I was asked to go wine tasting this weekend in Santa Ynez Valley, California and I said yes. It was interesting and not exactly what I thought it would be. I guess I had some bad movie idea of a bunch of snobby people spitting their saliva diluted alcohol into spittoons. Gross, I know. I’m happy and relieved to say, that wasn’t the case.
The weekend weather was glorious and the rolling hills, covered in vineyards looked like works of art. Tuscan style homes made me want to sell everything and move there. One the of vineyards in particular, Sunstone was magnificant. I was ready to make my bed in the tasting room. Stone covered the floors walls and ceiling. Candlelight, wine barrels and rustic wooden wine racks added to the ambiance. I purchased the most unbelievable blood orange olive oil there and a bottle of balsamic chocolate.
Wine tasting was something I had never taken an interest in since I’m not much of a drinker to begin with but I was invited so I decided to try something new. All this time I thought you swish wine around in your mouth and then spit it out. I was so wrong and felt so naive. Everyone gets a very small amount of many different wines. After you try a wine, you may decide to finish the amount they’ve given you or you can choose to pour it out into a bucket and move on to the next one. I seem to have a bad reaction to red wines so I stayed with trying whites.
In the course of two day I went to six wineries and tried about 15 wines. My favorite was The Laetitia’s Sparkling Whites (I’m such a girl. Love bubbles!).
I finished my weekend with the most amazing pizza ever in the history of pizza…Mac and Cheese Pizza. Yes….it exists and it’s flipping amazing. Oh My God! Sadly I don’t remember the name of the restaurant but they deserve a medal or something.
Wine Tasting Weekend was a success and I will do it again.