It's about that time of year again! Time to think about that most delicious of all, that dark beauty... Petite Sirah!

P.S. I Love You will be hosting their 5th annual Dark & Delicious event at the Rock Wall Wine Company in Alameda, CA. Friday, Feb 18, 6-9PM. Registration is OPEN.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
FRIDAY FEB 18
5th Annual Dark & Delicious
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Rock Wall Wine Company
2301 Monarch Street, Suite 300, Alameda, CA
Tickets: Details Here

D&D After Party
9:30pm - 1:00am
Holiday Inn - Oakland Airport
77 Hegenberger Road, Oakland, CA

- cheron98
- Loweeel
- Loweeel +1
- MarkDaSpark
- klezman
- klezman +1
- tenuki
- rfrusso
- rfrusso +1
- sukeiasa
- sukeiasa's dad
- HAK
- sanity
- mr. sanity

SATURDAY FEB 19
Napa/Sonoma Wine Romp
Wineries TBD

- Loweeel
- Loweeel +1
- Sparky
- tenuki

Twisted Oak Twisted Presidents Dinner
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Twisted Presidents Dinner
Library and Barrel selection wines will be featured along with a 5 course dinner at the winery.
Twisted Oak Winery, Vallecito, CA
$69

I will be heading there straight from Oakland and will then join up with everyone again Sunday morning. Whoever wants to come, please let me know. Further details on the dinner are forthcoming.

Lodging:
Murphys Suites
A block of 5 rooms has been reserved based on double occupancy (2 beds per room) - $110/room

Twisted Tour at 3pm

- cheron98
- HAK (pd)
- sanity (pd)
- mr. sanity (pd)

Interested:
- merbill (+1)
- klezman (+1)
- moondragon (+?)

Other wineries to visit:
Albeno Munari Vineyard & Winery (Tour at 1pm)

SUNDAY FEB 20
Wine.Woot Party
11:00am - ?

ScottHarveyWines wrote:We'll be having an all day event on Feb. 20th at our home in St. Helena. The day after Dark and Delicious and the Napa Valley Barrel Auction. There will be a number of things to do and enjoy, one of them taking the same wine tasting test I had to take 30 years ago to become a commercial wine judge. Of the people that try their wine judging skills and pass the test, one will be drawn out of the hat to participate with me as a sit in judge on one of my commercial wine judging panels. The cost to attend the event is $20. But, throughout the wine sold today, there are 30 golden tickets, (numbered, signed golden grape leaves), that will be put into the shipments. If you receive one of the golden grape leaves, you come for free.

Ticket price: $20

Golden Tickets:
1. Loweeel
2. HAK
8. turndon
11. boatman72
15. rainydz
19. octane
20. timmyjwoot
21. hookajoe
23. Sparky
25. richardhod
26. sanity
28. redwinefan (can't attend)
??. losthighwayz

- Loweeel +1
- timmyjwoot +1
- hookajoe +1
- cheron98
- tenuki

MONDAY FEB 21
Loweeel's VIP Concannon Tour
Loweeel is setting up a VIP Concannon Tour for those PSychos that wish to join him.
Details forthcoming.

- Loweeel
- Loweeel +1
- Sparky
- cheron98
- HAK


(I got tired of having to fix the ampersand in the title every time I edited this. It became "and". Deal.)

cheron98 wrote:It's about that time of year again! Time to think about that most delicious of all, that dark beauty... Petite Sirah!

P.S. I Love You will be hosting their 5th annual Dark & Delicious event at the Rock Wall Wine Company in Alameda, CA. Friday, Feb 18, 6-9PM. Registration is open for the wineries now, but not for participants (will let you know when that's available).

The Plan is to stay at the Oakland Holiday Inn on Hegenberger Rd on Friday night, as usual, as it has served us well in the past. Then Saturday and Sunday will be romping around wine country.

I'm planning on staying at the Holiday Inn Express in American Canyon. Feel free to stay there as well, or find your own accommodations. I'm staying til Tuesday, and have hopes of being able to make the trip out to Twisted Oak on Monday, despite it being a 2-3 hour drive away.

So who's coming?

I'll probably be doing Livermore on Monday -- Concannon VIP tour of awesomeness, Twisted Vine, a few others.

