The Foothill approach is a little different - a little more casual - whether we're in our tasting rooms or pouring at events throughout the state. Tasters often have a hard time understanding. A couple of examples:
- At the Grape Escape recently in Sacramento, Heather from Twisted Oak (one of our Murphys neighbors) needed to take a brief r&r break from the Twisted table. I filled in for her for about 15 minutes, but visitors remembering me from the Solomon Wine table were confused:
- "Didn't I just taste your wines at the Solomon table?" "Yes."
- "And now your pouring for Twisted Oak?" "Yes."
- "Can you tell me about their wines?" "Yes."
- ...and so on
- On the weekend of June 20, at the Calaveras Passport Picnic in the Park, I was pouring Solomon's Tempranillo next to our good friends at Frog's Tooth Vineyards, who were also pouring their Tempranillo. Using this as an educational experience for picnickers, Gary from Frog's Tooth and I were (sometimes) pouring each other's Tempranillo and inviting tasters to notice the differences between Calaveras County Tempranillo (Solomon) and El Dorado Tempranillo (Frog's Tooth). What both Gary and I found over the weekend was a constant stream of passport holders coming into both tasting rooms requesting new tastes of "both of your Tempranillos." Again, visitors were intrigued that they were, in fact, two Tempranillos from two different wineries.
The point is this: in the Calaveras region there is a close relationship among the region's wineries. We promote each other collectively; we know each other's wines. That makes tasting in Calaveras more fun and more productive, as most wineries can recommend other wines to taste based on wines enjoyed in any tasting room.
A quieter, friendlier time; a quieter, friendlier place.