines for us and tell us about his vision. Stainless Grenache Blanc, Stainless Chardonnay, Grenache Noir, Mourvedre, & the new 12 Varietal Cypher Wine - wow! Here's photos of the day:

First up, Christian pouring the Grenache Blanc:

And here's Leanna, our wine club manager, getting her drink on :)

Here's the new Cypher Wine cork:

Here's Christian tearing the head off of an innocent bottle - the newly released Cypher wine. Twelve varietals in one bottle:

Here's what's in it:

Here's a photo of me with the man himself:

And amazingly, I ran into Sarah Silverman today! Well, she may not be the "real" Sarah Silverman, but she sure looks like her. In fact, all she did was say "fuck" when I talked to her, so maybe she is the real thing! Then again, she accused me of being the one who swore all the time. She may have called me out and was right, but that was only because I thought I was in the presence of the real Sarah Silverman - and then you're obliged to swear of course. Chicken or the egg sort of thing you know. (This is all part of an inside joke - thank you for indulging me!)

Ms. Sarah Silverman, though I only chatted with you for 5 minutes, you were my favorite part of the day - thank you!!!

"We'll be back" for Wine Fest next year - hopefully with a much better blog :)

The New Cypher Wines Have Arrived!

What an exciting day! The first round of the new Cypher wines were released today. I'm thrilled as I've been waiting to try our new stainless steel Chardonnay and our stainless Grenache Blanc for what seems like forever now.

Here's SAM (one of the Cypher owners - Susan A. Mahler - long for SAM) bringing us the first delivery with Leanna and Mike helping her unload it.

Then we broke open the box to look at the new labels - here's our fabulous Tasting Room Manager, Nicole doing the perfect modeling shot with the bottles :)

Immediately we put the bottles on ice so that we could crack them open as soon as possible. I've been waiting for so long, must I wait more?

Then we cracked them open. The Grenache Blanc was so clean, crisp and light with beautiful fruit - perfect for a hot summer's day. A "Porch Pounder" as I call it :) The stainless Chardonnay is simply the best one that I have ever had - such amazing fruit for a Chard (keep in mind that I don't love chardonnay!) That's all because it's the best of the best fruit from the Cat Canyon Vineyard in Santa Barbara County. What's neat is that I got to taste the chard a long time ago while still in barrel. I pegged it then as the best stainless steel chard I've ever had - and it's so awesome to see that that's still the case!

To end this post, here's a photo of SAM & I doing "cheers" to the whites while somehow ending up on the floor. Now one might say, "Why on Earth were you on the floor?" Well, that's because that's the way SAM rolls. She doesn't do anything small - she always does what's the most fun. Who else would make me play Pictionary until 11pm at her house for my "interview" - i.e. if you don't play Pictionary well, you're not hired! And who else would make everyone play Twister after Christmas Eve dinner? I tried to hide in the corner until SAM spotted me and said, "YOU! We're on for a match." That was the night "Twisted Sisters" was born. It was too fun - I did all the crazy moves, SAM tried to save me from falling but to no avail, I crashed and burned on the colorful Twister dots. I definitely need to say a big "Thanks, SAM!" for making everything so much fun :)

Love to everyone at Cypher! The Cypher Evolution continues........