Steve Pimps Murphys (and wine... with pictures)

Well, first Elijah pimps a box of Ritz crackers. The little guy loves these things. So does our dog when he drops them on the ground or is generous to the dog. I took this picture at lunch time today. It was such an interesting photo with his red shirt and the box. I got some crumbs and the ever popular "plug" pacifier in the shot. Elijah is very content here.


Rare self photo of me. I look happy here with my digital spy camera. Dude, you so gotta get this thing. Huge XD Card!! Background is the inlaws living room bar. I totally need to shave. My new position at work affords me to look like a slob when I am at home doing paper work. Which is great if you don't leave the house. The downside is the mountain of paper work and conference calls. The best part is my Apple Computer on the 2nd desk in my office. The key to running a home office is having two desks. If you are cheap head to IKEA like I did. You get all your media crap on one desk and actually paper work, nice organized files and a printer on the second. I got one of the IKEA drafting desks for my official work. Nice and wide and it lights up. Cool shit and the Apple computer behind me is great. It had 3600 songs set on shuffle when I am in there, along with my Johnny Cash Vinyl albums hung on the walls.

On to the mini wine tour....

Only thing I can say is, mas Torcido por favor. Torcido comes from Twisted Oak Winery in Vallecito, up near Murphys in Calaveras County. Another rare photo of me next to the "Fricken" (cross between the famous Calaveras County Jumping Frog from Mark Twain and a Rubber Chicken, the symbol of Twisted Oak). The only description I have of Torcido is... smmmmmoooooootttttthhhhhhh!!! Shout out to El Jefe.

Good stuff, I had to pick up my club wine which included my bottle of Torcido. I bought a second wine. Photo taken by seeester in law.


Next we went up to Main Street in downtown Murphys. Lots of cool bikes this weekend. This time of year has lots of bikes rumbling around. The 75 degree temperature was perfect for the convertibles as well. I saw this bike and thought of Steve O over at Bring It On for some reason. There is this picture and another. My sister in laws were clothes shopping so I looked at the bikes. Lot's of interesting people this time of your roaming up and down, downtown Murphys. I should have taken more historical pictures of the place since it is such a great historical town. Gold Rush came through here in the mid 1800's.

This is a photo of the famous Murphys Hotel. Cool little steak house inside with some great prime rib. The bar is not too bad with some heavy handed drinks. Always friendly staff. Every time I eat there, there is always some football, basketball or baseball game that I want to know the score of. I frequently run in and out of there to check the scores.

Lots of bikes out there too. Cool stuff.





Back to the wine. Next stop was Zucca Mountain. This is in the buildings to the left, across the street from the hotel above. This tasting room is basically under ground in a cool basement. My 5' 11" head almost nails the ceiling.

The other sister in law who comments once in a while nearly gets in front of the confusing signage. Notice Zucca's sign says go left and go down, or um... go down or go left. Anyway, if you went left you'd be in the Lavender Ridge tasting room. Nice sunny day. Me and the sister in law featured here bought Barberas. They have one of the best Barbera wines on the planet. Nice and smooth with a bit of tannin taste at the end. Nice summer wine for Red. Always a friendly staff and lots of chocolate chips.

California's state flower, the Golden Poppy. Murphys is load with them this time of year. This flower was outside the Hatcher tasting room.

The golden color is amazing and nothing like seeing a field of these things blooming in the mix of yellow and green grass that fills the rolling hills of Calaveras County.

This picture turned out could after the couple tastings we had. Nothing like stumbling around and taking pictures of random stuff.

I bought the Sewell Red Table wine at Hatcher. Nice taste!! I'll store it until Thanksgiving!! I love my old house. It is perfect to store all these wines I buy in a cool dry 65 degrees year round. Redwood houses with basements are cool. One of the wines that I need to come back and buy is their Ice wine. This is a white dessert wine. Tasted like a sweet syrup but man I could knock that back all day long. Fun wine for $35 bucks a bottle.




Next stop was the Pasta Company on Main Street in Murphys. Had to get some Gelato to clean off the palate for some more tasting. I got the mint chip. Some goofy teenagers laughed at me as I ate it. It was all sticky and stringing and it was annoying to watch them giggle. But then again, it sort of makes you smile that some kids were just enjoying themselves people watching outside of a Italian Deli. Seester in Law got the coconut flavor. I hate coconut.

After this we got in the Hummer and drove off to Indian Rock. I wasn't buzzing yet but I was heading there. Good thing Indian Rock is near the in laws home.
Ahhh.... Indian Rock. They make one of the few Pinot Noirs I have ever tasted that is not along the cool coast of California. This one is grown right in the middle of the Sierra Foothills which is a rarity with our hot 100 degree summers in Calaveras County. We tasted the whole list, including the Tawny Port. I was actually fond of their Merlot. Featured to the left is the seester in law knocking back a glass. It took a few photos to get it right but this one looked the best.

The tawny did us in. We headed home and opened a Valley of the Moon Pinot Noir.

Good times.