Wine Country Recap - Labor Day 2012

I have been remiss in posting about our Labor Day weekend trip to the Santa Ynez Valley.  I came back from the trip and was immediately swamped with work and then put myself back on a hard core diet for a solid month so I have been living under the radar for awhile.  The good news is that I am now 5lbs lighter and have lost 1.5 inches from my waist and 2 inches from my hips.  Go me!

At any rate, we had an awesome trip.  The weather was outstanding every day and every night -- highs in the upper 80's and lows in the upper 50's.  Perfect for picnics, wine tastings and driving around the wine country.  It was me and my husband and our next door neighbor, Gary, for four days of wine and food indulgence.

View of Vines and Countryside in Santa Ynez Valley

We drank a lot of wine in 4 days, let me tell you.  I think we typically hit four to five wine tastings each day and each tasting is usually 4-6 wines.  Of course, Steve and I share most of our tastings and we do pour a lot out. However, we also always buy a bottle (or two or three) of what we like best, go back to the house and then drink it on the back patio.

We rented a private house for 3 days and it had a great backyard patio area so there was much wine imbibing going on in the evenings.  Shenanigans ensued.  Shenanigans = really dumb conversations about things I can't recall.  It usually ends with me telling both Steve and Gary how they should be living their lives. I become a huge know-it-all after a bottle of wine.  My voice has a tendency to climb the decibel scale as well.  Steve calls it "yelling", I call it "getting your attention."  There were some painful jogs the following morning -- my head was pounding with every step.

Steve and I wine tasting at Carhartt

At the end of the trip, we had purchased (for shipping via the wineries) 3 cases of wine and we had also purchased an additional case that we planned to ship back via UPS.  This is when disaster almost struck.  We actually had 18 loose bottles of wine to ship back home - some were ours and most were Gary's.  All the wineries had told us, just buy it and if what you don't drink by Monday, swing into UPS and have them ship back to you.  Easy enough.  Except that UPS (all UPS - we checked three locations) was closed on Monday for Labor Day.  Post Office is also closed for the federal holiday.  Damn.  Okay.  Found an open FedEx in Santa Barbara not far from the airport.  Guess what?  FedEx, for whatever reason, will not ship wine anywhere.  Shit. Damn.  Now what?  Call the airline - can we check it?  Yes, but we have to pack it and they take zero responsibility for any breakage.  So, back into the FedEx to buy a huge box, packing tape, packing peanuts, and 2 massive things of bubble wrap.  Spent the next 45 minutes in the parking lot in front of the FedEx wrapping and packing bottles like 3 pathetic winos. However, I am happy to report that the box made it to Dallas and there was not a single broken bottle.  So, go suck it FedEx.

We received our first shipment from BridlewoodWinery last week and I intend to fully enjoy my Syrah this weekend since we are supposed to have a nice cool spell in Dallas.

Anyway, I will try and post more photos of the trip but seem to be having some downloading issues on my computer.  It was a great trip (again) and I can't wait to return next year if we can squeeze it in!