birthday weekend

Today is my 31st birthday so, needless to say, there is a wine-filled weekend planned.

To kick it off right we're going to dinner at Girasole on Larchmont, a great little Italian place that has no corkage fee. We'll be opening a bottle of 2004 Loring Wine Company, Pinot Noir Brosseau Vineyard that we bought at Vendome last night for $50 ... it'll be my first LWC wine and I've heard great things about them, so I'm very excited. It will probably overpower all the food, but oh well. :)

Then on Saturday morning we leave to go to Santa Ynez for a weekend of wine tasting. The wineries I think we're going to hit are: Beckmen, Koehler, Fess Parker, Alma Rosa, Epiphany, Sunstone, Artiste, Consilience, and maybe another one or two. A friend of ours that lives in the area is out of town so we are staying at her place for free. Doesn't get much better than that.

And of course there's probably going to be a few drinks consumed at Mavericks Saloon, the local bar.

Hopefully I'll post on Monday w/ the enormous list of everything that was tasted ...