Weekend Tasting

This past weekend I high-tailed it out of Dodge (i.e., Los Angeles) and headed north to the Paso Robles Wine Festival in, um, Paso Robles. My brother the Pod Person has a friend who owns a winery called Vihuela, and his friend needed volunteers to assist in his booth at the festival. Which means I was conscripted into being, of all things, a "booth bunny" of sorts. I know, I know... my feminist nature could hardly bear the shame. (But I placated her with plenty of wine, so it's all good.)

The festival was on Saturday, and many more wineries than I care to count were represented. People were friendly and fun, and it's a different atmosphere from the formality and old-schoolishness of Napa, though I love visiting the wine country up there, too. The Central Coasters, however, were as laid-back as you could get. I was worried that, since I was pouring wine for visitors to our booth, I'd be expected to actually know something about wine, and be able to use words like "tannic structure" with a certain degree of knowledge. Thankfully, this was not at all the case. People came up with their glasses, said, "What do YOU like?" and I'd say, "This one," pour it, and everyone would be happy. It was great!

And in case you are wondering, the one I liked was a playful red called Concierto de Rojo, a blend of Syrah, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. A light, fruity wine that avoids being sweet; full-bodied with a nice little kick at the finish... a casual wine that's good anytime. Try it chilled, too—very refreshing!

Hmm, that last paragraph almost made it sound like I know something about wine. But don't let me fool you, because if I learned anything this weekend, it was how to fake like I do!

OK, back to the festival. Some highlights... trying out a "Tobintini" at the Tobin James booth (that would be their sparkling wine mixed with a wine called Liquid Love—how could that NOT be good?!), discovering a flavorful temperanillo by Silver Horse, a drunk guy who wanted to know if my friend and I would be waiting for him and his buddy in their motel room that night (how romantic!), getting to wear really cool-looking T-shirts as our "uniform", being told I was really good at applying temporary tattoos (who knew that that was one of my many talents?), seeing a minor celebrity (I actually didn't recognize him because I don't watch television, especially reality television, but according to my ecstatic friends it was one of The Bachelors of TV's "The Bachelor" fame, a certain young Mr Firestone), and getting a really bad headache at the end of the day (oh wait, that was not a highlight—my mistake!).

Side note: I think I broke a record just now for how many parenthetical phrases I could fit into a single sentence. Woo-hoo! I will now proceed to give myself a Frogg Award for Parenthetical Excellence. You may applaud at will.

Thank you, thank you. *bows*

OK, now back to our regularly scheduled post:

On Saturday, I helped out at the party hosted by Vihuela at their vineyard, where they had a BBQ, wine tasting, and a fun live band called Incendio. My various jobs consisted of selling tickets for the band and BBQ (which I discovered that I'd been doing wrong after I'd been at it for an hour or so), directing parking in the parking lot (which I let one of the other volunteers handle so that I wouldn't have to break a sweat by actually moving around), and schmoozing with visitors and refilling their glasses (which I handled flawlessly).

Taken altogether, the whole experience was characterized by warm, sun-infused weather, an unpretentious attitude, and an accessible ambiance that concluded in a lingering, smooth finish. An excellent weekend, with a remarkably balanced tannic structure.

Or something like that.

PS I wasn't kidding about Vihuela's Concierto—really a fun wine. I happily recommend it to everyone. Oh, and also the 2003 Syrah.