32 is Pretty Awesome- Becker Vineyards

Our second stop on the Fredericksburg Wine Road, Ariana's 32 Birthday Extravaganza was at Becker Vineyards.

Justin had gone ahead and booked us two spots on the Library tasting tour which meant we would get to see more than the average tour.  Tours of this nature at Becker are considered at capacity with 20 people on them. The day of our tour they only expected six people, including us.  Something about school getting started. We figured we were pretty lucky.

Well the other four people didn’t show up so Justin and I basically got a private tour with the Becker Vineyards General Manager, Bret Perrenoud. Bret was cool and walked us through the barrel rooms where we got to sample two different Merlots, one aging in stainless and another in oak. Turns out that rather than pick one over the other to sell, when their head winemaker blended the two together and the Beckers and Bret did a blind taste testing, people thought the blend was the strongest because the two were better together than either one alone.

It was pretty cool, because Becker has what are the first Texas coopered wine barrels and like any proud Texan, we had to get our picture taken with them.

Made in Texas!

Then it was on to the Becker Library.  

Here the bottles really did go on and on and on. 

We were fortunate enough to do a library tasting of the single vineyard Canada Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.  This a wine made from grapes grown near Plains, Texas by the Canada family.  The grapes are not from Canada.  They get that question a lot there. We got to taste the years 2008, 2009, and 2010.  I think Justin’s favorite was 2009. You can buy the 2010 on their website, but you can only get the other two when you do the Library tasting!

I couldn’t pick one.  So we got four of each so I can figure out which I like the best. However the production on all of them is limited, so I better just savor every glass I get no matter what. Especially with goodies like what they gave use for the tasting.

We also got to enjoy a little grape stomping before we got to the grape tasting.  

That look of what appears to be pure joy is also of I’m not sure how I feel about this feeling.

Justin also looks like he’s tired of the pictures and we’re only about half way into this trip at this point.

Look at how red those feet are!

I wanted to make shirts with our footprints, but Justin pointed out that was cute when little kids did it, but not so cute when adults did it.  And here it is for all the world to see: Justin’s right. About that.

32 is Pretty Awesome- Grape Creek Winery

For my 32nd birthday my husband and I went to visit Fredericksburg to do a little wine tasting and enjoy the sights of the Texas Hill Country.  

We visited three tasting rooms/wineries, walked the sleepy streets of Fredericksburg (everything but the restaurants close down at 5 or 6 pm), enjoyed an awesome dinner with some yummy game meat and then walked it all off by climbing Enchanted Rock the morning after. 

Since that's a lot for a day and a half, I'm just going to talk about our first wine-tasting stop in this post.

Hamming it up at Grape Creek like we do.

Lucky number one was Grape Creek Winery - their winemaker is a gentleman named Jason (we didn't get to meet him), our tour guide was Maureen. 

Some tools of the trade:

The containers in which they receive their grapes

The mashers

Shiny gadgets

Stainless Steel Fermentation Tanks

Some fun facts about Grape Creek:

• All their whites are aged in stainless steel
• All their reds are aged in French or American oak barrels
• At Grape Creek they have happy cows. They feed the cows on their property with the fermented skins from the red wine (the skins stay in with the reds during crushing and early in fermentation to give them the color).

Happy cows

Fun facts about all wines we learned at Grape Creek:

• Barrels are typically only used twice- they char the inside for flavor and the flavor is typically gone after the second aging
• When a wine is dry that means it has little to no sugar
• The date on the bottle is the vintage date- that's the date the grapes were picked

We learned these fun facts because we did the tour and tasting and it was totally worth the $32 per person.

We got to do a barrel tasting of a 2013 Sangiovese- from the following barrels:

• First-time use American oak
• Second-time use American oak
• First-time use French oak

This Sangiovese was a nice, easy-to-drink table red from all of the barrels. Justin said he preferred the French oak.  I’m thinking I did too, but the tasting pours were generous and at this point in time we were only fortified with a Whataburger taquito breakfast.

The winner!

**Disclaimer I don't know that much about wine but I am learning and this was an awesome learning experience. I started drinking wine with sweet Rieslings.  Justin naturally tended to favor the big bold Cabernet Sauvignons and over time I've dried out my palate and now tend to prefer these dry, bold flavors as well.** 

The tasting room for those on the tour was in the Barrel Room with all of the barrels aging.

View from the inside!

They had orange and blue pens for taking notes on which wines you liked best.  In my head that means they cheer for the Gators, but that's only cause Orange and Blue makes me swoon (proof positive is my Pinterest board).

