Weekend wrapup

Headed out of town for a little r&r with Juli. Stopped at Los Olivos to taste at Andrew Murray and pick up a wime shipment then went two doors down to the Los Olivos Wine and Tasting Shop where we tasted some more. ABC Chard tasted good, Alban viognier was less than impressive (surprisingly), other wines were good, but didn't result in a purchase.




Tasted olive oil, etc at Global Gourmet, a store I hadn't visited before, just two blocks off the main drag. The owner was there and explained that she had imported 2000 olive trees from Europe, the fruits of which were used in many of her products. She rents a commercial kitchen to do the preparation of the Global Gourmet products. Good stuff.

I got friendly with some art in a sculpture garden.




Later at Latetia I tasted a number of still wines while Juli tasted their sparkling wines. I didn't like any of the still wines enough to buy - the lesser wines were not good enough and the single vineyard Pinots, while delicious, were all priced at $60 which was a bit out of my purchase comfort zone considering the competition. The sparking wines appealed more, with my girlfriend choosing the Cuvee M as her pick.

Ate dinner at Del's Pizzeria in Pismo - we used a selection criterion based on the number of cars parked nearby and I'm happy to report that it worked. This restaurant has a loyal local following and is recommended. Wines by the glass are not boring - Had a glass of Turley Juveniles - dense, ripe to the max, almost too much to process. Slept at Sycamore Mineral Springs where the cheaper rooms have piped in mineral water for hot tubbing and the expensive rooms have regular old hot tubs.

On Saturday, Juli had a massage and I had a hike up to the top of the ridge behind the mineral springs where I took the photo posted earlier then down to Avila beach and back up the canyon. We visited the outlet stores then tasted at Edna Valley (good and reliable, I'll buy them at retail), Saucelito Canyon (we went away with 2 bottles of their white Rhone blend), Kynsie (the best winemaking of the day. I left with two bottles of their Bien Nacido Pinot Noir), then finished the day with a taste of a nice sparkling wine at Baileyana. We ended the day at Big Sky restaurant in San Luis Obispo where we enjoyed a turkey burger and swordfish, some nices wine and a dessert for not a horrible amount of money.