Sideways

Right after the CIM, I went to Napa and Sonoma Counties. The drive, albeit short, was tiring. Got to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of Sunday's evening.

Next morning woke up quite sore and decided on three very, very easy.

After that I went wine tasting to three different wineries in Napa and one in Sonoma. Now, I am basically a beer kinda guy, but I do enjoy a glass of wine here and there. Surprisingly, my taste buds are leaning towards wine more and more.

A few years back I tried a rather inexpensive pinot noir by Castle Rock and really enjoyed it. I had forgotten all about it until I went to Florida early November. While there I saw it and bought a bottle. The flavors, even though from a different vintage, were all there, berries, prunes, caramel... AND I knew I had to get more of it, but how to get it back to Cal-ee-fornia... I figured I could find it here. BUT I was wrong, I could not find it anywhere.

So, being that Castle Rock is in Sonoma, I headed - with the help of my GPS - to the Castle Winery (as it was the only one that popped up on the system). But it was not the one I was looking for; it was a so-called boutique winery, meaning that they produced less than a 1000 cases, or so the guy said. I chatted with the fellow there and he stroke my ego by telling me that I seemed to know about wines, to what I responded: the only knowledge I have about wines, I learned in sideways - with a smile.

I then added how Miles hated Pinot Noir, and this fellow corrects me saying that it was Merlot. He then tells me that he read the book and that the movie left out a lot (as is often the case). He went on to explain that the reason Miles hated Merlot was that his ex-wife LOVED it. And I just went, AHHHH, that explains it (duh!). I enjoyed the conversation so much, I ended up buying a bottle of their syrah (which did not really taste like a syrah - it was too oaky)

And there it is... if you liked sideways and you wondered why Miles hated Merlot :-)