I tried really hard not to stay over in Murphys last Friday night.  I only needed some fall colors for our upcoming video series on California wine regions so I could have blown through the region in a couple of hours and arrived home to have dinner with Katya.

After some photography I made the mistake of stopping into Ironstone’s tasting room.  The friendly staff tempted me by disclosing that the next day, Saturday, they would have a parking lot wine sale with great prices.  This was part of the local holiday event that included 13 Murphys tasting rooms open until 9 PM on Friday night along with food in the tasting rooms and a parade.

I tasted at Ironstone and then drove up the hill to Twisted Oak to taste and buy a little wine.  Again I was told I should stick around for the events.  The weather was terrific and I couldn’t resist.  After booking a room at the Murphys Hotel I drove out through the hills to Stevenot’s remote tasting room and enjoyed their fine hospitality and incredible ambiance.

Back in town I had a wild boar sausage and stone ground mustard lunch with wine at the old bar in the Murphys Hotel then out on the street to sniff around the tasting rooms with my video camera.  To prepare for a bit more wine tasting in the evening I hiked up Main Street to Noto’s, an Italian restaurant, and chef Lorenzo prepared me a to-die-for ravioli plate with thick meat sauce and accompanied by a local Zin.

By now it was dark and Main Street in this quaint old Gold Rush town was full of people.  I had missed the parade while I stuffed myself with ravioli but the tasting rooms were packed, warm, cozy, social, and most had tasty munchies.  After trying to help Twisted Oak’s Jeff Stai with an electrical outage to his holiday tree I was compensated with his tasting room’s truffles.  (We failed to fix the problem but the truffles were great with red wine!)

Chatom Vineyard owner Gay Callan informed me that the next day, Saturday, her winery would have special food for their holiday open house.  I’m always delighted to be at Chatom for an event.  The various munchies are tasty and interesting and the wines are full of nose and flavors.  The winemaker was pouring reds in the barrel room, the staff is always very friendly, and Gay was darting about being the perfect hostess.

Saturday was a warm fall day in the Sierra Foothills with some color left on the trees and vines.  It was all too tempting to call Katya and tell her I was “weathered in” and couldn’t leave Murphys until Sunday.  Other wineries had food and of course wonderful Calaveras wines to taste out in the sun and often with great views.

I responsibly called Katya and told her I was leaving Chatom, the only winery visit of the day, and heading directly home with over 4 cases of wine.  Two and a half hours later I was home after crossing the foggy Central Valley.

The hills are turning green.  The sky is winter blue but the weather in California is shirt sleeve warm.  Gas prices have dropped to $1.75 a gallon at Chevron so that helps bring down the travel costs.  Also, lodging prices have dropped to less than $100 for decent hotels.  It is a GREAT TIME for a wine tasting road trip!

- jim

Tags: Calaveras, Murphys

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 1:09 pm and is filed under California, Murphys - Calaveras, Road trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.