For Brax’s birthday I purchased a Groupon deal for The Cobblestone Inn, a bed and breakfast in Carmel. Troya and Doc also participated in the festivities which of course included LOTS of wine tasting.
On Sunday we walked around town a found several tasting rooms. Manzoni’s was our first stop, there we tasted a very nice Pinot Gris but I really liked the Chardonnay. Their Syrah was also nice thou not typical of a Syrah, more like a bigger Pinot Noir. Our next stop was Scheid which had 3 different tasting flights to choose from, needless to say we spent quite awhile there. Nick, the gentleman that was pouring that day, was awesome. He was very knowledgable about the wines and described them very accurately. There we tasted several Pinot Noirs, a 50%Cab and 50% Syrah, Petite Verdot, Syrah Rose’, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc. All were pretty tasty but my favorite was one of the clone Pinots. From there we went to get some cheese and crackers at The Cheese Shop. There we found the most deeeeeelicious truffle cheese, a creamy brie and I can’t remember the third( I might have been slightly buzzed, on wine and truffle cheese). Wrath’s tasting room was next to The Cheese Shop so we tasted some more tasty wine along with our cheese there.
We went to a Japanese restaurant called The Flying Fish for dinner, the food was decent, Brax and I shared a seafood/veggie/noodle dish that was good. From there we found a cool little spot on the roof top of Visuvious with several fire pits to sit around, had some cocktails and munchies(the trufffle fries were to die for).
On Monday we awoke to some drizzle which then turned into a down pour, quite a change from the beautiful day we had on Sunday but that didn’t stop us. Doc and Troya had been tasting in the past at wineries out in the Carmel Valley area so we headed that way for more wine tasting and some lunch.
There are 16 wineries or tasting rooms in the Carmel Valley. Our first was Hellar, personally I didn’t find anything there I liked. Next was Parsonage, again nothing I was in love with but the Bordelais Red Wine was good. From there we went to Boekenoogen, I found a few I liked there. Their Chardonnay had distinct flavors of pineapple and honeydew melon with slightly creamy texture, very yummi!! They also had 2 very good Pinot Noirs. We had a nice lunch at Corkscrew, I recommend the Croque Monsieur, it was delicious. Talbott’s tasting room was conveniently located next to Corkscrew so that was our next stop. Talbott had 2 flights to choose from with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on both. From there we walked down the street and stumbled across a place called The Quail and Olive where they sold olive oils and balsalmic vinegar. We tasted a few very delicious olive oils and vinegar along with some truffle oil. Our last stop was Joullian, they poured a Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc and a Zinfandel.
Everyone at the tasting rooms were very friendly and not at all snooty. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of great quality wines for decent prices in Carmel. I look forward to going back to Carmel again, it’s so beautiful and fortunately conveniently located within an hour from us.