Last Friday, California Wine Club hosted the Uncorked Tour: in which Jon Boring, sales manager, led five lady bloggers around the Santa Ynez Valley wine country – tasting wine and eating food for one day.
These are our stories.
is a subscription service: you purchase a subscription and then two bottles of wine show up at your door once a month. The bottles come from smaller wineries and are personally selected by the head of the company himself. Oh, other people get to voice their opinions, but the gentleman who founded this company years ago still tastes every single wine himself and calls the final shots.
These are people who know their wines.
Me, I like a good wine tasting. I live close enough to wineries north of Santa Barbara that even a day trip to wine country is possible. But I’m no connoisseur: I am just as happy picking a pretty bottle from an endcap display at the grocery store as I am drinking the special vintage at a winery’s tasting counter.
Until.
I’m sighing just thinking about the Pinot Noir I drank at Gainey Vineyard on Friday morning. Yes – I believe it was still morning when we arrived and started tasting. Our group was transported from my house to the winery via a stretch limo. Once we got our bearings, Dan Gainey, the head of the family-owned company himself, came out to greet us, give us an overview of the properties and types of farming they do, and lead us through a very special wine tasting in their VIP tasting room.
One sip of this Pinot Noir and my entire body relaxed. The silky smooth, smoky red filled my senses with all the soothing properties of a good red wine and none of the bite. “Ah,” I purred as I closed my eyes. “Drinking this is like drinking a hug.”
Four crazy women whipped out their phones and iPads and furiously started crafting tweets and Facebook updates, eager to get that quote up on the internets as fast as possible. But they were out of luck because there is no service inside Gainey. That doesn’t matter. When you’re sitting there tasting their exquisite wines, you don’t need to post to Instagram every 5 seconds.
Our “Uncorked” tour (so named because that is also the name of CA Wine Club’s newsletter) took us from Gainey to the Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard, founded long ago by Golden Age actor of the same name who portrayed Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Coonskin caps adorn the tasting room and are emblazoned on the tasting glasses and the cement tasting bar. Tiny coonskin cap cozies are sold for the tops of wine bottles, too.
From there we traveled to the tasting room of Dierberg and Star Lane Vineyards, where general manager Kurt Ammann sat outside with us, explaining the wines and humoring us in our impromptu photo shoot. Can you blame us? The scenery was mesmerizing, the cool breeze was a welcome addition to our outdoor tasting experience, and the late afternoon light was irresistible to 5 women who share their every waking move with the internets.
Everything we tasted was delicious. I can’t imagine the life of a person who does this sort of thing for a living. I would always be drunk and very full. Thank goodness this opportunity comes along only once in a while, because if it happened more often, there is no way I’d turn it down.
All of the wineries take great care in making sure that everything they pour for guests is pleasing. We tasted accompaniments of salami, dried fruits, aged cheeses, and thin, wafery crackers that floated on the breeze.
As if that wasn’t enough, CA Wine Club then topped off the evening for us with a tour and a meal at Avant Tapas and Wine. While the CA Wine Club is like the Amazon.com of wine, this place is like the Disney of Wine. Or maybe like the Museum of Natural History of Wine. Because first we took a tour led by proprietor Jose Padilla through Avant’s vast fermenting and aging areas. Avant rents their tanks and barrels to smaller growers and makes their wines for them. Jose travels with something called a “wine thief” – it looks like a turkey baster but its purpose is to siphon wine out of a giant oak barrel. Following him around, we got to taste wine straight out of the barrel. It doesn’t get better than this, wine lovers. I’m telling you.
After our tour we collected, finally, at a long table at the Avant Tapas restaurant, which serves up delicious little plates of meat wrapped in bacon, and the creamiest mac & cheese I’ve ever tasted, and giant piles of chocolate. But what really draws the eye is the giant wall of wine vending machines that runs down the side of the dining room. With a special card and computer robot brains, you mix and match and select small or large portions of about thirty different wines at any one time.
I can’t tell you how many I tasted that night.
Because I certainly don’t remember. This is what I remember – being hungry after tasting wine all day, and people shoving plates of delicious food into my face:
The drive back to my house was…sleepy, to say the least. But I left the day with my head full of new knowledge about wines: terms like vertical shoots and esters and bungholes (yes, bungholes) and appellations are now firmly rooted in my head and I’m sure they mean something but I don’t remember what. Okay, I do remember what a bunghole is – it’s the big hole at the top of the wine barrel. That’s all.
