Almost Wine Tasting Weekend

This weekend two of my favorite people flew in to town from Portland, Oregon and LA, California with their husband and boyfriend respectively, for a wine tasting weekend. It was a blast!

Unfortunately I had to work on Friday, but Boyfriend had the day off so he was able to take our Portlanders, who arrived a day early, on a fabulous tour of San Francisco. I have to admit, that he gives one of the best city tours of all times. I have lived in the Bay Area my entire life and he still shows me places I have never seen. He is just a true San Franciscan. He grew up here and was taking the bus by himself before he could ride a two wheel bike. He honestly thinks that it is the greatest city in the world, and heaven help you if you try to say otherwise. At least it gives my grandpa and him something to talk about.

For this adventure he kept it simple and stuck to the basic tourist list, Union Square, The Ferry Building, and The Museum of Modern Art.

When I finally got off of work and put my CSA veggies away, my guest (and alcohol) filled weekend began. We first went to Taqueria Cancun, one of our favorite cheap eats just a couple of blocks from the 16th street BART stop. We then tried to continue our evening with class by heading to the rooftop bar at Medjool. We had a lovely and reasonably priced pitcher of sangria while huddled around one of the outdoor heaters taking in the gorgeous views. We then decided to move on to the next venue, so we asked our guests what they wanted to do/drink. The answer: take tequila shots. So we crossed the street to the nearest neon sign and had a shot. We graced that bar with our presence for only as long as the shot took and then continued on our way to the Latin America Club for pint glass margaritas, hold the margarita mix. I like this place a lot despite its lack of seating. There are creepy piñatas hanging all over the ceiling and giant portraits of unusual subjects on all of the walls. It is not too fancy, but also manages to escape the usual sleaze of a dive bar. After an extensive conversation about the best reasons to become morbidly obese and the nuances of exercise pant salesmanship we were off to the next bar. We landed at Skylark with some Juan on Juanes (a corona and a shot of patron for $11) and outdated hip hop. It was a blast. This was the only place we made it to that night that had room for dancing, and the music to dance to. Even Boyfriend tried to bust a move. We finally decided that we should head home, but first we needed to stop at the City Club. The city club is on the corner by the BART station, and in the 1+ years that I have lived nearby I have never seen anybody a) over 5’6 b) overtly female go into this bar. Boyfriend and I always say we are going to stop in, but never make it. Literally we have said this about 5 nights a week since November 2009. Well folks, on Friday night we made it. True to form, boyfriend made friends with everybody in the place and I’m pretty sure he was offered a couple of jobs. We are definitely going to have to go back.

Saturday, in fair form from our previous nights debaucheries, we drove over to Marin to meet up with our LA visitors (my sisters bff since 1st grade) and my cuñado (sisters boyfriend…sometimes Spanish is just a superior language) and after several hours of recovery for both the recently arrived friends and those of us who had gone out the evening before, we headed up to wine country to go to a few wineries before they closed at 4pm. We made it to two. That is really all I can tell you, because I was in no shape to taste wine, or enjoy the food paring, or notice which wineries we were visiting.

After a nap, and some Advil, and strong tea we met back up with everybody at Cavallo Point for drinks and food. This bar is amazing! It has incredible views of the city and the bridge, but is quiet and peaceful. Cavallo Point was built in old military buildings (plus some new ones) as an eco friendly conference center. It has a restaurant, bar, and I believe it also has a cooking school. Green businesses can use the conference rooms for free. One of my favorite things to do with visitors is take them during the afternoon for a French press coffee on the porch. The service can sometimes be questionable, but on Saturday it was exceptional. It closed at midnight, but when we strolled in at 11:30 they sat us right down and served us whatever we wanted. After leisurely drinks (milk with a straw for me please, thanks!) and snacks, we went and sat by the fire pit until we were almost too tired to make it home. I would, however suggest my tip of an afternoon coffee rather than drinks etc. because it is fairly expensive.

On Sunday our friends returned to Portland and the rest of us headed back up to wine country for some more tasting. We went to two more wineries. Acorn is one of my sister’s favorites. They have some fun wines that the other places we have tried don’t grow like sangeovese, and they have vintage vines that were planted in 1890. The little building/tent where the tastings are is snuggled next to a small hill where some of the grapes are grown. There is a little creek that runs next to the dirt road that you drive in on, and abandoned rail tracks throughout. It makes me want to quit my day job and become a wine maker, it also helped that it was one of the first gorgeous, sunny, spring days of the season. The second place we went was the Korbel winery. We tasted several kinds of champagne, and bought a bottle of a fun red champagne along with snacks from the deli. We enjoyed the rest of the sunny afternoon on the porch sipping mimosas (what? you think I go champagne tasting without a kleen kanteen full of orange juice?) and eating olives, salami, and cheese.

The Wine Road barrel tasting event is the ideal way to go wine tasting if you are on a budget. It is $30 per person for the entire 3 day weekend (Fri-Sun) and most places have little food parings to go along with their wine. Just don’t forget to designate a driver!