Staves and Steel

Last Saturday, April 8th, Cima Collina Winery threw their second annual Staves & Steel party. This  gathering - held at their warehouse winery in Marina, CA - offers a unique experience featuring new release artisan wines, barrel tastings, and of course delicious food! 

This year was this first year we had the opportunity to attend the event, and we had such a great time! It was also our Mom's birthday and we couldn't think of a better way to begin her birthday celebration than to start at this awesome party! This event had live music by the band the Hovering Breadcat Folk Ensemble, who were so fun and lively, and the local ate3one food truck which provided delicious bites available for purchase. We ordered the shrimp taco and two pork sliders...YUM! 

An awesome part about attending the event was the discounted prices off the wines for sale: 10% off any bottle, 15% off cases, and 25% off everything if you were a club member. We loved their "mystery case" deal which was filled with an assortment of wines: some reserve wines, some new wines, and some older wines too. Not to mention you were getting the case for basically half off the retail value!

Our personal favorite part of the event was tasting wines from the barrel. Barrel tastings give you the opportunity to try wines that are still aging and gives you a completely unique sneak peek of the wine to come! They had two wines to taste, the first was their 2016 Argyle Petit Syrah and the second was a 2016 Chalome Petit Syrah. It's crazy how different they tasted! The 2016 Argyle was totally drinkable now, where the 2016 Chalome tasted very young. We spoke to the winemaker, and she said that while the Argyle tasted great now, the Chalome is a much more complex wine and will turn into the more superb wine in the long run. 

In the end, we purchased a few bottles of their newly released Rosé Pét-Nat. A Pét-Nat is a naturally bubbly wine, similar to a sparkling rosé. We highly recommend this one on a warm summer's day, or for a Sunday brunch party. The color and taste will win over anyone! 

If you want to hear more about Cima Collina, check out our previous post here!

xxx Ivy & Eve

Santa Lucia Highlands Gala

The Santa Lucia Highlands Gala (also called the SLH Gala) is an event put on each year that showcases 40 plus local wines grown in the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA (American Viticultural Area...fancy talk for a grape growing region). On top of premier wines, the event has small bites of some of the best local flavors. This year the event was held at Mer Soleil Winery and Vineyard. Surrounded by vineyards and sunshine, it was the perfect setting for a wine party! This event is really unique because only wineries that produce wines from grapes grown in the SLH are invited. You can taste anything from dry Rieslings to bold Syrahs. Some of our favorite wineries attended such as Morgan Winery, Joyce Vineyards, Boekenoogen, and Scheid Vineyards. We found a few new favorites along the way though. The Odonata winery had a very dry riesling which was fun to try. While we were talking to the winemaker Denis, he mentioned having a sparkling wine down the road at his wine tasting room and winery. So naturally we stopped in for a glass on our way home, and left with two bottles. Oops! Here is a link to their online shop. 

As for the small bites, options ranged from a huge cheese table presented by the local Star Market grocery store, to waffles with fresh sweet corn topped with lobster from Chef Soerke from Basil. Just delicous! If you needed a break from the wine you could stop at the Bar Cart Cocktails Co. table where Katie was serving chilled herbal tea made from ingredients picked on the Apex Vineyard in the SLH. 

On our way home we stopped at Joyce winery to regroup with friends. We caught a glimpse of their new tasting room (scheduled to open this summer) and jumped in a few tanks before heading home. Shout out to our dear friend J for hooking us up with tickets to this event! It was fab!

xxx Ivy & Eve

What a view!!!

YUMM from Chef Todd at Tarpy's

Delicious Noodles from Shiho at Ocean Sushi

Eve used to work at a tasting room so when Morgan needed a helping hand, she gladly stepped in! Photo by: Morgan Winery

Katie from Bar Cart Cocktails Co. pouring some of her tasty tea!

Goofing off at Joyce! :)