Comments (0)

By Denise, July 13, 2010 10:18 pm

Onto Carmel…day two and three. See Carmel Part I for day one.

Once we had escaped being kicked out of our Carmel family inn, we headed into the valley for some yummy brunch at Corkscrew Cafe.

Not only was the food delicious, but so was the service. Sean and Dustin were our servers…They were hilarious. They looked twelve years old, but apparently it was only their innocence that kept them looking so young. Well that and their rosey cheeks.

We finished our ‘Ladies Who Lunch” luncheon and popped down the street to Talbott and Georis wineries.

The atmosphere for tastings was beautiful and the company was pretty fantastic as well .

At Talbott we met two adorable couples from Los Angeles. The ladies were sisters and despite both being grandmothers they looked 25. They sat and talked with us for a while offering advice on beautiful skin, local wineries and of course, how to find true love.

At Georis we met Bear, a musician from South Carolina who currently holds the Guinness Book of World Records for finger tapping. He had a snaggle tooth, southern accent and sweet sense of humor. Check him out:

Download Video

We had finished up in the Valley and headed back to the hotel. We quickly refreshed and headed out for a late dinner. Unfortunately we didn’t make a reservation at the restaurant Dametra’s, so we put in our name, dropped off our Georis and Talbott wine and headed to Il Fornaio for a couple cocktails in the meantime.

At Il Fornaio we met “B” a bartender who had been working there for over 15 years. Quite entertaining and made one mean pomegranate margarita.

Over the course of the next hour we attempted to hit on a table of men who had obviously just returned from a game of golf. We created a diagram to determine who was single and who was married. Alas. No luck. Again.

After hugging “B” goodbye we headed back over to Dametra’s for some outstanding food, singing, dancing and good times. The restaurant is run by a family of Greek men (i.e. cousins, brothers, grandfather, etc). I emphasize the word family because I felt like it was actually just a group of friends who shared a common interest of good food and good women. We were attended to by at least five male waiters, serenaded by their grandfather and danced adored by a table of Arabic drummers. An interesting experience to say the least.

We finished up our final course and headed back to Brophy’s for Round II. We entered the bar to find all the locals and workers knew us by name. I even got a talking to again by the owner, Chris, about keeping it PG tonight. We dropped off the bottle of wine we didn’t consume at dinner behind the bar and bellied up to a table in the corner next to two hawt single dudes, who I shall call Folsom and Sven.

Folsom and Sven didn’t seem terribly interested at first, however, after joining us for a drink, their attitudes quickly adjusted. Christie pretty quickly decided Sven was heres, despite Jen’s tentative interest. Mary chatted up Folsom, however he was suffering from a recent broken heart and didn’t care too much to take any females serious. With Mary and Christie distracted, Jen and I wandered the other 10 square feet of the bar for any newbies.

Unfortunately there were no newbies, instead  the wedding party from the night before turned up, including Robert. He quickly approached me, stuck his hand inappropriately down my shirt and began making out with me. Chris, the bar owner, quickly reminded us to keep it PG. Robert then decided it was probably a good idea to go back to my hotel room. I agreed.

So I walked over to the table with Sven, Christie, Folsom and Mary to grab my coat. I explained to them my plan and everyone seemed to be in agreement that it was an excellent idea. On my way back to Robert I stopped to talk with this dude who I shall call Tin Cup. Tin Cup was a movie producer from LA who was sitting in the bar with an oversized pair of headphones choosing music for his upcoming movie. He couldn’t tell me what the name of it was but described it as follows:

“It’s a story about a war veteran who comes back to play professional golf. He comes to Carmel, meets a lady and rebuilds his life. Oh and it’s starring Kevin Costner.”

I responded by asking, “Didn’t they already make that movie? It’s called Tin Cup.” He did not think this was clever. He went on to make ridiculous statements like..

“If you don’t have money, you can never be happy.”

“I’m dating a japanese princess. She’s a direct descendant of the emperor. In our spare time she and I run a dog grooming business called Pretty Doggies.”

“Don’t call me sweetheart. My name is ____. Don’t ever call me a pet name again.”

I seriously couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. The true downside of this conversation, outside of feeling dumber, was that Robert thought I was flirting with this 52 year old douche and left the bar giving me a dirty look. So much for going back to the hotel room. So instead the girls and I finished up our cocktails and silently headed back to our hotel room.

Sunday morning we woke up, snuck out of the hotel room and headed over to Big Sur to have brunch at Nepenthe. I was pretty sure Jen and Christie were going to vomit on the windy 30-minute drive. Especially when I started singing showtunes. But we made it there free and clear. No Sunday Funday lunch would do without a refreshing cocktail, especially if daiquiris are on the menu!

The day ended with a long drive back to San Francisco. Lola, wine and dignity in tow…

A great kick off to the Summer of Single Dudes.

