i <3 carneros

spent the weekend in napa. first things first: i stayed at a "business class" hotel, which meant crappy digs, not a great discount, either. next time, i'll either go for econolodge or super fancy, but the middle ground is just a waste of money.

second: it was fargen hot. over 100F for much of the visit. but that was napa: carneros was 70s to 90s. that's half of why i <3 carneros. the other half is that i loves me some carneros pinot noir, and the third half is that i think the wineries in carneros do better things to napa cabernet sauvignon than the wineries in napa. that's my humble opinion for yous.

the highlight of the visit was the artesa club bbq. we showed up around 2 with a couple boxes of wine we'd purchased the previous two days. because these guys are world class awesome, the tasting room staff let us drop off our bottles instead of leaving them in the car to sit at 120F. then back down to the bbq house, where a band was playing up-tempo bluesy stuff on the porch (ha!). at the entrance area we were issued a glass of chardonnay, a nametag, and a squirt gun. throughout the bbq, everyone squirted everyone else. it was a genius idea for icebreaking and staying cool. the squirtguns really made the bbq.

there were goofy games, including a compressed air rifle that shot corks at targets about 5 yards away. not exactly accurate, but once i got the hang of it and grokked its characteristics, i got myself 3 in a row and won a bunch of tickets. all the goofy games had tickets, which went into a raffle at the end -- also brilliantly organized: you could put your tickets on only the items you cared to win. i didn't win anything.

everyone went home with a complimentary half-bottle of 2003 reserve cab. one of our two bottles was leaky so we drank it when we got home. dunno if it was sitting out all day (it was shady but still hardly cellar temps) or the leak, but it wasn't great. wasn't vinegar, either, though.

the food was from chef edward's bbq, in oakland. chef edwards was there serving and joking around. the portions were ridiculous, and it was quite funny to see all the skinny wine girls breaking their plastic plates with pounds of barbecue. the food itself wasn't great, but it wasn't bad (the greens were super salty, which i considered a blessing in terms of electrolyte replacement. foodies may not agree :D). as with most food, the wine pairing and the company elevated it beyond its humble station. after the event we went back up to the tasting room to retrieve our wine, and enjoy a tasting, too -- but they wouldn't pour on account of our nametags, claiming we'd had enough at the bbq. sigh. i suppose that's fair.

all the club members were super friendly and seemed to know each other. maybe that was only because we all had nametags. in any case, i look forward to seeing this crowd again at the next event.

with the food, they were pouring their merlot and their tempranillo. i didn't much care for the pairing of the merlot and the bbq, but then, i think i just don't care for (their?) merlot. in fact, in the past i've tried and failed to pair wine with my own bbq. i was beginning to suspect that wine just doesn't pair with bbq. now, the tempranillo has changed my thinking on this. i like the tempranillo because it pairs well with food, is cheap, and has a non-french name. i'd gotten a few bottles last time i was up. but i still have doubts that it will pair well with my barbecue -- sugary, peppery, smokey. it pairs well with unsmokey, salty, saucy bbq like we had yesterday, and like you'll find at most restaurants.

anyhow: fun.