 On our wedding anniversary, Cathy and I ventured into wine country, our destination being Sierra Ridge Winery located in Sutter Creek, Ca. off of Ridge Road. We had great fun learning about blending different wines together in order to attain a delicious final product, much like our local wineries do. We could not think of anything more entertaining and educational than having the opportunity to hang out with Sierra Ridge Winery owner, John Bree and winemaker, Eric Costa for their “First Annual Wine Blending Day.”
Sierra Ridge Winery winemaker Eric Costa (left)& owner John Bree (right) |
Among others who attended, we were not the only couple celebrating a wedding anniversary for this event as another couple who traveled from Elks Grove, Ca. also attended this “Wine Blending Day.” This made it all the more enjoyable, even if they did have a few more years of anniversaries to celebrate than us. Eric and John provided an in depth history regarding the five wine varietals (Petite Sirah, Vranc, Cabernet Franc, Aglianico and Zinfandel) that they chose for us to utilize for our blending experiments. They also shared their knowledge and experience regarding which wines to blend together and why. |
 In addition, to creating our favorite blend (75% Cabernet Franc, 15% Vranc and 10% Zinfandel) after much fun tasting and experimenting, we were treated to a superb gourmet Mediterranean luncheon and received nine wine bottles containing our personal wine blend. For those of you looking for something very different and incredibly fun as well as very educational, you should really consider following in our footsteps and attending John’s next wine blending seminar. For more information check out the Sierra Ridge Winery website at http://www.sierraridgewine.com. Kirk & Cathy (left) sampling one of their wine blends.
Kirk measuring percentages of
wines for blend under watchful
eye of Eric Costa |
