Sunday, May 18 2008

Stuck In Sonoma Again

He went thataway!

The man from the magazine said I was on my way.
Somewhere I lost connections, ran out of songs to play.
I came into town, a one night stand,
Looks like my plans fell through
Oh ! Lord, Stuck in Lodi again.
Mmmm...

If I only had a dollar, for ev'ry song I've sung.
And ev'ry time I've had to play
While people sat there drunk.
You know, I'd catch the next train back to where I live.
Oh ! Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again.
Oh ! Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again.

–Creedence Clearwater Revival

It's not Lodi, but the song is pretty good: the man from the magazine (Winemaker) has let me off the leash and I'm off to tour around Sonoma. The Winemaker Conference was a huge, overwhelming success, with great seminars, engaging and entertaining speakers, great food and great folks to share it all with. I was especially pleased to meet some of my fellow WM writers, Wes Hagen, the other Tim (Patterson), Dan Pambianchi, and Allison Crowe and the editorial team Betsy, Colleen and Chris. Folks who read the magazine probably visualise us as sitting around a bunch of desks in a newsroom-style setting, churning out gutsy stories and wine exposés. Truth is, we're scattered across the continent, and even our editor (Chris Colby) is sequestered somewhere in the dark heart of Texas. Nice to meet such a good bunch of folks.

My seminars went pretty well, although I wish more of the dedicated grape winemakers had come over to my talk on adding grapes to wine kits–sometimes I wonder if they think they'll get cooties from kits! There's always next year though, and it already looks like it's going to fill up fast--get your tickets early!

Wouldn't that look better with some condos or a strip mall?

Today I'm off to tour a bit of Napa and Sonoma. Being as I'm a huge fan of sparkling wine (I'm just the bubbly type, I suppose) I've planned a swing down from Rohnert Park to Domaine Chandon for a glass of breakfast fizz, then to the Copia Food and Wine Education Center to see what's new and maybe take in one of the garden tours (amazing idea: they have a bunch of live plants, fruits and vegetables and they walk you through them, matching wines to the various aromatics, letting you smell the lime in Riesling, the grass in Sauvignon Blanc, the cherries in Merlot, etc) and go through the museum to see what's new. From there we'll hit Gloria Ferrer. I have a real soft spot for both their wines and the setting, and I'm hoping to spend quite a bit of the afternoon looking out over the valley with a plate of nibbles and a glass of the gorgeous pink bubbly they serve.

It's a hard life, I know. But all in the name of research, so I dedicate myself to it. And tomorrow it's back to reality-land, so I better make the most of today!

Posted by Tim AT 5:25PM

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