This afternoon, a group of agriculture students from UH Hilo came in to tour the winery, after which those who were over 21 lined up to taste the wine. These were fun kids, interested, funny, charming. The tall one at the end asked me if I'd seen the movie Sideways.
"Sure," I said. "And I've eaten at The Hitching Post several times."
"No way!" he said, laughing. "Really?"
"And," I added, "sometimes I even drink Merlot."
"Ah hahahahahahahahhahahaha...." He thought that was hilarious. It's nice to know I'm still hip enough to relate to the early 20s set. This group was the most attentive I'd had in weeks. They asked lots of questions, and laughed at all my jokes. College students are a blast.
Our 2007 Pinot Noir is brewing. OK, it's aging, out of the oak already and into the bottle. My humble opinion is that it should go back into the barrel for several months more. Today, I did a blind taste test between ours and two fine wines from The Great Pacific Northwest. Last year, our held it's own. This year, no go. It's still way young, to be fair, but super thin, fruit way up front and with little substance. Not to be mean, but I'd rather guzzle a glass of Welches. The 2005 Erath was delish, superb, with great structure, a smooth, lightly tannic finish and almost jammy enough to be a cab. Loved it. It reminded me of the High Density Pinot Noir I tasted last spring at the Melville Winery, Santa Barbara County, with 50% stem inclusion. The stems give the Pinot some welcome heft without making it heavy. I picked the Erath as my favorite of the three in a blind taste test. Of course it's a $65 bottle of wine. Guess I'll stick to my very respectable $8/bottle Gala Rouge, 2004, always on sale at Cost-U-Less. Wish we had a Trader Joe's. Wish we had a lottery. Wish I'd find a suitcase full of cash washed up on the beach. Not likely, since I rarely go to the beach.
Today mother nature and Pele treated us to both rain and vog. Double your pleasure, double your fun. It's amazing there's any paint left on my car, let alone tissue left on my lungs.
I wore a cute, shamrock scarf to add just a touch of flair to my ensemble for St. Paddy's day. My very talented friend Lila made it. She didn't really make it for me. She made it for my dog. But I talked to Hoppsy, who agreed to let me borrowed it for the day. It looks better on her, but pulled it off.
There's a blizzard atop Mauna Kea tonight. If the weather clears, we could get a nice view of the white mountain.
Yo homes, smell ya later!
A hui hou. Aloha!
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