Catchng Up, Part 3

So in an unlikely deviation from our usual travels, Meagan & Marlowe went to Napa Valley for 5 days with 6 other people-- and Marlowe learned to enjoy wine (Meagan already knew how to enjoy it).

We did a few touristy things: Winchester Mystery House and saw Steven Wright perform.

We enjoyed some amazing food: Falafel's Drive-In (excellent fast food), Eiko's (great food, lousy service), La Toque (very fancy, very delicious, budget plenty of time for a good meal), and Brassica (good food, and they do wine samplers as 2 oz. pours!).

    

But mostly, we visited vineyards, toured vineyards, and sampled wines.



Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards: Great tour! Great wine! Did you know that wine can be buttery, and that that's a good thing in some styles?!?

Louis M. Martini: Fun tour! Amazing cellars! Good wine!

  

V. Sattui: Felt like The Lab in Asheville; a ton of pretty people but too crowded and without any really impressive beverages.

Sliver Oak Cellars: Not to be missed! One of our favorite vineyards!



Alexander Valley Vineyards: Cool caves! Good wine!

   

Conn Creek Winery: Enjoyed this one a lot! Good wine and very knowledgeable tour guides!

  

Robert Mondavi Wines: Because of who we were traveling with, we got the red carpet treatment at several wineries, but this one was amazing! Wine was great and the grounds, tour, & facilities are just gorgeous!

  

Pine Ridge Winery: Another can't miss! Great selection of really excellent wines!

Franciscan Estates: Another one where we were completely spoiled because of whom we were traveling with, but some of the best wine we had on this trip. We also played boccie ball :-)

  



So all in all, Marlowe probably drank more unique wines this trip than in his entire life, and he enjoyed almost all of them. It's good to expand your horizons...

Catching Up, Part 2

In the last post I mentioned two visits to The Monk. The big visit, however, was the third one on Sept. 3. We were joined by Steve, Courtney, Claudia, Rowanne, Bianca, & Daniel. This was an impressive ASSAULT ON THE MONK in which 4 of us spent 8+ hours there sampling a wide range of beers and 4 others helped us for part of that time.

In total, we tasted 58 different beers! It's impossible to mention all of the ones that we enjoyed, but the highlights include:

Bell's 10000

Ommegang Aphrodite

New Belgium Kick

Evil Twin Soft Dookie (sounds bad, tastes good)

As well as some that we've had before but had to sample on tap, such as

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous

Weyerbacher 16

Two weeks later we attended Brewgrass (our favorite alcoholiday). I may not have tried 58 unique beers at the festival itself (though I didn't count), so there's a good chance that the ASSAULT ON THE MONK ranks as my top beer event this year. That said, Catching Up, Part 3 will describe my top wine event of the year (a deviation from the blog's theme, I know). Coming soon... Marlowe and Meagan visit Napa Valley and learn to enjoy wine, too!

Catching Up, Part 1

Marlowe & Meagan had three major trips to THE MONK (or the Center of the Universe as we think of it, or the Thirsty Monk as it's officially known). Our work / school schedules have curtailed our usual outings, so visits to THE MONK are a good way to build in a lot of beer tasting into a single event.

2 months ago we went to Monk South for trivia (and won) and sampled 10 new beers. Highlight by far is the Southern Tier Creme Brule. We've since purchased several bottles of the delicious stuff. Other great ones included Brooklyn Concoction, Urthel Saisonniere, and the Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head co-brew Life & Limb.

We also had some great beers that we've had before, but had to try on draft:

Duck Rabbit Schwartzbier and Petrus Aged Pale being two highlights!

A week later we went to THE MONK with Pam & Frederick and sampled another set of new beers. Highly recommended is Unibroue La Terrible and Xbeeriment Black Force One.

Also had Liefman Oud Bruin, which we've had before but which remains one of our favorites.