By way of three vehicles, the group got in Friday night and late Friday/early Saturday. Our car was in the second wave and Nadia (appropriately) greeted us at their 200 year old (??) house amped to open a bottle of wine.
The home had a lot of character…I feel like that makes it sound like it was a dump but it was not! Some interesting décor, a lot of garden tools were hung on the walls, and the dining table was very long, 7-women-seated-on-one-bench long. And it had a fireplace, I love fireplaces. The less desirable quality was that it was 11 degrees Celsius the first night. Saturday morning, Michelle jumped into the shower and the water turned cold after she’d applied shampoo. She reenacted the dance that she did trying to rinse soap while minimizing the amount of water she would come in contact with. Steve took a shower after Michelle knowing there was no hot water. That is one of the nicest things I’ve heard a husband do for his wife.
Kevin, Rachel, Andres and Juliana and I were staying in a house a few minutes away and after the bottle was gone, we loaded up and headed over. There was a tinge of guilt the next morning when the gang told about the no hot water. I told Michelle that the marble floors in our house were like ice when I got out of my shower I was hoping to find a rug. That didn’t mean much when I saw Steve pull his foot out of his shoe to rub it because it felt like it lost circulation since the shower, or the sleep.
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The wineries were awesome! The ladies had scheduled two Saturday and two Sunday for our group. We did the tours of the wineries and the tastings. We saw the Marques de Riscal winery with hotel designed by Frank Gary, famous architect.
Sunday morning, I offered to make breakfast burritos for the group so I walked over to the other house (a warm 19 degrees C) early in the morning to start the process. Lalit joined me downstairs and got to chopping! We were joined by Nadia, Steve and Michelle who also joined the sous chef line. Breakfast was served and we got on the road! A slight detour down a dirt road into the middle of a vineyard later, and we arrive at the Familia Martinez Bujanda. On the tour our guide told about joining the wine club, very normal in California, I’ve been a member of one or two. At this winery, joining their club means you buy a barrel of wine (about 300 bottles) for the low price of 4800 euros. “Christmas gift” I said, “FedEx can just ship it to my parents house, Merry Christmas mom and dad.” “Send it to the student office” Steve said “they’ll know what to do with it.” Our tour guide said that they don’t send the wine in the barrel, just the bottles, “how much to keep it in the barrel” I said, “how much for just the barrel” Steve said.
At our tasting the photography really began…Erin Byer, the artist…
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45000 pictures later...no just kidding the first one was taken on the first shot!
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