I had such a blast going wine tasting in and around Santa Ynez yesterday with a few of my friends! I gotta say, I do love wine tasting. I think we made it to five different wineries before the girls said they'd had enough (as Amy said on her blog, D and I were still ready to hit up a few more...)
Our crazy group included
Amy Nave, her roomie Summer, the one-and-only
Shyla Dalirifar my good buddy D (he was one of my groomsmen just about
two-and-a-half-months back), my hottie of a wife
Cheryl and
Myself. :-)
The first winery we hit was
Foxen. I LOVE that place!!! I don't usually find too many bottles of wine worth buying when I go tasting, but I always find something at Foxen. Though I think Shyla might have felt a little bit differently, because on her blog she said each time she tasted a wine there it was like faceplanting in the dirt. (They have some pretty decent Pinot Noir's in my humble opinon, and they can be a bit earthy) ;-)
Next we hit up
Zaca Mesa. I hadn't tasted there, and I kinda doubt I'd make the stop there again. Nothing stood out to me, I'd lean toward saying their wines were just very blah... They did have a pretty fun little chess set that we created a fun group portrait with. (see pic above, I'm the one laying down)
Our third stop was
Firestone Vineyards. Firestone definitely isn't at the top of the list of wineries for me, but I am a member there (for the simple reason that I get free tastings for myself and my friends each time we stop in, so it easily pays for itself) I'm not a huge fan of the wines at Firestone, but their Riseling is a tough one to pass up, and the dessert wines are GREAT (but then again, where have I ever had a dessert wine I didn't like?)
At this point we were definitely ready for lunch, but we were told we had to stop at
Curtis to try their dessert wine (I think the girls made a big deal at Firestone about how much they LOVED the dessert wines!) I usually skip Curtis even though as a member of Firestone you get free tastings at Curtis.
Next,
Los Olivos Cafe. I assured the girls they could choose either a sandwich or salad here. (I'd never eaten there, but as a guy, I was pretty sure of this...) Well, they had some salads, and then a list of pizzas, TONS of wines, and no sandwiches. Oops... but we all enjoyed our own personal pizzas. They kinda reminded me of California Pizza Kitchen ones, but more posh...
After lunch (which we didn't finish until after 4 p.m.) we headed to one last winery,
Daniel Gehrs, to taste some of their port. I do love a nice glass of port once in a while, and that's the only thing I've found worth buying at this winery, but wow, is it worth it. :-)
All-in-all we had a GREAT time. From the sounds of it, Shyla still isn't big on wine, but she did say she loved all of the yummy desert wines.
