The Soledad wineries

Sunday, August 27th, 2017

Monterey, CA

It’s 9am and we are all slowly getting out of bed for our last full day of vacation. We are adapting to the slow pace of Monterey and it’s wonderful. Laura and Sarah are taking a little bit longer than me so I take a quick walk down to Bookworks, which is an adorable bookstore-coffee shop. I browse the books for a few minutes and ultimately decide on a copy of Travels with Charley. This will complete my Steinbeck collection and feels appropriate. I also grab a cup of coffee; it turns out to be the 2nd best of the entire trip (Yosemite still holds first place). 

Once I return to our little house, Laura and Sarah are in the process of picking a new location for brunch. We take a quick walk down Lighthouse Road to a place called "Red House". We check in and are quickly shown our table. They immediately offer us a choice between regular coffee and a dark roast. I already love this place. It takes a while to get our food which gives us time to analyze the décor. There are anthropomorphic animals painted all over the walls; clearly this used to be a preschool. We find the decor simultaneously upsetting and funny.

After brunch, we head over to the Monterey Aquarium. We have 2 free passes from our Airbnb and have decided to split the cost of the 3^rd pass, which ends up being $50. Damn. We spend about an hour and a half at the Aquarium. It’s pretty cool, but I’m still hung up on the ticket price. At one point we see 2 penguins mating and I immediately feel like I have intruded.

After the Aquarium we decide to split up for the day. I want to chase down a rumor about $50 cases of wine and Laura wants to nap on the beach. I make a strong case for wineries and Sarah opts to join me. We drop Laura off at the house, grab some snacks and are off to the wineries. Again!

This time we head South on the 101. We go directly to Ventana, which is where we can supposedly buy $50 cases of amazing wine (as explained by our barista at Badonkadonk… where the wine really sucked). I am skeptical about this statement on many levels, however, the bridge to Big Sur is closed and I can’t really handle any more quaint shops. The drive to Ventana takes about an hour. When we arrive the parking lot is dirt and the tasting room is tiny. We wander inside and it's immediately clear that everyone knows each other. I feel like I am intruding on someone else’s dinner party, but sit down at the bar anyways (we have already some so far!). After 10 full minutes of waiting patiently the barista approaches us and asks what we came for. Sarah and I are not deterred by his blunt demeanor; we tell him that we would like to do a wine tasting.

We are friendly with the barista and his friends who are sitting near us. They are visibly drunk, but we don’t want to be rude. At one point the barista hands us some grapes that he just pulled off of the vine. I have always wanted to try a wine grape! They are kind of sour, which is just what I expected. Our new drunk friends tell to be careful because the grapes will make us poop.

Eventually our server goes over their case specials, which include 3 different varietals, which sell for $47 per case. I am literally chomping at the bit to taste and buy this wine. I play it cool and ask if we would be able to try the red blend that it on special. He gives us a long explanation about how Ventana sold their blend to another winery and must dump their existing stock. He says that the new winery will be selling the same blend for $40 dollars per bottle. I am enjoying the back story and wait patiently as he pours my sample.

Holy crap, this wine is amazing. I take a few sips to make sure that it’s real. Next I turn to Sarah, who’s pallet is more discerning, to validate my opinion. She agrees. We have officially stumbled into the holy grail of wine tasting! It took many years, but we have arrived. This wine is so good and so cheap that I am bordering on emotional. I buy two cases to take home and Sarah buys one bottle for later tonight.   

Naturally we ask our barista for recommendations and he suggests that we check Hahn. The road heading to the tasting room is dirt and littered with cows and birds. When we arrive, the parking lot is paved and the tasting room is beautiful. A nice server from LA helps us and we chat about life in southern California. Around our second pour a lady carrying a falcon enters the tasting room. The falcon is perched on a thick glove on her right hand and its head is covered by a leather hood. She explains to us that he is skittish and it’s first time in the tasting room. This day can not get any better.

Our barista explains that Hahn is one of a few vineyards that has turned to falcons to help control the rodents amongst the grapevines. The women has a group of 5 falcons and provides her services during harvest season. We think this is the greatest job of all time.  

Our tasting moves slowly and we are wrapping up just around closing time. We had planned on having our picnic-snacks on their deck, but end up eating them in the car instead.

On the way back we make a quick stop at the Wrath vineyard, but are turned away because they are about to close. We take some pictures and head back into town. The car ride feels fast and we talk about the falcon the whole way home.

Once we are settled in Monterey we decide that it’s time for dinner. We all vote on a little restaurant in an old Victorian house. It’s adorable and we all order wine and quickly turn the conversation to Game of Thrones. The finale is tonight and we plan on watching on it on my laptop. Our neighbors overhear us and join in on the conversation. The food is great and eventually we wrap up and head back to the house.

We immediately plug in my laptop and gather around the kitchen table. We also open Sarah’s wine, (which still tastes amazing!). GoT commence!

GoT definitely delivers and I silently vow to re-watch the episode on my TV when I return home. Since it’s still early, we get out the Jackbox Games and play trivia and Pictionary until late in the night. Tomorrow is our last day of vacation and I am already sad.