Does NOT taste like grapes

Sunday morning was our final day of wine tasting - thank GAWD.  I was definitely on wine overload, they were all beginning to taste the same and I was just over it.  Now, I didn't have an attitude or anything as we went wine tasting, but I won't even lie, I was glad that this was our last day.  How many wineries was that?  Let me see...

Silver Oak

Bella Vineyards

Robert Young

Castello di Amorosa

Armida

Twomey Cellars

Arista

Lynmar Estate

Iron Horse

With an average of five wines at each spot, that's a lot of damn wine!  And we brought all of it home - 36 bottles to be exact.  It's too bad I have zero desire to drink any of it.  It'll probably be a while before I feel like wine again, but they sure do look pretty in the dining room!

Next to last on the list was Lynmar Estate.  It was another recommended winery and it turned out to be my second favorite, but for the same reason that Arista was my first favorite - Lynmar staff keeps it real!  I should write more things down as they happen because for the life of me, I can't remember the names of the people we met and unfortunately I have to refer to them by their positions in the photo.

Guy on the Left, Guy in the Middle and Guy with Glasses

I know, I suck.

The Guy on the Left was all of 23 years old and was so super nice, I wanted to be his big sister.  I found myself wanting to ask if he had a girlfriend and if she was a nice girl and whether or not he opened doors and to make sure he pulled out chairs for her.  This protective urge was so strange but don't worry, I fought it and obediently stuck my nose in my wine.  It still smelled like grapes to me.

I confessed that to the Guy with Glasses somewhat sheepishly, and his response forever endeared me to him and to Lynmar Estate.  "Honey, it's all just bullshit.  If it tastes good to you, then it's a good wine."  AMEN brotha!  That's my kind of guy!  The Guy in the Middle even confessed to having a horrible sense of smell and that he was still learning about wine.  I could have hugged them all, but we just bought a bunch of wine from them instead.  I just love no-frills kind of people and I really wish I'd met them earlier in our trip, but I don't think I could have truly appreciated them until this point.  We continued to chat with them, talking about the beautiful weather her and the ridiculous heat in Dallas.  They said they could tell I was from the South because it was 70 degrees out and I was still wrapped up.  They were so sweet, The Guy on the Left even offered to take multiple pictures of us, offering suggestions for good spots and everything.  I could have pat him on his cute little head!  If I could have reached it - I think I'm shrinking in my old age.

  Drew's Blue Steel - the light in this place was amazing!

Trying to get the scenery behind us.

This picture doesn't do it justice - the place was beautiful!

In front of their reserve case.

Drew says that I'm standing funny here but I really don't see it.

After Lynmar came Iron Horse.  We were told that their wine wasn't the greatest but the sparkling wine was worth the trip.  Well surprise surprise!  I didn't like any of their sparkling wines - all you could taste was the carbonation!  For my taste buds, I think I'll stick with champagne and leave the sparkling wine to someone else.  But it wasn't a total loss because I really liked their chardonnay and I'm normally not a chardonnay drinker.  Just goes to show that it really is just bullshit.  Drink what tastes good, that's a rule!

Iron Horse had their tasting room outdoors

What you saw if you turned around

They even had fruit trees!  I couldn't get close enough to

tell what they were.  This was the best I could do with my zoom.

Apples?  Peaches?  I wish I could have snuck down the hill and grabbed one.

I've always wanted to eat fruit straight from a tree.

We tried to make it to a couple more wineries, but they had shorter hours on Sundays and we'd gotten a later start.  As we were leaving the valley, I told Drew to pull over at some vineyards that were close to the road with no fence.  I wanted to do something.

Attempting more artsy photography

Standing among the endless rows of grapes

Finally indulging my urge

Since we'd arrived I wanted to pull a grape from the vine and eat it but I was too afraid of getting caught.  On our last day, it was now or never.  I quickly looked around, snatched a grape from the vine, waiting to see if there were some kind of alarm hard-wired to the vines to keep people like me from stealing the grapes.  No alarms went off so I was safe.  I popped it in my mouth, wondering if it would taste like wine.

HELL NO!!!!!

I spit that nasty-ass grape out as fast as I could, sure my eyes were crossing from the bitterness!  It was horrible!  Bitter!  Disgusting!  Nastynastynasty!!  Drew saw everything from car and calmly called out, "I told you."

So what, he told me they'd be bitter.  It's not like I believed him!  I'm too stubborn to listen - I had to find out for myself!  No wonder they didn't need alarm systems - no one would want to steal those nasty-ass grapes.  I won't do that again but at least I can cross that off my list.

Fruit trees aren't the same way are they?