For the long Labor Day Weekend, the winos decided that packing a picnic and tasting wine was the right amount of laboring. After much discussion Picchetti Winery was the destination that everyone agreed on – they had a live band.

We first drove all the way up Monte Bello Road to Ridge Vineyards – just for fun!  An infinite amount of turns, with many weekend bicyclists to watch out for, but the perfect ride for a convertible with the top down.  (Note to self – buy convertible soon).  But I digress,  the group agreed that Ridge was a place to keep in mind for a future adventure and we moved on.

Driving down the road, we wondered if our trek up the hill to Ridge would make it too late to find a comfortable spot to picnic,  but decided not to worry that we would make the best of it.

And we did,  we claimed our spot and proceeded to the tasting room.   There were a few club members in the group so tastings were free and the discount was put to good use as we all bought bottles to drink with our picnic.  Let the tasting begin, which 5 would the group gravitate towards?  What a nice surprise to see that we had 14 to choose from, the port was sold out.

My memory of Picchetti was mostly of red wines and of course Angelica.  Not today:

• Brut Rose sparkling wine from the Santa Cruz Mountains that they hand crafted using the traditional Champenoise methods (yes really!)
• 4 whites
• 8 reds
• Port and Mission Angelica

It was a hot day so we all started the tasting with the Sparkling Wine (we were told they would be releasing more in the future) smooth and refreshing with slight strawberry aromas.  From there to the Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Rose to finish with the Mission Angelia.

Yes, everyone LOVED the Mission Angelica, Blunden Vineyard 2012 Vintage! Picchetti describe it as:  A recognized “heritage crop”, the Mission grape was first introduced to California by the Franciscan padres in the eighteenth century, and recent DNA analysis has linked it to the very rare Spanish varietal, Listan Prieto.  The fortification (addition of brandy) process traditionally served as a preservative in the production of sacramental wines, creates a wine high in residual sugar as well as alcohol.  They poured it as an aperitif, served chilled over ice with a twist of lemon.  Why is the bottle so small (375ml)?

Once reacquainted with what Picchetti had to offer we bought 6 bottles to start, 4 white and 2 red and went back for 2 more.  Before we knew it, it was time to go with a big thank you to all the very nice folks at Picchetti who worked on their Labor Day Holiday to entertain us.

Let’s see what next weekend brings.