It’s also worth mentioning: they really upped the stakes when they showed us the winning contestant’s house. Sure, it’s a lovely 2 BR in Healdsburg, but the kicker was the amazing fruit trees in the back yard: Lemons, Limes, Oranges, Apples and Peaches! They should be ripe just about August 15th.
Everything is some sort of competition here.
And I should have expected that. Straight from the tasting notes, “Here at Murphy-Goode, we love making wine. Flat-out love it. We’ve won plenty of awards and plan to win a whole lot more. That said, we also love football.”
Football? Really? It might seem a little out of left field, but after a few days with the M-G crew, it makes perfect sense.
Not only do they love football, but they all love Bocce ball, and Liar’s dice, and cooking competitions and wine blending competitions, and the list goes on.
The first night when we arrived, it would be to simple to just stand up and introduce ourselves. Instead, we said our bit and then everyone had to vote on the best intro. Rachel, the resident stand-up comedienne won with a 5 minute saga on the airport security pulling 25 bottles of personal lubricant out of her bag. (I’ll leave it at that, but tweet @rachelreenstra if you’re interested in where that came from.)
I shined with the goat cheese stuffed burgers and grilled veggies in the cooking competition (Dave had TWO—all that grilling in McCarren park has paid off!), and even came in second in wine blending. However, I didn’t fare so well in Lair’s Dice. I was out of dice about 3 minutes into the game.
The stakes are high (spa treatment certificates are being handed out left and right—still have yet to get one), but it’s all in good fun.
Here is the rundown of competitions so far.
DAY 1
Introduction. Winner: Rachel
Bocce. Winner: Rocky
Wine Blending. Winner: Hardy
Tasting Room Promotion: Winner: Rocky
Cooking: Winner: TBD, but I’m sure it will be my team.
Liar’s Dice. Winner: Dave, the winemaker (of course), but Adam came in a not so close second.
Heading to Terra A Lago vineyard, where some of Murphy-Goode’s cab comes from.
Getting up to wine country.
Very large fields with very precisely organized rows of grapes.
Would have to have major OCD to do the planting.
Not nearly enough reading material for the 6 hr flight. Luckly I had all the M-G tasting note PDFs on my laptop.
Is it too early to want a glass of wine? I’ll be drinking as if I were still on NYC time. That means cocktail hour at 2pm Pacific!
This aisle seat leaves fewer opportunities for ariel shots of New York and San Fran, but much easier access to the bathroom.
Where I most likely Won’t be eating when I am in Healdsburg.
