Weekend Wine-d Down: Carvalho Barrel to Bottle and Clarksburg Wine Co Riesling

Man, I love a good 3 day weekend. My girlfriends Steph, Sammi and I decided to head down to the Old Sugar Mill Winery for some fun this labor day weekend.

On top of some fabulous wine tasting, we were pleasantly surprised to find Carvalho Winery doing their Barrel to Bottle weekend. Basically, for $12.50 a bottle, you get to pick your own mix of 3 types of wines (this weekend, they had Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Syrah) and mix it directly from the barrel and with a tap, pour it into your bottle. First off all, I was amazed that you could just tap a wine barrel like that, what does it take to get one of those for my house?! Also, it means you could make your own individual mix of wine, tailored to your preferences. And they even has a corking mechanism, that allowed us to cork our own bottles using some arm strength! Needless to say, I was JAZZED (evidently due to the ridiculous faces I made for all these photos).

We even labeled and decorated the wine bottles so it felt like a little arts and crafts time too. It was WELL WORTH the experience and my mix is SO tasty (half cab, half petite syrah), I can’t wait to pop it open soon. (Wines directly from the barrel like this have a shelf life of only 6 months… not that that will be a problem for me.) I had a blast at Carvalho and loved spending time with those ladies!

Then Rob and I spent Saturday night doing our live draft for fantasy football. We’ve been playing in my friend Chris’ league for at least 4 years now and it’s definitely one of my favorite parts of football season. As a girl who loves football, I’m always so appreciative Chris invites me into his league as the only female. The draft ended up taking us around 1.5-2 hrs so we went for a late date night afterwards. Andddd I got Ray Rice so I’m happy with that. Can you guess which laptop is mine?

The rest of the weekend consisted of lounging around, watching movies and relaxing. Definitely the most low key weekend we’ve had in a long time and it was lovely.

So at the Old Sugar Mill, the first winery we went to was the Clarksburg Wine Company. One thing I absolutely love about their wines is that all their grapes are locally grown, in the central valley. Although I’m not traditionally a fan of whites, their Riesling appealed to me due to the fruity notes and cold, refreshing taste on a warm summer day. The peach and apple flavors pair wonderfully with the hint of honey. I love the fact this wine isn’t overly dry and leaves your palate feeling refreshed and clean. Definitely a wonderful summer wine, clearly so because I bought a bottle and we drank it on the patio that day!

2011 Riesling Vinedo Sofia – Clarksburg Wine Company
Region: Clarksburg, California
Local price: $16.00
Rating: B

What did you do this weekend? Are you doing any fantasy football leagues?