BuBuRoe and Fall Releases

happy hour in our back yard on Yellow hawk Creek

The weekend we went to the hot air balloon launch at 6:30 am and then went hiking, I wore my LuLuRoe tights under my jeans all day. They're softer than long underwear and just as warm. When Judd said he was chilly, I said I would get him some. He said the problem with tights for men is, like a cheap hotel, there's no ball room. (old bad joke) So I said, perhaps I could get him some and cut out a crotch hole, use my Serger to finish the edges and market them. We will name them BuBuRoe (if we don't get sued.)

This weekend many vineyards had their Fall release (ie. the first pouring of their new wines.) We belong to the wine club at the Community College where students follow the viticulture track (growing the grapes) or the enology track (making the wine.) Their culinary school was putting on a luncheon for their Fall release day so we attended. We dined on four different soups, bread and cheese students explaining the ingredients in their mulligatawny or French Onion soup. The carrot-coconut-ginger was a big hit. The young chef plating the French Onion had a handy blow-torch with which to slightly melt the cheese on the top of the dish. We asked him what kind of cheese it was and he seemed embarrassed not to know. Then we were embarrassed we'd stumped the stars. As members, our wine tasting was free and we tried 7 of the 9 new wines. After such a feast, we decided whether to go home and finish our homework, or just to keep driving on a beautiful Fall Saturday afternoon. We decided to drive.

We headed east toward Idaho on a road we'd not explored before. Not one mile away, we encounter a vineyard with a big barrel outside stating "OPEN." The tasting room is called: K. When we asked why the K, they explained the wine maker liked to say Que Sera! (although apparently he doesn't spell in French very well.) We recognized several of the wine labels from our wine club we joined downtown and it turns out, it's the same winemaker: Charles Smith. We were surprised to find, as members of Charles Smith, we're also members of K so, again, our tasting was free. We tasted 9 wines including a $100 bottle of $140 bottle. Our cockles were so warmed, we decided not to do homework until Sunday.

After a 5 minute drive home, we decided a walk was in order. We walked the 20 minutes to Tranche, our closest vineyard. Tranche is a French word which means slice (i.e. as in a slice of life.) Because of the Fall releases all over town, MANY out-of-towners were visiting: car licenses from Idaho, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, and many wine limo's or van's with designated tours. People are actually surprised when we say we live here and we're walking home. For the special occasion, there were little bags of savory cheese crackers to nibble between tastes. We've been here about 3 times but always forget how expensive their tastings are and how pretentious their wine write ups are, and I quote:

"2015 Syrah Estate - A strikingly intense nose offers aromas of cured meats, purple flowers, eucalyptus and clove around a tarry, purple and black fruit core. The wine is viscous and supple in texture with rich flavors of blackberry reduction, bacon fat, French toast and licorice that saturate the palate........." blah blah blah...... It makes Judd and I want to write our own, like Elaine on Seinfeld writing for Peterman catalog...

"Palate-tickling and vainglorious with an aroma of oily fish skin that sticks to the grill..."
or
"Flaunting notes of fruit flies with a hint of that earthly soil smell you get after burying a dead hamster."