Drinks on a Sunny Afternoon

One of the best parts of the Sierra Oro Passport weekend was the opportunity to have numerous wine tastings at local vineyards included in our passport ticket. And our only responsibility really was to make sure we brought our free wine glass to each winery for our tastings. And having small samples of wine on a beautiful early Fall afternoon (it was about 85 degrees) in the North State was a perfect way to spend those hours.



Molly and I began at Oroville's Quilici Vineyards, and it was one of our favorites. In fact, it was the only local winery at which we actually purchased wine to take home. This boutique winery is family owned and operated (and they were all there in full force). Their 10 gorgeous acres could easily be confused for Tuscany, and the family handpicks every grape on their vineyard and produces the wine there as well. Choose your favorite wine produced from Mediterranean grapes: cabernet, syrah, barbera, and zinfandel. We loved the Barbera and Syrah - went well with Molly's birthday dinner!





There was something impressive about the winery visually, with a sweeping landscape toward the Sutter Butte Mountain Range. But the people were also fantastic, taking care of us during our tasting and offering freshly baked pizza to accompany our samples. Thank you Quilici family for offering a wonderful experience and a great memory on our Passport weekend!



We also stopped at Grey Fox Vineyard, who makes three varieties of port in the valley. While it was delicious with chocolate, I happened to like this shot of their corks much better.

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Eric
Eric Lovelin Photography