Crush Party & Beach Party

The Gainey crush party was the big event of the week. We joined the crowd at Gainey for their most popular event – a lively celebration of the Art of Winemaking! It was a great afternoon of grape-picking in the vineyard, cooking demonstrations, wine aroma demonstration, special barrel-tastings, barrel-building demonstration, the infamous BAREFOOT GRAPE STOMP, hay-rides through the vineyard, award winning Gainey wines, and a souvenir wine glass. Gainey bottled a special red wine for the crush party.

Perry jumped right into the grape stomping. He took off his shoes and started stomping. It was very similar to walking around a mud bottom pond in Mississippi. There were a number of bees buzzing around the proceedings but that didn't stop any one. Pleep took a good look at the grapes, the stomping, and the bees. He decided the best thing about it was the nice lady walking around pouting wine into everyone's glasses.

Ida took one look at the juice coming out and started looking around for a hose. She insisted Perry hose off his feet and legs before putting his shoes back on to go inside the barrel room. In the barrel room they had tapped several barrels of wine for tasting. The Pinot Noir was excellent and will be bottled in March 2010.

Pleep took a tour of the vineyards to check out the grapes that were still on the vines. He wasn't interested in the horse drawn ride through the vineyards because it was very hot and there was no shade. He much preferred staying under the trees and staying close to the bars where the Crush Party Red was freely flowing.

After all the tasting and stomping, the group had worked up a bit of an appetite. We headed back to the picnic tables for the barbeque. The bbq was their special Tri-Tip and Chicken Santa Ynez style Barbecue. There was a live band and dancing. The freeze dance was fun to watch and the crowd got into it despite the unusually warm temperatures.

The party wound up around 4 p.m. and we cabbed back to the Parker place. The Peters family came over and cooked up ribs, penne with pesto, and other great food. Eric Peters invented a new cocktail - the transfusion - which is a mixture of vodka, grape juice (not stomped by Perry) and ginger ale. At the end of dinner, the men headed to the beach with all the kids for a campout. We were happy to stay in the house and enjoy the last of the football games.