Well, not really that type of break this spring. That's disgusting.
More better, like this:
After a few days with the fellas on the Park City, UT slopes, Beth and I got away for a kid free day & night to sip some wine in Temecula.
Each trip south seems to make a better impression on me than the last. Perhaps going midweek helps? We were there on Tuesday and although we didn't have the place to ourselves, we didn't deal with too much traffic either. In talking with one pourer, I learned that Wilson Creek on a weekend will sell 2,000 people tastings at $25 a pop. Sort of the opposite of Paso.
We started on the far east end, at Chapin Family Vineyards. Pretty good stuff. Informative (overly?) pourer and cool tasting room.
Next, across the driveway to Doffo. We earned a chocolate bar for becoming new wine club members thanks to my in-laws for catering to our interests at Christmas. We liked just about everything we tried and look forward to plowing through our 6 bottle pickup.
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| Doffo |
Our 3rd stop was South Coast Winery. This is a huge resort/spa looking place that runs its tasting room like a meat market. Well, that's not true as I've never experienced a meat market like this, but it's a huge room where you bring your pre-purchased tickets to the counter. The bartender, I mean pourer, probably said 5 words to us and poured stiff tastes of below average wine. We did enjoy the pretty patio enough during our cheese and salami bread break.
The post snack stop was probably my favorite tasting experience of the day. The very laid back environment and pourer of Palumbo was everything I enjoy about wine tasting. They don't advertise or allow party busses. Perfect. Unless I'm on a party bus on my next visit.
Our final winery stop was Miramonte. A very beautiful place where we beat the old folks flocking out of their tour bus to the tasting bar. Seeing two 70+ year old ladies arguing and wagging fingers in each others faces easily stole the show from the average wines we tried.
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| I wish I'd taken a pic of the old ladies. My bad. |
Loved our in town, downtown happy hour spot, Crush & Brew. They serve, you guessed it, local wines and local beers. Awesome ambience and good selection. We wanted to get back later in the night for the live singer/songwriter music showcase but didn't because we're old.
Dinner was tremendous. Thanks to Yelp, we found ourselves at Gourmet Italia. Rock solid food and eating experience. Our server looked like Petros Papidakus with a strong Italian accent.
I'm pretty sure the other server was Guido from Life is Beautiful.
Two servers working a crowded restaurant lengthened our stay but their humor and flair made for a great ending to an awesome mid-week getaway.
Oh, and Mo's Egg House was a fantastic way to start off Wednesday's ride home. Good stuff!
Cheers!