Naturally, there were lots of barrels aging and they have them labeled with their own secret codes.  We tried to guess what barrels had what grapes, but apparently some of the coding also indicated what vineyard the grapes are from.

Shh, the code is a secret

Leading into the barrel room was the owner's wine library- impressive collection of his vineyard's wines.  

Homer Simpson would say "Donuts." We say "Wine."

Of course the door was locked. So all we could do was point.

While this area may not yet be seen as being on par with Napa/Sonoma and Paso Robles, it is coming into its own and it's only 45 minutes from our house versus a half day of air travel.  

Our glasses are empty.  More wine!

During our tasting we only had the reds.  And while we enjoyed tasting the reds - and I know what I said about our preferences - we both really enjoy their Cuvée Blanc. This wasn’t our first Grape Creek rodeo.   The Cuvée Blanc is a light, dry, white wine that can go with anything or nothing at all.  It is a go-to bottle for us that we can comfortably serve to anyone who comes to our house and feel confident that they will enjoy it.  It might not blow someone away, but it's also not going to make them grimace and ask for a chaser.

The timing of the trip was perfect because we'd almost gone through the case I bought in 2012 when I went for a bachelorette party.  When you buy the case it comes out to about $14.50 a bottle.  To us that's not an awful value for something you can serve anytime.

To learn more about the history of Grape Creek visit their website.

Where the Grape Creek wine magic happens.

Next time I’ll talk about our fun private tour at Becker Vineyards.

Whooah, we're half way there...

Livin' on a prayer...

At least I am.  I'm not livin' on a prayer- no, no- but I am half way there in my quest to complete 60 miles in the month of August (on Instagram and Twitter #60AugustMiles). Actually I am about 68.73% of the way there, having logged 41.24 miles as of yesterday.  I'm counting some leisurely dog walks (in purple), but I'd say that is still pretty darn impressive. This crazy idea is courtesy of Elizabeth (she's also more than 1/2 way there) and Erica (she did #100JulyMiles).

I use MapMyRun

Also, my shoes. My shoes! Here's a shot of what my "new" shoes looked like in comparison to my old shoes about 26 weeks ago.  

Here's a shot of the "new" shoes in comparison to the old shoes now.

It might be time for my some newer "new" shoes. Maybe I'll give that to myself for my 32nd birthday, which is this week. Not a bad way to ring in a new year. 

Only thirteen days left- counting today.  That means not even 1.5 miles per day and I'll be there.  Then I'll find a new tune to share.

In the meantime enjoy:

The big 3-0!

I started this blog a year ago tomorrow.  It was the day after my 29th birthday and I was having that last year of my twenties anxiety that seems to float around. Well, the year was amazing and this weekend we celebrated with a trip to South Padre Island. (Thanks to my free birthday day off from work!!)

The beach was awesome. The weather was gorgeous and the sun beat us into the cool ocean with its unbelievable heat.

Naturally, we had mimosas! We keep things classy with the strawberry garnish!

But we know how to have fun while on vacation too!

The amazing view from our amazing condo!

Justin's big beer and my sampler beer at Padre Island Brewing Company.

Birthday Bar-B-Q lunch at Van's on the way back from SPI.

I think the best Bar-BQ joint sausage I've ever had.

Homemade Chocolate Pecan Pie from my awesome friend and neighbor.

Other highlights:

• Tossing the Frisbee on the beach.
• Seeing what we thought were baby sharks in the water. (Highlight cause I'll never forget it.)
• Awesome Friday night Fajitas.
• A beautiful homemade birthday dinner by Justin: Wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon crumbles, Filet Mignon and shrimp with a Gorgonzola cream sauce, roasted asparagus and broccoli, oven baked macaroni and cheese, and an awesome chocolate cake with a fun frosting I picked out.  I was too busy eating to take pics of all of this awesomeness. 
• Fun with Friends.

  It was a super fun weekend! I'm definitely stoked for the all the fun to come in the next year. 

My 30th Birthday Week!

The week leading up to my birthday suddenly got a whole light brighter when I found the following on my desk at work upon my return from lunch:

Pretty birthday flowers!

A balloon to go with them!

Everyone at work was confused and suddenly thought my birthday was today. But nooooo, my dear friend Amy (with an assist from my husband) sent them to me to start the week off the right way.

A bonus with these flower- they want you to reuse the vase so if you bring the vase and a coupon that came with them to a 1800flowers location they will fill the vase with $10 worth of flowers!  So it's like two gifts in one! And the closest location is only 5 minutes from my office. Winning!