This was the last tasting we had scheduled for the trip on the day we met up with friends.  It was unfortunate because quite frankly the experience here sucked.  It was somewhat commercial, not at all personal, bordering rude.  Took them a while to find the appointment (no problem, it’s busy, that’s a good sign, right?) and we stayed indoors at the bar area to hopefully chat about the wines.  One of the family’s sons was pouring the wines (that’s cool too, figured we’d get to hear interesting tidbits) but the most interesting thing we learned was which son he was on the old family portrait.  Guess what I didn’t want to learn about on this trip?  Actually he didn’t even tell us, we overheard it while he was chatting with another couple. Every time we were poured a wine, the explanation was rehearsed, succinct, and I swear half of it was delivered over his shoulder as he was walking away from us.  My abandonment issues aside, the one positive thing I’ll say about the tasting was that there was a water cooler in the corner where you could help yourself, so I may have drank about a gallon of water compliments of Baldacci while being ignored and trying to get rid of the bad taste the rest of the experience left in my mouth.  I’ll admit we did purchase one wine, a 2007 cabernet that didn’t taste like your average cab from that year, but I was a tough sell, honestly I didn’t want to spend any more money there than we did on the tasting itself.  Go if you want, maybe you’ll have a better time with a different brother but I won’t be going back there again.  I don’t even know/care if it was appointment only, and we didn’t really check out the view past the 1983 Ferrari 308 GTS parked in the lot that The Colonel was drooling over.

http://www.baldaccivineyards.com/

This was the first stop of Grapestorm’s Napapalooza and they set the bar quite high.  We arrived bleary eyed after the drive from San Francisco, and tired after we emerged from what we now know is called the marine layer (also known as the layer of clouds that appear as though someone just cut them at one point and said “San Francisco, you take all these clouds, everyone north of here enjoy a nice clear blue sky”).  Anyways, after driving along an incredibly windy Rt. 128 to the vineyard, I thought I might be too queasy and windblown to enjoy any day drinking (weird, I know!) especially since I indulged The Colonel on an open-window drive to fully appreciate the sweet, sweet maneuvering of our reasonably priced midsized sedan rental car.  From the second we walked in, we were greeted warmly, offered use of the restrooms (my hair and I were thankful for that), and most importantly, poured a glass sauvignon blanc.  I can’t accurately say if I thought it was good wine or not, because it was so crisp and refreshing after the drive.  I have to admit that we weren’t overwhelmed by any of the wines we tasted there (cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel blend, and the sauv blanc) but the experience of the tasting was difficult to match.  We were able to tour the property, including watching wines being pressed, saying hi to a handful of the winemakers, and the best part easily was riding in an open-air buggy around the vineyard.  Not only did we learn more about the wine making process, but we learned more about how the grapes are grown, tasted a few different varietals (Grenache won, hands down), not to mention we ate our way through the other fruits grown at the vineyard.  It was an unexpectedly down to earth experience that caught us completely off guard, but it served as the sigh of relief you take when you finally realize that you’re on vacation, and it’s going to be awesome.  Appointment only, gorgeous views, just be ready for the drive there.

http://www.somerstonwineco.com/