That is a time period that I should hopefully be able to make work for me. I have another free flight already available to me from Southwest, so hopefully if I can lock down whatever dates I want this is enough planning ahead to have enough flight options available to me.
Funds will be my biggest issue as my bank account right now is draining EXTREMELELY fast. If I do this trip, that basically eliminates most others that would involve big travel (such Vegas bottling, though possibly can squeeze that one in still). So I just gotta make a decision soon on if I'll make this my main trip of next year or if there are others that I'd want to do instead.
I'll keep ya's updated.

cheron98 wrote:It's about that time of year again! Time to think about that most delicious of all, that dark beauty... Petite Sirah!

P.S. I Love You will be hosting their 5th annual Dark & Delicious event at the Rock Wall Wine Company in Alameda, CA. Friday, Feb 18, 6-9PM. Registration is open for the wineries now, but not for participants (will let you know when that's available).

The Plan is to stay at the Oakland Holiday Inn on Hegenberger Rd on Friday night, as usual, as it has served us well in the past. Then Saturday and Sunday will be romping around wine country.

I'm planning on staying at the Holiday Inn Express in American Canyon. Feel free to stay there as well, or find your own accommodations. I'm staying til Tuesday, and have hopes of being able to make the trip out to Twisted Oak on Monday, despite it being a 2-3 hour drive away.

So who's coming?

Sounds good.

I had mentioned to Jo about having the PS BBQ that weekend instead of during the Summer.



Edit: And did you give any thought to flying out of Sacramento? That is, spending Monday night close to Twisted Oak somewhere, instead of driving back to HIE?

Although if the PSith Master can get us into his VIP tours ......

PetiteSirah wrote:I'll probably be doing Livermore on Monday -- Concannon VIP tour of awesomeness, Twisted Vine, a few others.

Just you or can you squeeze some more PSith PSadawans in??

MarkDaSpark wrote:Just you or can you squeeze some more PSith PSadawans in??

I can almost certainly get an bloody tour of Concannon for anybody who wants to come.

cheron98 wrote:It's about that time of year again! Time to think about that most delicious of all, that dark beauty... Petite Sirah!

P.S. I Love You will be hosting their 5th annual Dark & Delicious event at the Rock Wall Wine Company in Alameda, CA. Friday, Feb 18, 6-9PM. Registration is open for the wineries now, but not for participants (will let you know when that's available).

The Plan is to stay at the Oakland Holiday Inn on Hegenberger Rd on Friday night, as usual, as it has served us well in the past. Then Saturday and Sunday will be romping around wine country.

I'm planning on staying at the Holiday Inn Express in American Canyon. Feel free to stay there as well, or find your own accommodations. I'm staying til Tuesday, and have hopes of being able to make the trip out to Twisted Oak on Monday, despite it being a 2-3 hour drive away.

So who's coming?

Oh, for crying out loud! I'll won't be back from Quebec until Sunday night the 20th until around 8 PM! So, I'd miss the actual event. To make matters worse, that's the beginning of our February break!

Since I don't have a dissertation to distract me, I plan on making it this year, at least to D&D. Hopefully also some pre/post wine tasting. I'll know closer what the work situation is like. D&D is on the calendar though.

Unfortunately, Arroyo's barrel sample weekend is 2/26.

I'm emailing with Adrian at the winery to see if we can set something up anyway -- just normal PSycho treatment would be better than the "standard winery" treatment that we got from that jerk there last year.

MarkDaSpark wrote:Sounds good.

I had mentioned to Jo about having the PS BBQ that weekend instead of during the Summer.



Edit: And did you give any thought to flying out of Sacramento? That is, spending Monday night close to Twisted Oak somewhere, instead of driving back to HIE?

Although if the PSith Master can get us into his VIP tours ......

that's totally the plan. i have't booked monday night yet cuz i'm not sure where to be. but yeah, figuring on smf for the return.

*slap* I'll be in Portland that weekend.

Looks like I'll definitely need to make a decision on dates (and if I go) really fast. Just out of curiosity I checked what dates/times are available for using my flight award, and flying in on Feb 18th isn't even an option. I'd have to come in on Thursday night, and then fly back at 7am on Tuesday. This if I use the OAK airport.

HitAnyKey42 wrote:Looks like I'll definitely need to make a decision on dates (and if I go) really fast. Just out of curiosity I checked what dates/times are available for using my flight award, and flying in on Feb 18th isn't even an option. I'd have to come in on Thursday night, and then fly back at 7am on Tuesday. This if I use the OAK airport.

