For Brax’s\u00a0birthday I purchased a Groupon\u00a0deal 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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 Their Syrah\u00a0was also nice thou not typical of a Syrah, more like a bigger Pinot Noir.\u00a0 Our next stop was Scheid\u00a0which 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\u00a0about the wines and described them very accurately. There we tasted several Pinot Noirs, a 50%Cab and 50% Syrah, Petite Verdot, Syrah\u00a0Rose’, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc. All were pretty tasty but my favorite was one of the clone Pinots.\u00a0 From there we\u00a0went\u00a0to get\u00a0some cheese and crackers at The Cheese Shop.\u00a0There 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.<\/p>\n
We went to a Japanese restaurant called The Flying Fish for dinner, the food was decent, Brax\u00a0and I shared a seafood\/veggie\/noodle dish that was good. From there we found a cool little spot on\u00a0the roof top of Visuvious\u00a0with several fire pits to sit around, had some cocktails and munchies(the trufffle fries were to die for).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0Red 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.\u00a0 We had a nice lunch at Corkscrew, I recommend the Croque\u00a0Monsieur, 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\u00a0vinegar. 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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0\u00a0I look forward to going back to Carmel again, it’s so beautiful and fortunately\u00a0conveniently located within an hour from us.<\/p>\n
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For Brax’s\u00a0birthday I purchased a Groupon\u00a0deal 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 … Continue reading