After spending a wonderful couple of days in Carmel with family, Mom, Dad and I headed to Solvang to spend a couple days there! It was just a couple hours from Carmel to Solvang but I was really bummed there were no Football games being broadcasted on AM radio in California! How was I supposed to get my Sunday Football fix?!
Thankfully, after we arrived in Solvang and checked into The Hadsten House (where Mom and I had stayed this past May) we made our way to Los Olivos to check out a couple wineries before the day was over. We were able to catch the tail end of the Packer Game, and lucky for us, they pulled off a win, after a huge deficit! We really liked the wine at Arthur Earl & Alexander Wayne. They had lots of options to choose from and we were able to tailor it to our taste. We even bought some dips and hot sauce at these tasting rooms!
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| First Wine Tasting in Solvang at Daniel Gehr's! |
We did start our day at Daniel Gehr's since it was where my incredible Port came from! I picked up a bottle of Pinot Gris from there while Mom and Dad decided on a Late-Harvest Sauvignon Blanc from Alexander & Wayne. Thankfully we were sharing tastes at these rooms and that gave us all a chance to taste different wines. As we walked back to the car we saw the Carhartt Winery. What? Could it be a Winery that Dad would actually like and be excited about? The Tasting Room was small with just a couple stools and there was Led Zepplin on the radio...I loved it! Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room for us in there so we went to the back patio where there was plenty of room and beautiful furniture. We ended up moving back into the Tasting Room after some people left because the owner was there and just more friendly than our server was. I ended up getting a Syrah from there and we found out throughout the day Mom actually liked Syrah's & Malbec's. It just had to have certain components that appealed to her taste buds. She likes more earthy reds that have a quick finish while I prefer the more fruity reds and full-bodied whites.
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| Banana's Foster. Amazing. |
That night we went to Dinner at Checco, and the only positive thing I can say about the restaurant was that the Caprese Salad was good. It was really disappointing and the service was some of the worst we'd ever had. Not to dwell on that Mom and I went to grab dessert at Hadsten House and had the best Banana's Foster I've ever had. It's not something I would typically order but the way the Bartender described it, sold us, since we wanted something that would fill us up. This dessert was so perfectly sweet and prepared I can't say enough amazing things about it! Even if you're not a banana person, this dessert was incredible! You just have to try it to see.
The next morning after a nice breakfast at the Hotel we went to Lucas & Lewellen where they have some sweeter white wines and then we checked out Tocatta, their sister Tasting Room. I really liked the wines at Tocatta, and they had a Sweet Red Wine, that we ended up getting two bottles of. One for me and one for Mom & Dad! We walked around Solvang and checked out some of the shops and then went to the Chumash Casino so Mom could gamble for a little bit. I came out $25 ahead so that was good enough for me and Dad and I enjoyed some refreshing cocktails at the bar until Mom was left penniless ;)
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| Dad & I hanging out at the Casino Bar...just waiting for Mom ;) |
We did stop in Santa Barbara to check out a couple of the Tasting Rooms there. We shared these as well, and couldn't even finish them because they were very red-heavy and I think at that point, we were all wined out! We got to LA in the early evening and all ended up crashing early after such a long weekend! More about the last part of our trip in Part 3!
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