I think that SW is paying attention to the February break that most of the schools now have in NYS. We could get a free flight out to Vegas that Mon or Tues but coming home on Sat is a no go. Something like $400 per person! That SO won't be happening! Plus, I'll need a day or two to recoup from 4 days freezing my buns off with the kids in outdoor activities in Quebec City!

HitAnyKey42 wrote:Looks like I'll definitely need to make a decision on dates (and if I go) really fast. Just out of curiosity I checked what dates/times are available for using my flight award, and flying in on Feb 18th isn't even an option. I'd have to come in on Thursday night, and then fly back at 7am on Tuesday. This if I use the OAK airport.

So do it.

HitAnyKey42 wrote:Looks like I'll definitely need to make a decision on dates (and if I go) really fast. Just out of curiosity I checked what dates/times are available for using my flight award, and flying in on Feb 18th isn't even an option. I'd have to come in on Thursday night, and then fly back at 7am on Tuesday. This if I use the OAK airport.

On our way home this summer we stayed overnight at a BW in Oakland. It was something like $50--not your luxury accomodations, but clean. We were only 5 - 10 min from the airport. Let me know if you want the info later. Did you sign up for the BW rewards program this summer? We managed to get a free room out of it because of our stay pre-tour, during tour and maybe something else.

bahwm wrote:On our way home this summer we stayed overnight at a BW in Oakland. It was something like $50--not your luxury accomodations, but clean. We were only 5 - 10 min from the airport. Let me know if you want the info later. Did you sign up for the BW rewards program this summer? We managed to get a free room out of it because of our stay pre-tour, during tour and maybe something else.

If you book now, the Holiday Inn is like $84. Free airport shuttle.

First post updated with schedule of events. Because I'm a FREAK.

cheron98 wrote:If you book now, the Holiday Inn is like $84. Free airport shuttle.

First post updated with schedule of events. Because I'm a FREAK.

Change it to 2010 (this year) for the Suite as well. Good times.

Although over 8 - 10 people it gets crowded.

wow... this looks fun

MarkDaSpark wrote:Change it to 2010 (this year) for the Suite as well. Good times.

Although over 8 - 10 people it gets crowded.

COZY, not crowded If it looks like we're going to have a good sized crowd, I'll look into getting one of the meeting rooms for us instead.

cheron98 wrote:COZY, not crowded If it looks like we're going to have a good sized crowd, I'll look into getting one of the meeting rooms for us instead.

Although if someone could bring in card table chairs, then we wouldn't need to use the big bulky chairs. Not sure if the HI staff would protest.


And the suite from this year seemed bigger, so 10 was fine, and we still had room for 2 more.

MarkDaSpark wrote:Although if someone could bring in card table chairs, then we wouldn't need to use the big bulky chairs. Not sure if the HI staff would protest.


And the suite from this year seemed bigger, so 10 was fine, and we still had room for 2 more.

We can probably arrange to have chairs brought up. It looks like I'll probably be flying into Oakland, so I'll catch the shuttle to the hotel and get the chair request in.

Well Huh. Twisted Oak's Twisted Presidents Dinner is Feb 19 from 7-10pm. Given tasting room closing times of approx. 5pm, I *could* go. But I don't think I want to drive the 2 hours back afterwards... HMMMmmmmm ...

All library wines... 5 course dinner...

Screw it. I'll get my own car, go with y'all to VA and a couple others, then abandon you and head to Vallecito. Gosh darn it. And STILL go back on Monday for a day in the life of Twisted.

No, no, no, I'll get a car or something and just do the Twisted excursion on Saturday, do the dinner, stay overnight down there-ish, then head back up to where you all are on Sunday to meet you up probably in St Helena for the potential Fulton Lane thing (or other arrangements with Scott who totally wants us all to invade even if the Fulton Lane thing ends up not being that weekend) and then I could go to Concannon on Monday with y'all!

...scary hotels in Murphys!...

I should be around for the weekend, try to drag the usual suspects.

I'm in. Possibly +1

el jefe is making it very hard for me to say no to going to Twisted Oak on Saturday.

I might pass on Saturday and meet up with you all on Sunday, then go to Concannon with you on Monday. I'm really leaning towards that. Strongly.

cheron98 wrote:el jefe is making it very hard for me to say no to going to Twisted Oak on Saturday.

