Sunday, February 27, 2011

Under the Paso snow????

We thought we would not need our snow shovels when we left Minnesota. Snow was "predicted" but we had sunshine until about 4 when hail preceded about 30 minutes of hard snowfall. We had a fun group of tasters here thanks to James and Bay Limo and we all dashed outside to capture the snowstorm on our phones and cameras.

The group was sitting around the fire sipping some barrel tastes of our future Zinfandel when there was a bolt of thunder, then a hailstorm followed by fat furious snowflakes piling up on the pool deck. We were like little kids enjoying Mother Nature's winter display. Even the dogs enjoyed the winter wonderland.
Judging from photos on facebook, lots of friends were capturing the rare California snow. Of course, it did not last long but we did wake to a snow-covered backyard. Dave and I enjoyed our coffee in the hot tub watching the sun burn away the icy patches. Only remote spots that hide in the shadows still linger.


Next week, Kelley and I are supposed to head to Mammouth for our first California ski trip. She is on hiatus so we swapped Creekside B&B nights for 3 nights in a wonderful condo slope side. Look for more photos of snow but shots that are a bit more predictable for the snowy background.

Monday, February 21, 2011

As the Girl Scouts say, Make new Friends and keep the Old, One is Silver, One is Gold!

We have been blessed to have made lovely friends in the short time we have lived in Paso Robles. Last night we were the guests of two of our favorites who included us in their private dinner party in the barrel room at Lone Madrone Winery. This intimate evening featured scrumptious wines by Neil Collins paired with delicious food prepared by Chef Jeff Scott.

Imagine sitting in a cozy, quaint room , surrounded by wine barrels, flickering candlelight and soft music while Neil shares his story of how he arrived from England in the mid-eighties. He learned his wine making skills from the local legends Kenny Volk and John Munch and has become one himself. He is the winemaker for Tablas Creek and his own label, Lone Madrone and is passionate about his craft.

Chef Jeff served four courses of masterfully prepared cuisine - Asparagus Soup with scallops, a beautiful salad, short ribs on polenta and the grand finale of homemade ricotta cheese cake. We enjoyed getting better acquainted with our other dinner companions and left feeling slightly tipsy, very full and happy to have shared a memorable evening with really enjoyable people.

It was the perfect ending to a weekend full of fun and interesting friends - some old ones and some new! We had a great family stay with us for the weekend. Thanks to a referral from fellow b&b owner who was booked, the Wylies arrived ready for a fun weekend of wine tasting. Their son and daughter-in-law joined them just in time for Bay Limo to pick up for a full day of wine tasting. They went to all the small wineries with owners who have great stories - Hidden Oaks, Vines on the Marycrest, Hanson as well a few other gems that James frequents. They enjoyed our wines too and even joined the wine club! They took advantage of the spa special we are running and booked four hot stone massages. I was so jealous! They are from the central valley and came bearing gifts - bags of pistachios that they grew and processed. Trust me, these are much better than the economical Costco nuts I serve. We will be doling these out only on special occasions.

Per Cazo Cellars met a lot of new friends this weekend. In spite of a cold rainy weekend, we had lots of tasting appointments. Since we are so low on wine, we offered some barrel samples of some upcoming wines we will be bottling soon. We received some great feedback and know they'll be back when the wines are finally in bottle.

Old friends from Minnesota visited as well as they were in San Luis Obispo checking out Cal Poly with their son Trevor. It had been awhile since we last saw the Janns and we had a great time catching up over dinner. I hope Trevor selects Cal Poly for college so we can see more of Mark and Michelle.

I even had a chance to visit with my good friend Nanette over a glass of wine as we talked food for some upcoming Per Cazo events. Someone once said friendship is the sunshine of life and on this cold rainy weekend, I certainly had a lot of sunny moments.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I wish this commercial had played during the super bowl!


As mentioned in the previous blog post, Dave and I were in Hong Kong visiting our daughter and watched the Super Bowl at the Scottish Pub in the Excelsior Hotel. The live feed started at 7:30am on Monday, February 7. It was fun with an interesting collection of characters. Some were business men in coats and ties who planned to arrive late for work, others were young Chinese men who probably had studied in the states and then there were the tourists like us. One of the disappointments was that none of the commercials aired. Instead we saw the same five ads sponsored by Asian Sports Network. We all grew tired of watching Joe Montana try to hawk Sketcher Shape-Ups as a great workout shoe.

I would have loved to have seen this commercial air:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVaNxB5TN2M&feature=related
Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance created this to promote the upcoming Zin Fest. It's great. The "wife" at the end of the video is Katie with Uncorked Wine Tours. She stopped by today with a great group of tasters from Bakersfield. We get a lot of visitors from Bakersfield.

Plan to visit Paso for the first festival of the year on March 18-20. We will be offering three new releases including our first 100% Zinfandel. It's delicious. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will be pouring on the pool deck paired up with everyone's favorite - Zin Balls (thanks again to Audrilee for the recipe) along with other tasty bites.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Hey Rabbit, Happy New Year

Dave and I are on our way to Hong Kong to celebrate Chinese New Years with our daughter Meg and her boyfriend Andy. We are so excited as it`s been over a year since we were together. We will arrive too late to see them tonight. They live on Lama Island and we can`t make the late ferry. They will be picking us up in the morning where we will be hiking to some famous Buddha. Meg has a lot planned for our visit including dining on the harbor to watch the fireworks ringing in the new year, a visit to the new wine bar featuring some Paso Robles wines and watching the Super Bowl in a HK sports bar at 7 am on Monday morning.

I promise to take lots of photos and keep you posted. Happy New Year!