Saturday, July 26, 2008

Jeff and I decided to take a sanity day, so after doing my catch-up blog and a few chores, he printed out winery maps and we hit the road. The Texas Hill Country will take your breath away, it's so beautiful. The drive alone will get your shoulders relaxing and is good for the soul. Nestled far into the Northern peninsula that is formed by the Pedernales and Colorado River conjoins is a picturesque winery called Stone House Winery. It rests almost at the tip of the peninsula and has some great views of Lake Travis, but you have to mosey outside to see it. They even have a dock that you can pull your boat up to but noone has utilized it yet. Jeff and I vow to do this once we get a boat.
The tasting room was smaller than most, but still comfy. They have a nice arbor outside with cafe seating. It overlooks the vines, so you know what to do in the fall. We did the regular wine tasting tour and then split a reserve tasting flight. My taste in wine is going more toward the reds these days. I don't like the sweetness that I used to in my earlier days as much and prefer something with a little more complexity than what you can get out of a box! No, not a wine snob at all, but I'm learning to appreciate the differences from one to another and what makes one special vs. what makes it table wine. It's an interesting and relaxing process....You gotta try it! We get our "wine passport" stamped and drive away with a bottle of Chiraz to add to our collection.
Next, we hit a very well hidden 17 acre winery called Spicewood Winery. You hear banjos playing as you go further and further back onto smaller and smaller roads and, just when you think someone might ask you to squeal like a pig, the scenery opens up to reveal row upon row of grapevines....muy bonita! The tasting room has a baby grand and a very oak barrel feel to the decor. The ceiling is done in knotty pine and it's very comfortable inside. So, we sit down while a grad student from UT pours us 1 oz. samples of several wines. He's amusing and we have a grand ole time talking about life on the farm....grape farm, that is. They are harvesting right now and doing the crush early because of the heat. Some of the grapes started exploding last year because of all of the rain but this year, the heat is making raisins out of 'em. It's so interesting to learn more about the process whilst imbibing the product! We are going to make a habit out of this. We have our "wine passport" stamped here, too, and leave with a bottle of their very resonably priced reserve zinfindel.
A word on wine passports: The Texas Hill Country wineries have formed ranks and have come up with a clever way to promote winery tours in Texas. If you visit any one of 24 wineries, you'll get a 'wine passport' that can be stamped when you visit each one. If you visit 12 of them, you get a free poster of Texas Hill Country wines. If you visit all 24 of them, you'll get a free poster that's signed by all of the owners of the Hill Country wineries. Oooooh, ah! Won't that look great in the pub!?!!! Lol....I think it'll be cute to have a collage done of the winery brochures and of the passport, personally, and could care less about the poster, but what a cute idea, no?
Anyway, back home we went, had a nice healthy salad and then lazed in front of the TV, watching "A League of Their Own" again. What a great day....gotta do a repeat soon and get more stamps on de ole passport! =)