I might pass on Saturday and meet up with you all on Sunday, then go to Concannon with you on Monday. I'm really leaning towards that. Strongly.

If el jefe would take more stragglers, we could make Saturday a Sierra Foothills tasting day. Maybe get to Noceto and such also?

klezman wrote:If el jefe would take more stragglers, we could make Saturday a Sierra Foothills tasting day. Maybe get to Noceto and such also?

Too much already on deck for Saturday -- Arroyo, Kent, etc. And noceto's not a bad idea, but it's a PS-centric weekend, so the whole plan is really to only go to wineries that offer PS.

The problem is that sundays are slow, and especially hard to get special treatment when a lot of wineries are closed that only one day (people need a day off!) or have limited hours.

Just getting out to the town Murphys in sierra foothills (twisted oak not being smack dab in the middle of town), is a hell of a lot of driving -- over 2.5 hours from downtown napa (so closer to 3 and change from St. Helena), and about 2.5 hours from Oakland without traffic, getting lost, stopping for gas, etc. So going from the hotel post-D&D and then catching up is 5 hours in the car after a long night of D&D and then the after party (without counting additional travel time to hit up multiple wineries out there), and second leaves us very little time to do napa/sonoma (just a sunday with limited hours), maybe 1 stop monday morning.

Having looked into it in years past, it doesn't really make sense logistically for a 3-day weekend. That being said, feel free to go out there if you'd like, but I'm going to be making PS-centric arrangements in and around Napa and Sonoma, with Livermore on Monday. Suisun, anyone?

PetiteSirah wrote:Too much already on deck for Saturday -- Arroyo, Kent, etc. And noceto's not a bad idea, but it's a PS-centric weekend, so the whole plan is really to only go to wineries that offer PS.

The problem is that sundays are slow, and especially hard to get special treatment when a lot of wineries are closed that only one day (people need a day off!) or have limited hours.

Just getting out to the town Murphys in sierra foothills (twisted oak not being smack dab in the middle of town), is a hell of a lot of driving -- over 2.5 hours from downtown napa (so closer to 3 and change from St. Helena), and about 2.5 hours from Oakland without traffic, getting lost, stopping for gas, etc. So going from the hotel post-D&D and then catching up is 5 hours in the car after a long night of D&D and then the after party (without counting additional travel time to hit up multiple wineries out there), and second leaves us very little time to do napa/sonoma (just a sunday with limited hours), maybe 1 stop monday morning.

Having looked into it in years past, it doesn't really make sense logistically for a 3-day weekend. That being said, feel free to go out there if you'd like, but I'm going to be making PS-centric arrangements in and around Napa and Sonoma, with Livermore on Monday. Suisun, anyone?

Sounds good!

klezman wrote:If el jefe would take more stragglers, we could make Saturday a Sierra Foothills tasting day. Maybe get to Noceto and such also?

el jefe is welcome to having more of us around, for sure.

For me, I don't mind making it a not PS-centric weekend, since I don't get many chances to be out in California (sorry L), although TO DOES have PS and they will be at D&D as usual

I've been to the wineries in Napa/Sonoma that I've really wanted to be at, so it's not horrible to me to miss out on the Saturday activities. I have tried and buttafuocoed twice now to get to Twisted Oak during the times that I've been out there, so I personally want to make it a priority. Anyone is welcome to tag along with me, and as I will be renting my own car for this excursion, no one else has to drive if you fit in the car with me, so the only person who has to worry about being able to drive Saturday and/or Sunday morning is me.

My thought is to be leisurely on Saturday morning and probably leave Oakland around 10am to get to the Murphys area around 12:30pm. That'll leave a few hours for us to hit a few wineries in the Sierra Foothills if desired, or to just hang at TO and get the Star VIP treatment there. If standard tasting room closing times are around 5pm, we can very likely just hang at Twisted Oak between then and the dinner at 7pm.

I'm also planning on staying overnight in Murphys and then driving back up to wherever everyone else is on Sunday morning. That'll be an early morning, but I'm OK with that.

Totally up to you to do whatever you want to do, don't let either L or I sway you. If you want a more PS-centric weekend, go with L. If you want to experience somewhere outside of Napa/Sonoma that you might not otherwise do, come with me. Or do your own thing No one says we all have to stay together all weekend.

After all, Murphys IS the boonies, and it's NEVER made (and never will make) logistic sense to be there. It has to be specially planned for and the willingness to put up with driving has to be there.

