Champagne Day

Spent yesterday with the Champagne Crew in Hollister. The plan was to go down early, go hiking at the Pinnicales, come back, do a little hot tubbing and BBQ some dinner. We had forgotten that the holdiay weekend would bring many more people to park. The Pinnicles was very crowded, parking lots full and a shuttle running people in and out of the park. It was so hot standing out there waiting for the shuttle and the fact that they had more people waiting than shuttle space, we switched to plan “B”. WINE TASTING!! Headed first to the DeRose winery. Now I’m not a wine drinker, but this may have been the best “wine expieriance” that I ever had. Pat DeRose was pouring the wine and teaching us about the different varieties. Very low key and personal. No formal tasting room here, just a table and antique bar inside the working winery. Among other things, I learned that some vines are never watered or irrigated (dry farmed). Some of the vines in his vineyard are over 100 years old. Checking out thier webpage I learned that winery itself is built directly on top of the San Andreas Fault. Great time at DeRose. And great wine too. Tanya recommends the Hollywood Red. From there it was up the hill to the Peatra Santa winery. Peatra Santa was more like the wineries in Napa. $5 for 5 featured wines. I had already had enough wine for the day so I did’nt partake in any more tasting. The winery also produces olive oil which they had to sample. Three different types ranging from $25- $50 a bottle. All very good. Two wineries was plenty for us so we decided to head back to the Champagne house (sounds like another winery!). But before we did. we stopped at the 19th hole, a roadside bar in Tres Pinos that Al had always wanted to check out. Finally some tasting that I like to do! Not sure why this place is called the 19th hole. No Golf course that I could see anywhere around. Looks like a biker bar to me. Anyway, we had a couple of cold ones, played some music on the jukebox, stuck a dollar bill up on the ceiling. This must me a tradition at the 19th hole because there were at least 300-400 dollar bills thumb tacked to the ceiling. Some looked to be very old. Most people had written one thing or another on the bill before they put it up on the ceiling. This is accomplished with a long pole and paperclip contraption. So, since we were in tourist mode, we stuck a couple of bucks up there too! After that it was a short ride back to the Champagne house where we decided that maybe ordering a couple of pizzas was better than BBQing. Can’t go wrong with pizza!. The kids soaked in the hot tub some, but since we weren’t all sore form our hike, we took a pass and just visisted. Hit the road around 9:30. Another great day in California with the Champagne Crew. Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from our “hike”