Background
This is one of those things that just sorta happened.
Since our daughter Kristyn and son-in-law Matt moved to the Sonoma County CA wine country in 2000, our awareness, interest in (and subsequent love of) wine expanded exponentially. Before their move we'd have an occasional glass of white wine when appropriate, but weren't really fans.
As we visited with Matt and Kristyn in the wine country, we soon became red wine aficionados. I think our exposure to red wine was limited before this because, since cabernet sauvignon was (and is) the most popular varietal, it was the red wine we most often tasted -- and both Gael and I were put off by the amount of tannins in the cabs that we tasted. Charge it off to uneducated palates, but we're still not big fans of cabernet sauvignon.
And then -- we discovered Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Merlot (the movie "Sideways" notwithstanding) and Syrah/Shiraz. And, we learned that cuvee (blended wines) were often favored IF we happened to like the same flavors the winemaker liked. We learned that our greatest pleasure was in wines with big fruit flavors.
At any rate, we went from occasional polite white wine drinkers to lovers of reds. Our wine celler now contains more than 500 bottles of non-investment quality wine and we enjoy wine often. Quite often. Very often.
Gael is a wonderful cook; don't just take it from me, ask anyone. We entertain often and wine has become a key element of those meals. Turns out, we have a lot of friends who enjoy wine as much as we do.
At one of those dinners with friends we served a new favorite wine, "The Prisoner" from Orin Swift Cellars and it was a big hit. One of our "wino" friends (OK, you might say "oenophile" but I call things as I see 'em) described the wine's bouquet lavishly (that story is HERE); this event will become important soon; read on!
Many of our friends are orthodontists. This comes from a long association from when I was in the orthodontic software business.
Each spring, the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) has an annual meeting. In 2005, that meeting was to be held in San Francisco.
In talking about San Francisco, the Sonoma/Napa wine country and the AAO meeting over dinner (and wine) one night, we decided it would be fun to tack a wine-tasting tour onto the back of the AAO meeting. Our orthodontist friends would be in San Francisco anyway and, since we will visit Matt, Kristyn and our grandsons at the drop of a hat, it was decided and the HOB Wine Tour was born. We contacted Kristyn and asked her to set up a three-day experience with food and wine. She went to work.
What does "HOB" signify? Click HERE for that story.
As you may know from the Esmeralda Rally and other ventures, we like to add flair to our events. Each HOB participant wears a badge -- that's mostly so we don't forget our own name as the wine flows -- and all the ladies wear tiaras.
We like to make a statement. Once we visit a winery or vineyard, they rarely forget that we were there.
Oh, and, as I said, the ladies wear tiaras...
There are, of course, photos and stories documenting these adventures; the links below tell the stories:
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