El Bloggo Torcido - Twisted Oak Winery

Where the *%#&@! is El Jefe?

Lots going on at Chateau Torcido - I'm up to my eyeballs in software issues. Hopefully another week or so and the dust will settle (but I'm probably doomed for even saying that out loud. Shrug.)

When we're through we'll have all sorts of cool systems going in the background. What this means for you is that we're pro when you need us to be pro, and fun the rest of the time. Similarly for us, we can get past the necessary tasks quickly and have more time for the fun.

Lapsing into common tater mode for a moment... the stuff we're doing is what (I think) any  winery needs to be doing in the early 21st century to compete in today's market. But the level of technical expertise I am needing to bring to bear makes me wonder how I could be achieving the goal if I had no technical skills (probably by throwing lots of $$$.) I wish I could share with you the mashups I am working on right now to make it possible, and this stuff is supposed to be off the shelf! Buy me a drink in six months and maybe I'll tell you....

This...

This is a wine blog. This is also a winery blog, a personal blog, a photo album, and a conversation. This wine blog is about wine, Twisted Oak wines, other peoples' wines, people who drink wine, people who drink our wine, and what people think about our wine. This wine blog is about fun, about people having fun, and especially people having fun with wine. This wine blog is about me, my winery, and what I am thinking about at the time.

And sometimes, it's just about rubber chickens.

I hope you find this wine blog as fun to read as I find it fun to write!

(thanks Steve for the idea)

Making "The List"

Would you believe I'm not wearing any pants? OK, then - would you believe that there are actually a couple of "Top Wine Blog Lists" floating around out there?

I haven't paid much attention to them, because, well frankly being #92 is not a source of inspiration to me - and I have not been interested in the "vote whoring" that is required to score well (unlike some people!) But if you want to take pity on us and help us out, then please vote for us over on the localwineevents.com web site so we don't have to be #92 anymore. (localwineevents.com is actually a pretty nice site for finding out about cool wine-y things to do in your part of the world - like this.)

The other top list is over at alawine.com and is based on search engine rankings - you can't vote but you can add a link to elbloggotorcido.com and that may help! It does please me to see us at #32, ahead of PhilaFoodie (#36), Rethink (#43), and Dover Canyon (#56). However, we still have a ways to go to edge out such luminaries as Box Wines (#19) and Lenndevours (#10).

Are there any other Top Wine Blog Lists we should know about?

Dr. Debs Dishes Delightful Dissertations!

Dr Debs over at Good Wine Under $20 (even though we have almost nothing under $20!) wrote an incredibly nice post about us today. You should go read it now.

For those of you who are not familiar with her website (what? you live in a hole?) Deb writes about all things wine: reviews, wineries, what's going on in the industry, the LA wine scene and so forth. Deb is an excellent and engaging writer and you should make her site a daily visit.

I meant NOW!!

P.S. Almost Gone! Syrah Too!

We've had a bit of a run on the 2004 Petite Sirah of late, and it is nearly gone. The same is true of our 2003 Calaveras Syrah.

What this means is that this is the last weekend these two wines will be available for sale, at least for quite a while. In fact, we have so little left that they are only available at the Winery Tasting Room, or by phone order at 209-736-9080.

Just a word to the wise for our faithful El Bloggo Torcido readers!

Dog Carmel!

Got a nice note today from Carol and Don Husslein. They visited last April and had a great few days just hanging out in downtown Murphys with their boys Cisco and Barkley - hitting ten dog-friendly tasting rooms along the way!

Just click thru the pictures and you'll see a whole writeup about why Murphys may be the most dog-friendly place in the Foothills!

Thanks to Carol and Don for allowing me to share this with you!

The Obligatory Anniversary Statistical Post

El Bloggo Torcido is 1 year old as of yesterday! We have amassed 224 posts and 253 comments during that time, which equate to...

Oh bloody hell. You do the math!

DO Calaveras County

Tom over at Fermentation did a nice article on How to DO Sonoma Valley. But as I went thru his points it inspired me to do a counterpoint on Calaveras County, mercilessly....

1. BRING YOUR KIDS WITH YOU! There is so much for all ages to do here in Calaveras County, and many of the wineries are kid friendly (we have toy boxes at each tasting room!) In between wine tasting you can visit the redwoods at Big Trees, the town park in Murphys, or one of several caverns in the area. I like Mercer Caverns the best - only partly because our Murphys tasting room used to be the Mercer's house!

2. COME ALMOST ANYTIME. The spring is lovely here, and April is especially lovely. But we get real Fall colors here in October, and the crush is very hands on - you don't have to pay hundreds of dollars for "wine boot camp" - just volunteer! You may find yourself helping with the crush, and we won't charge you for it! Or even come see us in the winter for skiing and snowboarding in Bear Valley, or just general snow play.

