The 2017 Grenache-a-Rama, Part 2!
Sunday, July 30, Casa Zarina, Encinitas, CA.
(Our Back Yard!)
Getting ready photos:
(Click here to skip down to people photos)
Flowers
More flowers
White wine glasses and yet more flowers!
The main tasting table, red wine glasses and, you guessed it, more flowers!
Old School Play Station
It was a nice warm and sunny day.
Looking one way...
...and the other.
The cigar room with the recycling center to the left, both of which came in handy.
Coin Toss, Giant Jenga.
Greg stuffing some jalapeños
Lorri, Kelly, and Matt Brady
...and Greg. Matt was the guest of honor. He is the former wine-maker at Jaffurs Winery and the owner and winemaker of Vino Sapien Wines.
OK, I had to get in one photo!
I call this event "Part 2" because we had Part 1 in Santa Barbara last month (Click here to see my web pages for Part 1) with Sonja Madjewski of Casa Dumetz. Last year Sonja and Matt joined us together here at Casa Zarina. Got it?
We had lots of great food to go with the vino!
The girls: Dana, Sherrie, Mitzi, Jan, Josie, Lorri, Kelly and Jackie.
Richard and Greg
Some of the girls with white wine.
Mitzi, Kelly, Josie, Sherrie and Dana
Jan, Jacqueline and Laroo.
Skip, John (with a rare photo smile), and Rodger
Skip, John (back to normal), and Rodger. Don't get me wrong; John smiles and laughs all the time, just not for many photos.
Still on whites but getting ready to start.
Matt has made his "Grandaddy Grenache" at least since the 2009 vintage. We had a vertical of every year since then, including his most recent release, the 2015.
With Matt leading the way, we "worked" our way through each vintage.
Matt explained the differences in the weather, harvesting, processing, and so on, for each year, which account for the individuality of each wine.
Matt explains to Kelly how to crush grapes with your feet. Just kidding.
Ray, Jackie, Greg, and Kelly.
See? Julia agrees - Grenache for lunch is a good thing!
But, just in case...
Everyone brought goodies to share
Mmmm.
"Pequeñas carnes rodondas" - little round meats, AKA Little Smokies!
Bruschetta!
Veggies!
Giant Jenga!
The lineup! L to R, 2015 to 2009.The only non-Grenache is the 2014 "Juntos" the bottle on the right which is half Grenache and half Syrah. For those of you who notice such things, there is one too many bottles, right? There were two 2013's, a 750 and 1.5L.
Wine industry guys talking shop.
Tasting wine. We're good at it.
We could stand around and taste wine all day!
We did!
I think everyone was having fun.
We enjoyed all the wines and learned a lot from Matt. The 2015 will be the last vintage of Grandaddy but not the end of Matt's Grenache-making.
Later, some of the boys and Jackie found their way to the cigar lounge.
We learned that Grenache is also a fine complement to a good stogie!
Some of the ladies tried their hands at Jenga
This is Lorri's turn...
Be careful, Lorri!
Ooops! She lost!
Greg and Matt
Richard, Dana, Jackie and Ray
I think we can count the day as a success! We had a great time with a great group of friends and are really looking forward to next year and Grenache-a-Rama, 2018!
Meanwhile, enjoy life, stay safe, drink wine!
CHEERS!
