Back From The Honeymoon

We're back ... to be honest we didn't want to come back. Stacy and I went to wine country in California (Sonoma Valley be be more specific). We met with a few winery owners and that was a blast. I'll be more specific on 3 of them. First, Robert Hunter. Sweetest old man I've ever met in my life. His assistant Kurt met us at the winery office and gave us a tour and speech about the land and how Bob acquired the small portion (85 total acres with about 45 planted with grapes) of the land. Then we walked around the grounds of the house and we were told about the history of the gardens around the house. All this time we didn't know that this house we were walking around was the house of Bob and his wife. All of a sudden we heard a door close and this tall older gentleman is walking toward us. We were able to sit down with Bob and Kurt on the back patio which was on a lookout over looking the valley. We (Stacy, I, Kurt and even Bob) tasted the sparkling wine the Robert Hunter Winery produces, then the Pino Noir. Then we just sat there and chit chatted with Bob and Kurt for about 45 minutes. (Now folks this is a real treat in wine country to be able to sit and just talk with a winery owner like this.) They are running low on the Chardonnay and the Cabernet Sauvignon so we didn't get to taste those, but Kurt was gracious enough to let us do a barrel tasting of the Chardonnay. Barrel tasting is always a treat, at least it makes me feel special.



Next was Little Vineyards:

When we arrived at this winery there was this blond headed gentleman straightening a sign in a pickup truck, he saw us pull up and he just smiled, waved, then finished straightening up the sign and walked over to us and introduced himself as Rich Little. This owner was the coolest cat I've met in a long time. We walk up to the tasting room and he pulls out a bottle of wine called Band Blend and he points to a picture on a shelf and says there's a picture of Kurt Hammett (guitar player for Metallica) showing off our Band Blend wine. Not only does this wine have a cool label but it tastes great too. We start talking about how he got started in the winery business, then next thing I know he's talking about how he plays an instrument called the Stick (basically it's a guitar and bass in one and is played by tapping, shown above) and Rich was kind enough to give us a sample of his playing. Kurt has some awesome grooves, keep up the good work. Then we get on the subject of the recording studio that Rich as built on the winery grounds. Let me tell you, this place is the coolest. There are vintage amps and guitars all over the place, on the walls, in cubby-holes. Recording equipment everywhere. I guess when Joe Satriani was in town his band came over to the studio/winery for a few hours to hang out and have a relaxing time. Some other musicians have come out to get their initial recording down then they send it out to get finalized. To tell you the truth, I don't remember any names, mostly due to by this time Rich and I have talked about instruments/music/wine for about an hour and we've been drinking wine the whole time with no food in my stomach. Yeah, I was getting a bit drunk. When I get the pictures downloaded I'll post some pics of the trip for you all.


Lastly was the owners of the place we stayed:
Suzy and Squire Fridell, the Glen Lyon Estate Cottage. The people were fantastic people. Unfortunately they have a very busy weekend and we didn't get to spend much time with them. They had a bottling which Stacy and I were able to help with. Not much help, but we at least were able to get in there and say we did something. I've done "home bottling" and this winery wasn't much more sophisticated than that. It was quite the experience to see the in between winery in action meaning, they are in between the big producers where everything is automated, and the home winery where everything is done by hand and very little machine work. Mostly there was very little done with machine, again I'll post some pics when I get them downloaded. Then they had a party at there house, these two events took up Suzy and Squires time just enough to where is clashed with our schedule that we didn't get to do any tastings or get the tour of the property. I'm truly saddened by this because whenever we met someone who asked where we were staying, and our reply was at the Glen Lyon Cottage. Everyone, and I mean everyone, would say "Oh Squire and Suzy, they are the greatest people". So I'm saddened that we didn't get to spend more time with them other than the quick chats in passing. But, Stacy and I are already planning our next trip out there and will hopefully be staying at the cottage again. So, we'll just plan in advance to spend more time with them next time. When is next time? Well I'm ready to sell a kidney to pay for the trip right now, but we'll just have to save and see when we can afford the trip. Ideally, our 1 year anniversary is the goal.

Well this is about a novel in length. I'll stop here for now and start having Stacy download the pictures at her work and I'll get some pics post for all to see. So, to recap ... we spent a week tasting some of the greatest wines, meeting some really great people, and purchasing a lot of wine.

Later all ...