Wine Outlook

Friday was the culmination of a season’s worth of late evenings and early mornings. Tons of grapes were driven in, crushed, fermented, and barreled, which meant bins and tanks had to be cleaned, pH levels measured, and a million other tasks. Finally, the big stuff is done, all there is to do now is wait (and rack, continue to run tests, and sample, but you know what I mean). As you may have gathered, at Rosenblum, all hard work is rewarded by hard play. Therefore we all gathered for an End of Harvest lunch. Sid was in charge of the rotisserie-style pig and smoking the salmon, making it quite the affair.

Each department was in charge of different courses, including apps and veggies. We had everything from crab dip to spinach salad, from the Filipino dish lumpia to pineapple upside-down cake, extra rum. That’s Chris, our chemist, who can also cook up some tasty red beans and rice. And I had all kinds of fun running around making squash, asparagus, and mustard greens–which I ordered everyone to put over the yummy corn bread Kevin had made.

Before the food was even close to being ready, the table magically filled with bottles. We had wines from local wineries such as Lost Canyon, JC Cellars, and Blacksmith. There were several different Pinot Noirs, roses, whites, Syrahs, and everything in between. Someone even brought out a mess of 2003 Rosenblum wines from the library including the decadently good Hendry and Cullinane. With so many choices, a girl could easily get dizzy.

We all ate outside, enjoying the lovely day and the company. Bottles of wine somehow found themselves onto the tables, as did that cake. We ate, drank, applauded Sid and the cellar crew, and ate and drank some more. I went back up to the somewhat unusually quiet tasting room (maybe everyone knew we were having too much fun to work), though some people continued the party well into the evening.

Everything was fantastic and I can see why the whole building was looking forward to it. So cheers until next year, although we’ll have many more adventures along the way.

End of Harvest