A quick taste of wine country
Since moving to California Julie and I have only ventured north once. Last November we trekked up the 405 for Thanksgiving with Wade and then returned, our mouthes agape at the natural wonder surrounding us, by way of the famed Pacific Coast Highway.
Yesterday we headed north for a second time to check out the wine country of the central coast. To say it that way, however, implies that I even knew that the area just north of Santa Barbara could be called the central coast or that it's wine country was of particular note.
All I knew, as we hopped on the 101 of the two-hour drive north was that Anthony and Megan were out on our coast and we weren't going to miss a great opportunity to catch up and see a new part of our state.
As we got off the freeway at Buellton Julie looked around and noted that it all looked familiar. She queried, "Is this where the filmed Sideways?" "No, that was up in Napa," I said arrogantly adding "silly" in my head. I mean, at the beginning of the movie they make a big deal about how long the drive is from LA and we just did it after brunch with no trouble. Not only that but we didn't even like the movie that much so whatever... I'm so arrogant when I don't know what I'm talking about and really should know better by now.
After a quick call to Anthony for directions, we met up with them at the Brander Vineyard and learned that they weren't alone but had, in fact, come up with a childhood friend of Anthony's who was giving them the trip as an engagement present. We tasted a few wines that neither of us found particularly impressive and then toward the end had a Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve that was worth buying.
Anthony's friend and his wife went back to the hotel for a nap as we headed into Solvang to walk around and catch up. What an odd place. On the way to vineyard we drove through and both noticed that it looked like every other "cute," themed town in semi-rural America. The theme here was an combination of old-world Denmark (?, yeah that's what I said) and wine (reasonable but with Denmark?). The real point of the exercise was to catch up on the late happenings of life and to spend time with far-flung friends.
As we drove back to LA late last night Julie and I both remarked that the central coast struck us both as surprisingly gorgeous and, not surprisingly, terribly expensive.
Oh, and that is where Sideways was filmed and took place... I can be such an ass sometimes.
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