August 3, 2011

Chardonnay


While in California last week, we spent a good part of the time drinking wine. Shocking, no? On Saturday we took part in the 2nd Annual Chardonnay Symposium. It was a fun day, but starting with wine at 9:30am and knowing we had to get from Santa Maria up to Paso Robles that evening for the Train/Maroon5 concert made things a bit more sobering. We started the event at a discussion around "To Oak or Not to Oak". We tried 12(!) wines, each from a wine maker that either uses oak or doesn't. Typically, I like oaky/buttery chardonnay, but I did find a few that I liked that weren't oaked. The fun part was listening to each of the winemakers share their story about why they make wine the way they do-they have such passion. We then made our way another vineyard to have lunch, which was delicious. Once we had some food in our bellies, it was off to a third vineyard for the full wine tasting event. I think there were at least 30 wineries present, a silent auction and some fantastic food samples. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. Fortunately, we had time to squeeze in a quick cat nap before heading to the concert.

Tank-F21, Cardi-Target, Shorts-Banana Republic, Shoes-Vince Camuto,
Bag-Elliot Luca, Sunnies-Target, Necklaces-EmersonMade