Roam the Rogue

A day off!  A day to play and to discover new wines and partake of a few favorites as well.  This was the second official "Roam the Rogue" wine tour we have been able to attend.

And in spite of the forecast (and the weather the rest of the weekend) the day started out with sunny blue skies.  A lovely day.

First stop: Cliff Creek.  The "other" winery close to home.

 Tom checks out an interesting sculpture made of barrel bands.  Looking west, home is in the distance, over the small hill you can see.  Yes, this time of year we do like living here.

 Looking north

I wish we had a water feature like this.   The little terrier/winery dog is named "Lulu".   She couldn't believe how many volunteers she had to throw her ball, and I'll bet she was exhausted by day's end.

Unfortunately, we didn't taste anything exciting enough to take home.  You can only eat so much spaghetti.

Second stop was Kriselle Cellars.  Our second visit here, the first in good weather.  There is a lovely view from the tables in the back.   I could have spent even longer standing in the sun than we did; with or without a wine glass in hand.

I was also enamoured of the wood-fired pizza oven.  Unfortunately they close at 5 p.m. each day, so it's out for an after-work dinner stop.  Once again, no wine to take home.  I'm willing to give them another chance as the wine should improve as their vines mature.

Third stop was a pleasant surprise.  We had never been up to LaBrasseur before.  In fact, we've been to Butte Falls a couple of times in the last few months and had never even noticed the sign.

 We bought wine: their "Ethan Cole", Riesling, and early Muscat desert wine.  We plan to take certain friends (ahem, Trenton) to visit and perhaps also to attend some of their summer concerts.

LaBrasseur is certainly "off the beaten path" and not  in an area you would expect a winery to be.  Take Butte Falls Highway 12.5 miles, then turn left onto Cobleigh Rd for another 2.5 miles back into the wilderness.

Fourth stop was back down in Sam's Valley at Agate Ridge.   Nice grounds and looks like it should be a good wedding venue.   We didn't buy any wine there, either.  Gosh, we're picky.

 BIG redwood tree with stage and gazebo in background.

 The old house serves as the tasting room.

On to Roxy Ann, which we visit somewhat frequently.  We are members of their wine club.

The hill you see to the right is "Roxy Ann" which stands over east Medford.  We took home a Tempranillo and a couple of bottles of an ice wine Riesling.

Penultimate stop on the way home: Del Rio.   Their wines continue to be quite decent.  This trip we bought Pinot Gris and Merlot.  Not that we needed more wine, but they had a 40% off  of case price special for the event.

 Back lawn area and stage. Note that it is no longer sunny - this was about 4 p.m.

 Once again, the old house is the tasting room and offices.

Final stop: back home at Folin.   I missed taking new pictures, so I will just tell you how pretty their spring flowers are and (again) how great the view is.   Since we are members of their Ambassador Club we didn't stay up in the tasting room with the common folk, but were directed downstairs to the cellar where our-friendly-local-winemaker Rob was serving a variety of wines.  We didn't take home even more, having received our regular "shipment" last weekend.

Look what followed us home!

I know that I am horribly behind in the blogosphere.  I have three weeks of pictures from our March/April vacation which I have not even had time to look at.  Work is . . . well, let's just say that I was calling the national specialty my "long national nightmare".  She who was overwhelmed by 50% of my work - not to mention emotionally unstable - has now been gone for four weeks.  We have cameras - with good audio - trained on the day-job office at all times.  When they were first installed, or when I first was treated with the output (while we were camped at Homolovi) I was somewhat hesitant about the surveillance.  Now I appreciate it.

I am still scratching my head (or pulling out my hair?) about the whole situation as we continue to pick up the pieces.   Mari is eagerly learning to do the weekly payroll and has not gone home in tears over it once.  Keisha has jumped with both feet into taking on order entry, which is currently a busy, busy job.  I appreciate the way that both have stepped up to the plate.   It doesn't solve my long-term goal of finding a qualified replacement, but we're working on that.

Meanwhile, I have wine . . .