Comments (1)

By Denise, March 9, 2010 11:45 pm

Every year Sonoma welcomes people of all walks of life to introduce the newest grapes of the season with a wine tasting event, Annual Barrel Tasting. For those locals in the city of San Francisco, this means a gathering of your most favorite people, a short bus, mimosas and 8+ hours of good times you may or may not remember on Sunday morning. This year’s wine tour included the following players…

Download Video

Saturday began with an aggressive wake up from Mary, who was ready to start the day around 6:30am. Mind you, we had been out with Milo until around 2:30 am, so I had been asleep for approximately four hours at this point. Thirty or so minutes later I dragged myself out of bed, gave Mary a ride home (that’s right…I still have sleepovers with my friends) and came back to our place to get ready for breakfast.

The key to a solid day in wine country is breakfast. Sure, you can stop on the way and grab 36 mini sandwiches from Burger King, which we’ve done, but starting out the day with a balanced meal will keep you going strong all eight hours. I decided a Burrito Bar was the best bet this year. Scrambled eggs, sausage, sauteed veggies, cheese, guacamole and salsa wrapped up in warm tortillas…what could be more delicious?! Although I take full credit for the breakfast menu, the entire execution was Mary and Kellan…kudos to the chefs!

By 10am we were ready and rearing to go, however our blast off was temporarily delayed due to the late arrival of Lola’s nanny. Since I was going to be gone the entire day I thought it best Lola stay with a friend. Since Greg happens to be totally enamored with the pup, I was thrilled when he offered to take her to the East Bay to visit his family. Around 2pm I received a text message photo with this caption: ”She’s having fun…Hope you guys are too.”

That’s Greg’s nephew, his three legged mini poodle and Lola. You may or may not know Greg, but I know for a fact you’re now in love with him as a result of how adorable this photo is…

So around 10:30 we headed to our first winery. As I mentioned barrel tasting is not just a random Saturday Faturday occasion for my friends, but for all sorts of people…Regina, our personal driver, informed us there were several busses already heading across the Golden Gate.

Regina (Our Personal Driver) & Mark

Upon our arrival to Family Wineries of Dry Creek, we see that three of our fellow buses have already been tasting: Blaire, Brian and my cousin Erin’s crews had also joined their friends for a day in the wine country. The first winery was actually a combination of about six different tasting rooms…everything from bold cabs to sweet sauvs. I’m not much of a wino, but I know what I like!

Milo, Chrissy, Mary and I enjoying our very first tasting of the day.

From there we headed over to Bella Vineyards, which we visit every year. Their caves are so fun during barrel tasting…they have live music, gourmet bbq pork and grists, and of course booze along the way…

It was here we discovered the Tijuana Express! At first glance this motor vehicle appears to be a dirty, filthy taco truck, but once you take a closer look…it’s a fantastic party bus available for rent!

And next we headed to Fritz Underground Winery. By this point in time the the combination of tastings and shotgunning of beers had definitely caught up to a few people…

The only photo I have from inside Fritz winery.

Just as quickly as I had chugged my first couple of tastings, we were asked to leave…Here’s the what went down… Half the group went into the wine processing area (shown above) and through to the tasting room in a matter of minutes. The second half, which I was with, decided to stop and chat with the two wine makers in this processing area for a couple quick tastings. As were were standing around enjoying their tasty reds, Shawn, in his drunken stupor, bet Christie $20 to climb into one of the wine tanks.

(Note: Shawn has only met this group one time prior and that was at the Jersey Shore Party. What Shawn doesn’t know about our friends is that no bet is taken lightly, especially when there’s $20 on the table. One time…I threw down $20 at Savoy just so Mary could get in on a fierce game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. She lost the first two out of three, but at least we stepped up the challenge.)

Aside, Christie began joking with one of the wine makers asking what he would do if she climbed into the tank…He ignorantly replied, “Well I’d give you a kiss…cause I’ve never seen anyone do such a thing.” So now there’s money and a smooch involved…no way she’d turn back. Next thing I knew Mark is laughing hysterically looking into the dark depth of the wine tank and Christie is fully inside, curled up indian style. Unfortunately no one had a camera, not that there was time to take a picture before we were kindly asked to leave.

So the half of us they would no longer served headed down to regale our tale to Regina. She recommended we change our last winery to a place that would better suite our crowd now that we had taken a turn for the worst…

We closed out the day at Dry Creek Vineyards. This place was so beautiful, but unfortunately as we arrived they were closing the doors so we only got one or two tastes inside. Not that we needed anymore. At this point everyone was pretty much in their own world…Lauren had slapped Milo so hard he got a bloody nose, Adrian was making out with Cody, Chrissy was lecturing me on love, etc. Our last photos of the day were taken in the mustard plant fields outside the winery, where as Chrissy was yelling at me about finding Mr. Right, she tripped and fell flat on her face. Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it Chrissy?

Our ride home was filled with dancing, napping and In ‘n Out…

All in all…another successful year at Sonoma’s Barrel Tasting.