Vineyards in the Snow

We started out on our wine tour at a place that's far removed from the rest of the wineries: Renner Winery. Renner is in the failing Copperopolis. You've probably heard the ads for them. Spacious homes on a golf course, yada yada yada. Well, it's a ghost town now. 8 shops have opened on the square, including the winery outlet. They grow their own grapes and olives, and just began selling last Halloween. They seemed happy to see us.

We did buy some wine at Renner, plus some futures which we'll have to come back to pick up. The futures were a red, while the two bottles of wine we purchased were whites. And it kind of seems that that was the way it was going to go all day: the reds didn't seem stellar, while the whites were quite different and appealing.

We then drove east on 4 into Murphys, and stopped at some of the wineries the Renner people had suggested. Most of them were on the Associate Member route, part of the Valentine's Day Weekend wine festival, and offered food along the way. The wineries we visited included:

Chatom(Both photos are from Chatom winery.)
Twisted Oak - which featured really funny signs along the mile path it took to get there
Indian Rock vineyards - which had a wonderful BBQ'd beef for us
Irish - not on the route, but we liked the wine there more than most of the others


It was a tiring afternoon.

We rested during the rest of the afternoon, and around 7, we drove back into Murphys, looking for the Murphys Hotel. Our reservations were for 8, we showed up at 7:30, and they pretty much laughed at us, on Valentine's Day night, when we presented ourselves. So we schlepped into the bar only to find it full of mostly young people out on a Saturday night. But eventually a table freed itself, and we had cocktails. My margarita was mostly out of a jar, and was more akin to dishwater than any wonderful libation. But eventually, about an hour later, our table freed up.

So we had a wonderful, languorous meal, sharing a little of our entrees along the way. I had the fried chicken -- the yelpers had recommended it -- while others had venison, mushrooms, lumpia, lamb, etc. And we had another bottle of local wine. While Maryann didn't care for it, I thought that it grew on you. I still didn't have more than a glass. I was saving room for the bread pudding with whiskey sauce. It was worth it.

This morning is a lounge-around morning. It looks cold and windy outside. I think I'll stay in.