eastowners

Current Mood: Eat Drink Smiley & Jammin’

Ah, the last of the updates for the week (MAYBE)! This weekend we went for our 4th Annual Paw Paw Wine & Harvest Festival. It’s become a nice little tradition, and every year it involves different groups of people we know. So far we’ve consistantly gone with Brad’s parent’s & Mine, but we’ve also had my brother Larry & his wife Meghan alone, Meghan’s parents, friend’s of Brad’s parent’s, and I think that’s it! Every year we meet around Noon for some lunch (this year we were running late, so we opted to meet them after lunch giving us a great opportunity to eat at a rest stop outside of Kalamazoo). They have a nice little arts & craft fair. Due to budget constraints this year (see our previous posts about the house…..many more than the 1 link, but it’s the start of it all) we purchased only a few items. Clare picked for her one find a cute little hand made cloth bag with princesses on it….inside it had a princess coloring book, and on the outside she had sewn slots for crayons - yes, it even came with some crayons which made for a fun night of coloring later on. I found a cute metal worked flower, that was painted in purple to put in our weedy flower bed. Clare picked out the color of course, because it was going in our back yard (aka her garden with her wishing well).

Then it was on to the wineries for some FREE tasting of all the wine you could want. We started at Warner tasting their Cabernet Sauvignon…..it was quite good, and we liked well enough. It would be a good any night red wine if you like full bodied & flavored wine - which I DO! Then we tasted their Veritas, with is red as well….not a full bodied, but lots of flavor. It was good, not as oaky as the previous years wine we drank the other night. But let it mellow over the next few years, and it will be really smooth. Lastly we tried their 2Cab/Merlot. It is a special blend of their Cabernet Savignon (34%), Cabernet Franc (40%), and Merlot (26%), leaving you with lots of blackberries and cherries and a smooth finish leaving you wanting more. It was our favorite by all means and we bought 2 bottles of it to keep us tied over until we figure out our financial’s. We of course drank one bottle last night with dinner. It was YUMMY! Our parent’s had to drop off their cases before heading to the next stop.

St. Julian was the last stop of course. They have a large tent out behind their winery where you can taste to your hearts content (or at least until 5pm when they start charging). We hit the red table first trying their St. J Red which was alright, not much to write home about….it’s a good nightly drinker, but not much other than that. We also tried their Merlot which was WAY oaky, and kinda had a hint of licking a 2X4. We hit the Dessert Wine table next trying their Cherry Wine, which I like…..but not as much as I like Bowers Harbor’s Cherry Wine. It’s a good substitute when I can’t get up to Traverse City. We also tried their Port, while yummy…..it’s not as good as others. Next it was to the White’s table for shit’s & giggles. It was an AWEFUL experience. They encouraged everyone to try all 6 wines they had at their table, causing a bottle neck behind the table, because they told you about EVERY different wine you tried. Now, while this is exceptable when you are at a tasting room…..this was a festival, and we are talking hundreds of people under a tent that all want to try the wine. We finally got to try their Chardonnay & their Pino Grigio….the only 2 I wanted to try…..that’s all, just the 2. The Chardonnay was alright, but a little too something for me. I did however like the Pino Grigio. We are trying to stay away from white’s though because we tend to drink them only in the summer and usually drink mostly red wine. We weren’t thrilled with our tasting, it seems as is St. Julian has taken the sweeter path. That’s fine if you hang out with our parents. Sorry Mom’s & Dad’s, I love ya, but the sweet wine is just not up my alley. By suprise though, we went in to place an order of an unknown Meritage that they weren’t tasting as it seemed like it’d be something we’d like…..we found our table inside, all their Bragini Reserve wines were being tasted in there. First we went along a scrumption tasting table that had all sorts of dips, mustards, bbq sauces, and pretzles to try, and then we found our gold mine. We tried their Pinot Noir, the Cabernet Franc, the Merlot, and the Maritage. We found that we liked their Meritoge the best, and bought 2 bottles of that as well. It is a yummy, fruity, full bodied dry red wine….that I am oh so excited about drinking.

After a fun filled afternoon of crafting, and wine tasting we headed to a campground just outside of Alamo (just North of D Ave., North of Kalamzoo on C Ave. - not that this matters, but you know). Our parents started camping together last year, and we crash in their campers with them. It makes for a nice evening…..eating a yummy dinner, followed by drinking wine around the campfire. Clare had lots of fun, as this year we were right by the play ground, and she could go play by herself while we hung out with our parents. It was a good time, and it’s a nice way for Clare to get to see all her grandparents at the same time. Here are some pics of our evening & morning, there are a few more in the Gallery under Clare & Uncategorized. The latest uploaded pics are usually at the beginning…..so happy clickin!