Wine Tasting Rooms Part Of The Drinking Conversion
There was no defining moment when it happened, no sudden realization that struck me like getting conked in the head by an errant champagne cork or having a thought-provoking incident.
Rather, it’s been a gradual thing, like
slow-moving buzz that starts tingling the toes and eventually makes its way up the veins to the brain.
But slowly and definitely surely, this beer lover is turning into a wine lover.
The Transformation From Beer To Wine
Had you told me a few years ago that I would be drinking wine instead of beer to watch the sunsets, or sit down and order it for Happy Hour at a bar, I would have looked at you with the kind of puzzlement I usually reserve for when I try to fix something around the house.
Yet it’s true. This beer drinker is now drinking wine, and doing so more often than I do beer.
For this transformation, I put the blame squarely upon the beautiful California coastal towns of Montery and Carmel.
I’ve been going up there a lot lately from PubClub.com’s World Headquarters in Hermosa Beach. The past few years, Monterey County has exploded into a top wine region and it’s gotten to the point I can’t seemingly walk out the door without someone putting a glass of wine in my hand.
When I arrive, my good friend who lives in Salinas lights a fire in his chimenea and starts opening wine bottles as if they are, well, cans of beer.
I then go to visit wineries like Holman Ranch and Twisted Roots, always have wine with dinner, and go on the Carmel Wine Walk which is a the equivalent of a pub crawl for wine lovers in the tasting rooms in Carmel-By-The-Sea.
Heck I’ve even stayed in a hotel, Vendage Inn, that has rooms decorated by local wineries. And “Aunt Carrie” as I call her always puts a bottle of wine in my room when I stay at the family-run Hofsas House in Carmel.
So you see it’s not really my fault; I’m simply the product of my wine environment.
Actually, what I think I’ve come to realize is that there are certain times and places to drink beer and certain times and places to drink wine.
Wine is more for times of reflection, of spending quality moments with quality people, of slowly sipping the pleasures of the life around you as you sip the wine.
You don’t guzzle it like you do when a band is rocking it at bar, at an all-day party event like tailgating at a football game or going to a Jimmy Buffett concert. Those events are for beer! (Well, beer and then margaritas or boat drinks at Bufett, but you get the idea.)
So it’s not like I’ve given up beer (in fact, in kind of an act of defiance to myself, I’m drinking one now as I write this article) but wine is definitely always on my mind.
Oh, and I’ve also adapted a strong taste for mimosas. Especially on sunny weekends for brunch.
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