But the point is – you don’t have to travel to the Santa Ynez valley to do all this wine tasting. You can simply visit the California Wine Club’s website and purchase a subscription (), then sit back and sip your tasty wine, knowing that it’s good stuff. No driving required.
Here is the part about the free wine:
There are two opportunities to wine a free 3-month subscription to the CA Wine Club. I’m giving away one here on this here blog. Enter to win like this:
1. Leave a comment telling me who would receive this subscription if you win. Would you gift it to an awesome dad for Father’s Day, or keep it for yourself? (I won’t tell.)
2. Additional entry: visit and click one of the red buttons to find your preferred subscription type. Then leave a comment on this post to tell me what your favorite subscription type is (i.e. the one you’d buy for yourself).
Max two entries per person. That’s it. Entries open until 11:59 PM on June 14, 2012. Winner will be chosen at random from qualifying entries. Winner’s mailing address must be in the 50 United States.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
Join me, Beth, Kadi, Candice and Romy at our Twitter party, to get #uncorked. Be on Twitter Monday, June 11th from 6 PM to 7 PM PST/9 PM to 10 PM EST to talk about wine and Father’s Day – oh, and be eligible to win wine prizes too.
To win prizes all you have to do is RSVP.
Follow your hostesses:
- Beth – @HipMamaB
- Candice – @fashorganized
- Kadi – kadiprescott
- Me – @kimtracyprince
- Romy – @romyraves
Don’t forget to follow @cawineclub and @Boringwineguy
I am being compensated for this promotion/wonderland by CA Wine Club with wine, food, and some cash, but all the gratitude and opinions are my own soggy thoughts.
Looks like a fun day. That’s my homeland – my dad’s family founded Los Olivos!
I’d give it to my friend Nancy. Because I know she’d share.
How do I get your job? Leave out anything that has to do with living in California. 🙂
I would totally keep it for myself! I mean, I would give it to my husband for Father’s Day and make him share.
Kimmy –
If I won this prize, I would:
(1) Give it to myself, because the contest ends on my 41ist birthday. It is my reverse Golden Birthday. It will be my lucky year for that very reason. And the reason that my 40th year was tied with my 39th year as being the worst years of my life. My reverse Golden Birthday will reverse the awfulness and thus be lucky.
(2) I would share the wine with my lovely neighbors and people I truly love and truly love me, sitting outside and enjoying the evening. And I would remember very fondly, sitting in my living room with you and LisaK, enjoying some fab Illinois wine on one of the few nights I would give anything to relive during those awful 2 years.
The End.
Love you.
Suz
P.S. I am really craving that Pinot Noir!!!!! Do you think I can find it in IL?
For ME! ME! Premier.
Oooh! I’d give this to my husband for Father’s day. (But only because I know he’d share with me!)
I’ve been to the Gainey vineyard. Love their wines. Oh, it’s for me. I’ll share with my husband too. Yes, I will. If there’s any left.
This would definitely be a Father’s Day gift. My husband and I have had many a wonderful excursion wine tasting in the Solvang area. He would love this.
Totally selfish, Keep it for me. But of course, I’d share with you!
Premier club seems ideal!
Alright. I would probably give it to my friend Tara, only because she is my wine buddy and she will “share” once my condition has…lightened?
I’d keep the wine for myself. I’m turning 30 this August and having the opportunity to have quality alcohol coming to my house for once would be a treat. 🙂
The wine is for me. My wife can have some, but we ain’t just GIVING it away to anyone. Except maybe you, if you want to come over and have some.
If money were no object, I’d go for the Aged Cabernet series. In actual life, I’m probably a “Premier” guy.
If I win this awesome gift of wine I would keep it for myself. Because I deserve it. OH YES I DO.
I’m digging the premier club option.
I want to drink a hug! If I won, I would probably give it to my parents but hope that they’d share with me when I’m over for dinner.
The International Selections is the one I’d probably do, now that I can’t bring wine in my carry-on luggage. You know, in my jet-setting lifestyle!
I liked your post so much that I decided to start my weekend early and uncork a bottle of Pinot Grigio to go with my Subway Italian BMT. I’m also still at work, but chances are good that everyone else will start drinking also!
I would give this to my loving husband, Nick, and enjoy it alongside him!! I like the term “wine thief” and the explanation of “bunghole”. Both quite fascinating for a random trivia lover. XO
Jennifer
I’d pick premier 1 red / 1 white.
