Monday, August 1, 2011

Life and this weekend's happenings

This weekend was packed full of different people.  We stopped by a new winery in Livermore called the Big White House and I fell in love with the Peach Champagne.  It is my new replacement for my Little Valley Raspberry Champagne.  When I get new neighbors I like to bring over something and introduce myself.  I found that the Raspberry Champagne was a good thing to bring.  Some are white wine drinkers and some are red but mostly everyone celebrates at some point or another with a bottle of champagne and the flavored champagnes make it more palatable for those who don't drink.  The Big White House was not big or white but instead was a small brownish red barn, not very impressive when your expecting the big white house.  Once inside the walls were lined with paintings and the servers were friendly.  The paintings were done by the daughter of the wine maker and the cool thing was that they use some of these paintings as their wine labels.  So when giving a bottle as a gift, art is also represented.  My most recent favorite song is "If I Die Young" by The Band Perry and they had a painting that reminded me of it, a lady in white floating on the water on water lily's.  The artist should do another rendition with roses instead of lily's and send a note to the band.  She might get some recognition that she is not getting now with  her paintings hanging in the winery or maybe the band would want to commission it.  By the way the tastings are $5 but are returned if you purchase a bottle.  (I rate this place a R3.5; champagne and people 4, wine 3)

Next stop was Concannon winery, again $5 tasting, beautiful grounds but I wasn't crazy enough about the wine to purchase any.  It was a bit busy so you didn't get the personal attention I like when going wine tasting.  It however was improved from the last time we went, many years ago.  They have it now broken into three sections, tastings, reserve tastings and then wine and tapas bar.  Outside a guitar playing was strumming his songs so if I could find a wine I like my preferred choice would be to have a glass outside, listen to the music and give the tapas a try.  Last but not least they had the best smelling bathroom I've ever been in.  I rate this place R3 (3 out of 5 stars).

We have been to almost all of the Livermore wineries, under 20 left to do so we should finish them this year and I'll be able to go back to my ratings list to see if they stood the test of time and would I rate them the same.   For my complete list, click here.

Last stops of the day were visiting a couple of friends at the local pubs but unfortunately that wasn't too exciting so home we went. 

On Sunday we went to Chucks Annual ASP picnic which consists of mostly old Zehntel / Teradyne people from Walnut Creek, this is where I come in.  I had been looking forward to my BBQ hot dog all year and it didn't disappoint.  Come to find out it was a Kirkland Beef Frank from Costco and it is now my new favorite hot dog, bye bye Ball Park Franks.   It is so nice of Chuck and Harold to put on this BBQ every year.  You get to see people that you only see once a year which is nice.  It's a family reunion.

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