Winery visit with the ladies

Foley Sonoma
Pedro
American Viticulture Area-AVA
Dry wines
The hotter the Climate the beter the bordeaux is going to do
Good grapes=Good wine
1st sip shucks your palate
2nd sip coats the palate
3rd sip, you're absorbing the full flavor

If a label has "estate," all of the grapes are from that land

To test acidity in the wine, sip or taste the wine and then let it out (not spitting) and see how much saliva comes out

Tanins come from the skin and the seed of the grape
Tanins may also come from the barrels

2018 Rose- pinot grape from Russian River Valley Coolest AVA in Sonoma County
Completely direct to consumer- not in any stores
only wine that is not locally sourced
New vs neutral- brand new barrel vs. One that has flavor from previous tastings
1 star
2016  chardonnay-4 stars
2016 Pinot Noir
Bigger style
3 stars
2015 Malbec
97% Malbec 3% Tannat
Tannat - found in Uruguay, derived from "tanin", Light flavor cuts through the fat of a heavier diet
2014 Cabernet Savignon
Three blocks of cab at this winery
Two stars
2014 Merlot
100% merlot
40% new oak compared to 30% in the other varietals

Alexander Valley
14 different grapes
Cabernet is the smallest, thickest skin grape- why it has more tanins

Syrahs are like biting into a dark fruit while Zins are have BlackBerry notes

2018 dry Rose of Sangiovese- 3 stars
2017 Estate Chardonnay-4 stars
Temptation Zin-5 stars

Cyrus Alexander-Alexander valley named after him
He was originally a furrier.  Went even further west and helped establish the land around here
He married a 14 when he was 39
Bought by the Wetzels in the 60s, this has been in that family ever since
The jiffy pop is filled with liquid glycol so they can control the temp.
Tim is your guide
Denise did tasting
Pumass
they farm sustainable; use the leftover as fertilizer
First line provided are those killer insect like lady bugs, lace wings
Fifth largest wine cave in California
0 footprint to dig out the cave because it does not require any heating or cooling
French oak is a thousand to fifteen hundred where American oak is five hundred per barrel
Barrels are charred to light, medium,
Cali the dog, wrie haired Griffon
The cave was done in 3 phases
Total capacity is 10k barrels
The loss of wine is called the angels' share
Barrels are barcoded
There is a small graveyard on the property of the Cyrus and Wetzel families

River time Summer 2017

6/18/2017 (Trudy, Maria, LAW) Madison party float 2 hours

6/24/2017 (Trudy,LAW) Point of Rocks to Emigrant 2 hours

6/25/2017 (Trudy, LAW) Emigrant to Mallards 2 hours

7/1/2017 Mallard's Rest to Carter's Bridge (Trudy, LAW, Bridgette) Lots of waves, dumped three times 2 1/2 or 3 hours

7/2/2017 Point of Rocks to Emigrant 1 50 minutes

7/8 Point of Rocks to Emigrant 2 hours

7/9 Carbella to Emigrant 3 hours 13 minutes (some paddling, stopped for rain)

7/13 Rest stop to Emigrant 1 1/2 hours no head wind, little paddling (Trudy)

7/15 Bird float 2 hours some paddling, light headwinds 

7/20 Carbella to PoR (Trudy)- 37 minutes, light tail winds, little paddling 6,600 cfs 

7/21 Carbella to Emigrant (Trudy and LAW) - 3 hours 15 minutes, light head wind 6,500 cfs

7/22 Carbella to No Name (Trudy and LAW) -- 3 hours, light rail wind, mostly paddlingn, stop on the beach for 45 minutes

7/28 (Trudy) 2 1/2 hours no wind Point of Rocks to Emigrant

7/29 (Trudy) Carbella to no name, pretty good tail wind last five miles, 1 hour 33 minutes, 30 minutes sitting, rest was pretty good paddling

8/5 )LAW) Hell of a head wind, 10 minute stop on a beach, 1 1/2 Brogan's to Joe Brogan, dumped once (6.3 miles)

8/12  Emigrant to Yellowstone Valley Lodge 2 hours 10 minutes, light head wind, some upriver paddling

8/13 brogan's to Yankee Jim Trudy and LAW

8/19 McConnell to Yankee Jim (LAW) tiny tail wind, 2 hours 20 minutesb

8/20 Snake River (Maria Bisso, Moe Cairn, Jackie) - Dam to Pacific AC - 3 hoursish, stopped at the Oxbow for a long stretch

8/21 Snake River (Maria Bisso, Trudy, Jessica the traveling nurse from Chicago) -- 8 hours 55 minutes - watched the eclipse on the Oxbow

8/22 Jenny Lake

8/26

8/27

9/2

9/3

9/9

Holiday Collage

The holiday symphony this year was absolutely fabulous. It was a mixture of songs that moved seamlessly from one to the other. It included playing with the lights so that different areas were spotlighted or uplit. The group was fantastic and you could tell that a lot of them were having fun.

Gardiner Christmas Stroll

Tonight was the Gardiner Christmas Stroll but I was sort of just over being social. I went anyway. And had a lot of fun. It's a small town so on nights like last night, you get to see almost everyone in town, all at one time. With lovely food and free wine, friendly people and lots to see, what's not to enjoy?

MacBeth

Went to see a modern interpretation of MacBeth tonight. There were text messages between the king and the witches, lots of heavy military, and Skype messages. It was really interesting but still quite long. My next-door-neighbor was in the play so that made it more interesting. But it didn't get done until 10 and I barely made it back awake. Thank goodness one of the 7 other folks who had come up from Gardiner offered to drive back with me.

Bechler Day 4

Woke up around 5 and couldn't get back to sleep so I read until Trudy woke up around 7. 

There had been rain off and on during the night so I thought it might be wet out and when we opened the tent door, there were two little icicles hanging off the bottom. But when Trudy opened the rain fly, it was dry. Apparently, our body heat had generated condensation which then froze.

We decided to wait for a while and let our stuff dry since most of it was still damp. We finally hit the trail a little after 10 with mostly blue skies ahead but some darkish clouds dotting the sky. We made it to the slough fairly quickly and I had my water shoes on so I de-pantsed and waded in. It was muddy from yesterday's rain so it was quite exciting to wonder whether the next step might be into a hole. There weren't any. So we pantsed back up and headed on.

We had each made a prediction when the stock group we met yesterday might pass us. Trudy predicted at the junction and I predicted about a half mile beyond. They caught up with us just as we were about at the junction but they were just getting off for lunch. We also decided to pause.

Hanging out

Dinner at Rebecca Kreklau's house was really fun. It's a lot of people that I know but don't necessarily spend a lot of time with. It was incredibly fun and I got to talk to break out of my normal little group.