b d babble: July 2012

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Sightseeing The USA...part five

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Wine is Divine

Nice rendition of SKYNYRD's Freebird

Vineyards and wineries are popping up all around Southern Oregon and most especially the Rogue Valley. Apparently the soil and climate are perfect conditions for a multitude of different grapes and varietals. At first glance I thought perhaps there might be less work involved in a vineyard than say a pear orchard, but I think it might be that owning a vineyard/winery results in "more fun". I should note here that there is indeed a difference between a winery and a vineyard. As one local winemaker so bluntly put it, "a vineyard just grows the grapes, we (meaning the winery he worked at) make the wine". Makes sense.

Recently we visited a new winery in an area known as The Applegate. Applegate is a few miles west of Jacksonville, Oregon and home to several new and old wineries. On schedule was Red Lily Winery. A wonderful little get away about 18 miles from our home. Heading west on Hwy 238 we turned left onto a single lane bridge which crossed the Applegate River. Crossing the bridge I knew we were in for a treat. The grounds of Red Lily Winery are magnificent.

As we parked we could hear live music being played down on what is affectionately called "the beach". We stopped off first at the tasting room and purchased a Pinot Gris (from another local vineyard) for dear old Mom and a bottle of Red Lily's Tempranillo for the wife and I. As we learned on this visit and as stated on their website;

Red Lily Vineyards is committed to a single goal – producing the finest tempranillo wine possible. Our focus on this varietal was born out of our love of Spanish wine and the lure of tempranillo’s brooding, earthy character. Red Lily Vineyards is named principally for Bolander’s Lily, a rare species of red lily found in the neighboring Syskiyou Mountains. Red Lily Tempranillo is also a rarity–a unique expression of the complex and intense nature of this ancient Spanish variety.

Leaving the tasting room we headed towards the beach where luck would have it we moved in on the last open table right next to the water. Rachael Sandeen, a local musician was playing and the weather was perfect. We bypassed on the catered food as we had been sightseeing (eating) most of the day.

Not being a knowledgeable wine connoisseur other than to be able to say what I do and don't like I must say the tempranillo produced by Red Lily is wonderful. In addition to the quality of the wine and perhaps more important, is the attitude of the owners and employees. A gracious group of people, and based on where they are, how could they not be.

Red Lily Winery, Applegate, Oregon

As I believe and have stated several times before, Southern Oregon should be on everyone's travel list. And when you get here, be sure that Red Lily is on your wine list. You can find more about Red Lily on their website,

http://www.redlilyvineyards.com/

as always,

bkd

"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

Dino sounds a lot like Vino, just a thought....

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Monday, July 9, 2012

And to Think....We Live Here!

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Love Where You Live, or MOVE!

Parking Lot of Porters Restaurant, Medford, Oregon

I have been fortunate over the years to live in some truly AWESOME locales. I have lived in five states thus far, all of which border water. And by water I mean OCEAN! Yes I have lived hours from the ocean, much like I do now due to terrain and accessible roads. After all, it is roughly three hours by car from my home now to the Pacific. But a crow (or bald eagle) could probably get there in an hour or so. I do love the ocean. But that is not the purpose of this writing. Tonight it is about loving where you live regardless of being land locked or stranded on an island.

Having lived in five beautiful states, some more so than others, I have been blessed with cool stuff to do. From the metropolitan cities of Atlanta, GA and Portland, OR to the small towns of Albany, OR (not pronounced Allbenny) population 32,000 at the time, I have found you sometimes just have to dig to find why you like living there.

Over the years I have heard people say "well where I come from" and "back home we always..." You can finish the sentence. I have most likely even said some variation of these myself. My only hope is that I said it more as let me share something with you vs. coming off as I hate it here and some place else is so much better. It is the later that irks me if you will. We have all made decisions in our lives about where we will live and the kind of work we will do. In college there were some careers I thought would be great, but I didn't like the idea of living in _____________. You fill in the blank. I am going to leave it open as not to "offend" someone....HA. Go ahead, put Topeka, KS in the blank. I can't imagine offending anyone there.

Okay I digress. The point is when looking at careers I also looked at where do I wanted to live. Perhaps I would be farther into some corporate career by now if I had chosen otherwise, though I doubt it. I gotta like where I live more than I gotta love what I am doing. Perhaps that is why some of my funnest and most successful jobs have been within two miles of my home.

Tonight, after an enjoyable happy hour/retirement party for one of my wife's coworkers I got to experience one of the many reasons I love where I live. Heading West out of Medford to our home in the really small town of Jacksonville, population 2900ish, I had to do a U-turn and pull over for the following;