The Most Wine Fun You Can Have Working
Rosenblum Cellars makes 200,000 cases of wine annually, buying grapes from almost 90 different growers all over California. While we do have one vineyard, it’s up in the Russian River Valley, far from the winery in Alameda. Situated on the water, next to a shipyard, it’s easy to forget about the agricultural aspect of the business. That’s why I think Grower Days are such a great idea. It gives production workers, tasting room staff, marketing gurus, and other employees the chance to tour the vineyards and talk to the growers, getting back to land and back to the basics.
A few weeks ago, I got the chance to go on the only overnight trip, which is down to Paso Robles. Having just been there, I already knew that I loved the area and the wines I’d had. But this time we weren’t going to any wineries, only walking among the vineyards, getting to see up close the oyster shells in the calcerous soil that BK was so interested in on our previous trip.
Of course, it being the Rosenblum gang, there was no shortage of alcohol. It began with having lunch on tables set up in the yard at Catherine’s Vineyard, with nearby coolers of beer and Rosenblum wine on ice. Later we would tour the oh-so-fun Margarita Vineyard, complete with a ride on an old Disney train and dinner under the stars and twinkling lights, a country band to serenade the meal with many more bottles of wine.
*I’m only thankful that the bar down from where we were staying was closed when a group of us trooped over to ride the mechanical bull, as I’m not sure anyone would have stayed on at that point…. The sad thing is, we were opening really good bottles, new releases of Syrah and such, late into the evening. And my friend Nathan was right when he said I’d need to increase my tolerance working at Rosenblum… I was out well before many of the others and was given quite a hard the next morning at our last stop at the Mondello Vineyard for how I felt and looked like I felt. (That’s me on the left.)
August 11th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! and a couple ibuprofen before bed. And be thankful Bubba’s was closed, that bull is dynamite!
August 28th, 2007 at 11:55 am
[...] may recognize my girl Shauna from the post about the Paso Robles Grower Day, in which she attempted a smile and I couldn’t even keep my head up. What you may not know is [...]