Kim,
I would give the wine as a Father’s Day gift to my husband who has been working crazy OT and needs a break and a nice glass of wine. We like Suzanne would toast to our friend Lisa and remember all of the wonderful memories we shared together.
I would also love to get free wine in the mail. It sounds so exciting!
Great post, bye the way! Love the pictures. You do have a way with words and I love that you get compensated to drive in a Limo to drink wine and eat all day. How do you do it? You are a rock star!
Do you have any wisdom on potty training and how to get paid for that?
Hugs!
I would tell my husband that it is for him for Father’s Day, but I know I would be enjoying it myself, too! 🙂
The Premier Club would be perfect for us.
royalegacy at gmail dot com
Wine for me, Please! But I will share it (if I have to!).
Love the hilarious photos and can almost e-taste the vino from this story. Cheers to all of you!
Me? I’d keep it for myself (to 3-kids decompress)/have on hand for house guests, as my hubby is more of a beer man. Again, great story.
Haha that subscription would be mine, though I would let my husband have a glass…maybe.
If I had the money I would probably do the Aged Cabernet Series 🙂
I wish I was there with you! What a fun time! I would totally love the wine to be delivered to me (and my husband, of course). 🙂 “Drinking a hug” sounds like a fabulous idea after getting all the kids into bed. Thanks for all the great pictures in this post too! You did a good job at documenting the progression of fun and relaxation with the pictures. 🙂
I would gift it to my dad. He is such an awesome dad and loves wine. After he retired he always wanted to travel and visit some vineyards….but due to family issues, he has not been able to. He would love this so much!
I would love the premier club!!!
1) I would give the gift to my wonderful husband for Father’s Day. He is such a great dad and sure deserves it. (knowing that he would share the bottles with me, of course)
2) Aged Cabernet Series for me, please. It just sound so good right now.
Thanks for the great post,
Jen
the awesome dad this is going to is actually my mom!
madamerkf at aol dot com
for myself would probably get the premier subscription! Only the best!
madamerkf at aol dot com
I would totally get the wine club subscription for myself, but I’d invite people over to drink some wine with me! I’m a sharer.
Amazing review ladies! Incredible! Have to say I would have to be a bit selfish with this and gift it to myself. Right now it would be such a blessing as I have been homebound fighting some serious health issues..Have been checking this wine club out for a bit and would love to have the opp to personally review their customer service and wines.
Cathy B*****y pbprojecthope at yahoodotcom
palmbreezeliving.blogspot.com
@projecthope7 twitter
I would most likely start with the Premier Club, choosing 1 white and 1 Red. But I would love to one day go on to the Signature series perhaps. But I do like whites and Reislings also, and sometimes sparkling wines..( I know wine affectionados don’t like hearing that, but in southern weather it is sometimes refreshing!) and as it says they mostly send reds, may even go back to the Premier Club, which is also more affordable. Love Napa and Sonoma and look forward to going back out there soon… bucket listed! Yountville is also out of this world beautiful too…
Cathy B*****y pbprojecthope at yahoo dot com
palmbreezeliving.blogspot.com
@projecthope7 twitter
I’d totally keep it for myself <3
I would so totally keep it for myself. Duh, that’s a no brainer!
I’d probably chose the Premiere Club!
My sister lives in Napa – do you think she has sent me any wine – nope – so I go to the local Vineyard. Laura started me on white wine – now I drink REAL wine out of a bottle – and not the box (as much!!)
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I would love the premier club!!! I would tell my husband that it is for him for Father’s Day, but I know I would be enjoying it myself, too!
Hey, I really would gift it to my dad. He is such an awesome dad and loves wine. After he retired he always wanted to travel and visit some vineyards….but due to family issues, he has not been able to. He would love this so much!
Kimmy –
If I won this prize, I would:
(1) Give it to myself, because the contest ends on my 41ist birthday. It is my reverse Golden Birthday. It will be my lucky year for that very reason. And the reason that my 40th year was tied with my 39th year as being the worst years of my life. My reverse Golden Birthday will reverse the awfulness and thus be lucky.
(2) I would share the wine with my lovely neighbors and people I truly love and truly love me, sitting outside and enjoying the evening. And I would remember very fondly, sitting in my living room with you and LisaK, enjoying some fab Illinois wine on one of the few nights I would give anything to relive during those awful 2 years.
I would totally keep it for myself! I mean, I would give it to my husband for Father’s Day and make him share.
If I win this awesome gift of wine I would keep it for myself. Because I deserve it. OH YES I DO.
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