Day 2 Afternoon - WOPN at the Bacara Resort

Friday. February 28, 2014

Seminars were over about 12;:30. Glad to be inside. The wind and rains pounded the building. Trees were bent over, almost prone. Quiet a sight through the windows. Now to make the trek to the Miro Restaurant for lunch. This entails leaving one building and walking a short distance to the restaurant building. At least the rain subsided for a few minutes. So a line of large white umbrellas marched down the pathway.

Open seating so we picked a table next to the large windows. The waves were big and did it look cold and nasty out.

Seated at the table was a couple from San Diego that took the train up. The wife turned out to be the San Diego distributor for McKeon-Phillips wines when Ardison was alive. Another couple that owned RN Winery in Paso Robles and the media lady that we shared a table with last night.

This lunch was included in the ticket price. Wine was poured generously. Some left from the seminars and more wine than was contributed by winemakers in attendance. Unfortunately it was  a mish mash of wines and the pairing with the lunch was hit and miss. But there was a lot of wine being poured. So cannot complain too much. But a high end resort should be able to crank out better food than they did. But on the other hand the service was impeccable.

We started out with a salad of butter lettuce, whole leaf with a non-discript dressing which some people had more drizzled on than others. Mine was dry. A couple of pieces of red grapefruit segments and avocado were on the side.

Main course was beef cheeks on a bed of pureed potatoes. Small baby vegetables also were on the plate. Beef was good, potatoes were good, vegetables were "al dente" - which meant close to raw. Could not get a fork into them .

Dessert was a cheese plate with honey and dried fruit. Best part of the meal beside the rolls they offered, They had a olive roll that was outstanding. I requested that at every meal afterwards.

After lunch we headed to the ballroom where the Grand Tasting was being held. Fortunately no rain for our walk. Entered the ballroom and there were 90 wineries set up and ready to pour for us. Stations of appetizers were set up. Many people coming to the tasting bought tickets for that particular event only The appetizers were good. I could have skipped lunch and had better food.

After about two hours of tasting I hit my brick wall. I have been tasting wine since 9 o'clock this morning - practically non stop. And there is the  "high end" Seamoke dinner tonight at 7 PM.

Time to head to the villa and rest a bit, clean up and  head out for some more food and wine.