3. FIND A HOTEL OR RENTAL IN MURPHYS. There are 11 tasting rooms (including Twisted Oak's Wistaria House), plus several shops and restaurants all within crawling distance in Murphys. You have three hotels, including the historic Murphys Hotel, plus several rental houses and cottages convenient to Main Street (try 209-728-3404 for a selection of rentals).

4. TAKE A DAY TO VISIT EBBETTS PASS. The wineries are great, and the high country shines too. You will find rivers and rocks to rival Yosemite up there. There is a reason they made Ebbetts Pass a Scenic Byway last year. Make a day of it!

5. TAKE TWO DAYS TO DO WINERIES. You can hit those 11 tasting rooms just along Main Street in Murphys, but on the second day you should hit the wineries along the Highway 4 corridor (like, um, Twisted Oak in Vallecito), and the two wineries up by Moke Hill and Valley Springs.

6. ASK A LOCAL WINERY TO SHIP YOUR WINE HOME. You'll find a can-do attitude here, and you can be sure Twisted Oak will be happy to do what we can to help get your treasures home.

7. GET A GOOD MAP. There are so many beautiful little roads here. Many local real estate offices have area maps. Head up towards Sheep Ranch or Calaveritas and you will not be disappointed.

8. VISIT LOCAL WINE MERCHANTS. The locals love our wineries! Check out Alchemy in Murphys, or any of the locally owned supermarkets (Sierra Hills in Murphys, Angels Food in Angels Camp, or Big Trees in Arnold). You'll also find local restaurants waiving corkage if you bring in a local wine.

9. CHECK WINERY HOURS BEFORE VISITING. All of our wineries have regular business hours. Some are open every day and some just the weekends. Visit www.calaveraswines.org for the latest info.

10. FLY IN AND OUT OF SACRAMENTO AIRPORT. Head south instead of west, it's about an hour and a half (that's just 30 minutes farther than Sonoma!) Take 99 south, exit Liberty Road and drive east to 88 and then south to 12 - go east on 12 into Calaveras County. Three traffic lights, no waiting!

Why on Earth would you go any other way?

Hdr, All Over...

Not so much the collision (collusion?) of wine, margaritas and mint juleps - but simply the lack of internet while racing down the highway at 70MPH with the top down and the sun shining that kept your humble correspondent from completing his final report. Put another way, it was just too darn nice a day to blog! I hope the wait will be somewhat worth it...

After the morning sessions I have to confess we skipped out to our favorite local pub (in fact, now the Official Paso Robles Dive of Twisted Oak), The Crooked Kilt, to watch the Sharks play the Red Wings. (And in doing so we skipped the after-lunch auction, which included a dinner for 20 with Robert Parker that went for a mere $62,000!!!) Unfortunately, the game was a disaster if you are a Sharks fan - in other words, it was a disaster - but we did manage to get a nice photo of our server Irene modeling the world famous Twisted Oak Wine Rack tank.

During the afternoon Grand Tasting we managed to pour a LOT of samples of Syrah, Grenache, Viognier, Torcido, and of course, the And we saw old friends and made lots of new friends!


After the tasting an informal tailgate party took form in the parking lot across the street, mostly because palates exhausted by inky Syrahs and fragrant Viogniers needed a cold beer to recover. For a moment I want to take you back to the "Blinded by the White" session referred to in the previous post. Here is what a panel of serious Ch. du Pape winemakers looked like in the morning session:

And here is what Yves, Yves and Yves Francois looked like at the tailgate party, trying to make off with Rich's ride:

From the tailgate party it was back to the fairgrounds for a western-themed barbecue dinner and further hijinks. Your truly gravitated to the "gambling tables" (you gamble fake money to exchange for raffle tickets to win Fabulous Prizes) to play Texas Holdem - it's pretty hard to keep me away from a poker table...

I'll leave you with this group photo taken before the barbecue - and a brief game of "Where's Fermento?"

HdR, A Perfect Storm?

Breakfast of Champions, Saturday Morning, Hospice du Rhone

You can see that Alder (or the Vinography.com fairy, not the same person!) (I've heard) passed around his excellent Aroma Card. You can also see that the first session was called "Blinded by the White"! This was a stellar tasting of various French Rhone whites. A special treat for this session was to taste a 1986 Chateau Beaucastel Roussane. The nose was full of honey and orange blossom - very unexpected (for me at least) to find in a Roussane. The flavor was still bright and lively with nice acids and a certain flinty-ness, with grapefruit and tangerine flavors.

Today, as you may know, is Cinco de Mayo - which is an event celebrated in North America mostly to consume excessive quantities of tequilla. At the same time, I am told it is Kentucky Derby day - which is an event celebrated in North America mostly to consume excessive quantities of mint juleps. And at the same time, we have the Grand Tasting this afternoon.

Wish us luck...