Sparkling Wine on a Sparkling Day

So we needed to choose some bubbly for the wedding....We asked our Professor at the recent Sensory Evaluation of Wine course for a recommendation and so we found ourselves at Domaine Carneros near Napa on Sunday ( the day before Valentines Day') - yes its a rough life...

Domaine Carneros looks like a French Chateau with sweeping stairs leading to the large patio in front of the "chateau". The Patio is setup with tables and chairs overlooking the vineyards where you can taste the sparkling and red wines and enjoy some cheeses..

We order a flight of sparkling wines ( the Brut(dry), Rose ( a little fruity but dry), and the Demi-sec
We also bought a glass of the top of the line Le Reve ( yummy!). Ben was our sommelier and he was a fountain of knowledge and he brought us another Rose and eventually 3 Pinot Noir Reds to try. We also ordered a cheese platter with some excellent local cheeses.

So we sat and enjoyed a gorgeous day, with great champagne and lots of information which eventually allowed us to choose the Rose for the wedding. We also bought 3 magnums of the Carneros Estate Pinot Nior red - which we enjoyed on Valentines day - awesome :)

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's day and that is well where you are

Ron and Lisa

Ah... The Joys of Wine

Lisa signed us up for a very fun and informative course at UC Davis called - The Sensory Evaluation of Wine.

This was a 2 day course that gave us an in depth introduction to color, aroma and taste of wine - both white and reds. We got to test wine defects ( taste and smell) as well as practice to pick out the smells and relate what we smell to a name for it using the Aroma Wheel.

We had some very well known professors lecturing and got a chance to taste a huge number of different wines, from all over the world. We had the chance to try classic styles of wine and to catalog the traits... We also had some very nice lunches and some aperitifs and Port.

Strangely after tasting wines for 16 hours my guess is that I actually drank only maybe 3 or 4 thimbles full the whole time... a lot of taste and spit going on

Our enjoying of wine will never be the same LOL

Yes its been a while since we blogged...sorry:)

So it has been a very busy time... organizing the wedding, tastings, guest lists, venues etc etc etc.

To top it all off, my wrist - which I damaged back in September in Park City Utah... was very stubborn about healing...eventually I had to stop cycling and we decided ( very reluctantly) to cancel our trip to the Vuelta de Puerto Rico. ( very sad)

Anyways I went to the Orthopedic surgeon yesterday and reviewed the X-rays, the MRIs, was poked and prodded and asked if this or that hurt ( none of it did) and finally we went to the fluoroscope to see the bones in my wrist in real time while I made a fist - very cool!

In the end he decided that what ever little anomalies he saw in my bone positions what the same on my other wrist and since it seems to be healing (albeit very slowly) I should keep doing what I have been doing and see him in 2 months...

So the good news is NO SURGERY ( yeah!)

We did do a 20 mile ride on Sunday and the wrist felt about 95% but BOY are we out of shape... we better get training again before the rolling bike ride we will have before our reception :)

Hope everyone is well

Ron and Lisa