(chuckles) el Jefe is wondering if there are any enticements he might offer to the group to bring more people down

cheron98 wrote:(chuckles) el Jefe is wondering if there are any enticements he might offer to the group to bring more people down

a list of other wineries on the way there or right in the area that may have top-notch PS.

That and getting him to come to our after-party

PetiteSirah wrote:a list of other wineries on the way there or right in the area that may have top-notch PS.

That and getting him to come to our after-party

That can probably be arranged

this happens to be my dad's bday weekend... so if he's around california at that time... so if y'all don't mind, i promise i'll try my best to keep him not grumpy :P

PetiteSirah wrote:a list of other wineries on the way there or right in the area that may have top-notch PS.

That and getting him to come to our after-party

He's unsure about the after-party as he may have to head straight back after D&D to be at Twisted Oak to help with set up and stuff.

BUT. He says there are at least 4 other wineries in the area that do PS, 3 of which are really quite good. And he would be happy to give us a tour of Twisted Oak + a little "barrel sucking"

He does need to know at least a week or so in advance of who all is planning to actually go, for catering purposes for the dinner. But it's only October, so you all have MONTHS to decide. Sooner the better though!!

cheron98 wrote:He's unsure about the after-party as he may have to head straight back after D&D to be at Twisted Oak to help with set up and stuff.

BUT. He says there are at least 4 other wineries in the area that do PS, 3 of which are really quite good. And he would be happy to give us a tour of Twisted Oak + a little "barrel sucking"

He does need to know at least a week or so in advance of who all is planning to actually go, for catering purposes for the dinner. But it's only October, so you all have MONTHS to decide. Sooner the better though!!

Amazing option! I'm glad there are a few months to decide. I'll be up for something, for sure. I've already been to VA, KR, TO. Although only got the woot treatment at KR. Basically I'm happy to let you all make bloody arrangements and I'll jump on the bandwagon for something. Being local, it'll probably be more of a "which option is further from the ordinary" than which wineries/wines specifically. I mean really, I just happened along the TO tasting room on the way back from a camping trip! Didn't even know it was there...

cheron98 wrote:He's unsure about the after-party as he may have to head straight back after D&D to be at Twisted Oak to help with set up and stuff.

BUT. He says there are at least 4 other wineries in the area that do PS, 3 of which are really quite good. And he would be happy to give us a tour of Twisted Oak + a little "barrel sucking"

He does need to know at least a week or so in advance of who all is planning to actually go, for catering purposes for the dinner. But it's only October, so you all have MONTHS to decide. Sooner the better though!!

Hm, the road to Murphys does go through Livermore and doesn't go far from Lodi...

PetiteSirah wrote:Hm, the road to Murphys does go through Livermore and doesn't go far from Lodi...

Jeff is interested in tagging along to Concannon with us

Check out last year's Twisted Presidents Dinner. He's trying to keep the price the same as last year, and you'll all get the Twisted Few price as my guests.

Also says:

Calaveras PS wineries I can think of: Irish, Hatcher, Newsome-Harlow, Lavender Ridge, Val du Vino, Broll Mountain

The PSILY site should be able to help fill in Amador. I also know the local wine assn directors up there and could check.

The Saturday up here is the special Presidents Day promotion for local wineries. It's fun, but it also means we have our hands full dealing with extra crowds. It will be a tough day to get special tours arranged. I may have better luck for Sunday - which might imply that you go wherever Saturday, come up for dinner Saturday night, then tour the foothills Sunday. Just thinking out loud.

So. Them's the thoughts I know if Scott can get something together for Sunday, then being in Calaveras and the environs on Sunday will be out.

UNLESS... L, if you could set up Concannon to be Saturday and we head there first then head down to TO, and then we could get the TO tour on Sunday before heading back up to Napa area and be up there for Sunday/Monday...?

Honestly, he should just come and post on the thread himself...

I won't have a problem showing you around, but I have better chance of lining up other cool *%#&@! in the area on Sunday than Saturday. But that's just a supposition on my part, I should ask around.

...maybe tell them to imagine a big loop consisting of Lodi/ElDo, then Amador/Calaveras, wrapping up with Livermore. ;)

cheron98 wrote:Honestly, he should just come and post on the thread himself...

Yes, maybe he should [/lurk] ;)

This is so tempting. When do you have to make a call to get tickets, etc.? Post details or PM me.