Robyn1007
10-08-2007, 09:33 AM
I've known almost since my first day working at my company that it was a great place to work but this weekend just solidified my opinion. A few months ago it was announced that we would be doing a Colorado Wine Country Tour and although I was excited it was a long way off. This past weekend it finally came and was a really fun time. I thought I'd review the highlights as we went to an area of Colorado that doesn't get a lot of attention and now I know I'll be back in the future.
We started at our office at 7:15 Saturday morning with Bloody Marys, Screwdrivers and Mimosas along with muffins and donuts and such. We hopped on the bus for the long drive over the Rockies, stopping in West Vail for a break and to buy more liquor. We made our first winery around noon while it was drizzling so unfortunately we had to eat our lunch on the bus and then got started with the first tour of Canyon Winds Winery. Unfortunately, many of us didn't feel welcome at this place, almost like we were imposing so many of us just headed back to the bus and refused to buy any wine there after tasting a few.
We headed to the second winery which was Plum Creek Winery. This winery is uses 100% Colorado grown grapes and had a much larger and friendlier tasting room. Here I purchased my first bottle of the trip, a Cabernet Franc. Funny thing, we were getting a group picture at the beginning of our tour and some random dude came and joined us. Our boss just kind of gently pushed him way down trying to hide him from the picture without making a scene. Later during the tour we saw him walking away from the winery as if on a casual stroll. Interestingly, across the street from this place is a Meadery that I'd like to try sometime.
Our final winery of the day was Carlson Vineyards. This was a small winery and we just did a tasting here rather than a tour. Although their tasting room is small they had a great system of getting everyone through the many wines they had. They also had a great number of sweet dessert wines which I normally don't like but they had a cherry wine that they dipped the rim of the glass in chocolate for so it tasted like a cherry cordial. Here I bought that wine and chocolate along with 2 bottle of a Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend that they had on sale for really cheap.
After this we headed to the resort, Gateway Canyons Resort which is developed by the founder of the Discovery Channel and is absolutely incredible. We are all saying that then next time we need to have a full day to spend here at least.
For dinner that night we had a 5 course dinner with wine pairings from Two Rivers Winery. Our appetizers were mini crabcakes with mango-pineapple salsa, fried oyster shooters and tiny quesadillas. The quesadillas were interesting as the chef had taken a 1/4 (or maybe 1/6) of a tortilla and rolled them into a cone with the chicken filling instead of doing the wedge style. This made them super easy to eat and is something that I'll do in the future to serve guests. The fried oyster shooters were delicious and the crabcakes were perfectly balanced and not too bready and all of these were paired with a chardonnay.
Our second course was a salad with a prickly pear marinated prawn, spiced candied walnuts and grape tomatoes over greens with a prickly pear vinaigrette which nicely balanced the pepperiness of the dressing and walnuts with the sweet of the dressing and tomatoes. This was paired with a reisling which isn't normally a wine I enjoy but this one was spectacular.
Third course was cordova sea bass with a cucumber-lime salsa over israeli cous cous with asparagus. The fish was perfectly seasoned and cooked. In fact, I never picked up the salt or pepper all night which is rare for me. With this dish we chose either the chardonnay or the reisling from earlier.
Intermezzo was a lemon sorbet in champagne (the only non-Colorado wine of the weekend).
Fourth course was a beef tenderloin with haricot verts sauteed with pearl onions and blue and yellow fingerling potatoes in a port wine sauce. The beef was perfectly done and this was paired with a cabernet sauvignon.
Our final dish of the evening was a choclate mini bundt cake with raspberry coulis which was fine but I can do it easily myself. This was paired with a port wine which again, I'm not usually a fan of but this was incredible. All in all a wonderful evening. The entire night the chef would describe the dish to us before serving while, Rudi, our wine tour sommelier (who is also a wine judge) described the wine and why they were paired together.
Sunday we woke up had a quick breakfast and then went to the on-site antique car museum owned by the resort owner with over 10 million dollars in cars, including a 3.2 million dollar Oldsmobile concept car. We then went to our 4th winery, Two Rivers (the same one the wines the night before were from) and had a catered lunch and tour. This was my favorite winery as they have a chateau like building, friendly people and interesting stories. Here I purchased the reisling and the port from the evening before.
Our final winery of the day was Grand River Winery. This place was okay but I was kind of overdone with alcohol and I didn't like the way the tasting was conducted. No wine purchased here although I did like the voignier.
The bus drive back was a long quiet one for the most part. The only exciting bit was to see snow on the mountains and Copper Mountain making snow! It was a wonderful weekend but the mood in the office today is definitely one of exhaustion!
I posted these pictures below on the photo thread but thought I'd add them here for your reference. These were taken at the resort.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce26b3127ccebd1f47d7400e00000026100AcsmTNm3aMm Lg
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce26b3127ccebd1f47dac13300000026100AcsmTNm3aMm Lg
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce26b3127ccebd1f45e6403e00000026100AcsmTNm3aMm Lg
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce26b3127ccebd1f5f6740b200000026100AcsmTNm3aMm Lg
We started at our office at 7:15 Saturday morning with Bloody Marys, Screwdrivers and Mimosas along with muffins and donuts and such. We hopped on the bus for the long drive over the Rockies, stopping in West Vail for a break and to buy more liquor. We made our first winery around noon while it was drizzling so unfortunately we had to eat our lunch on the bus and then got started with the first tour of Canyon Winds Winery. Unfortunately, many of us didn't feel welcome at this place, almost like we were imposing so many of us just headed back to the bus and refused to buy any wine there after tasting a few.
We headed to the second winery which was Plum Creek Winery. This winery is uses 100% Colorado grown grapes and had a much larger and friendlier tasting room. Here I purchased my first bottle of the trip, a Cabernet Franc. Funny thing, we were getting a group picture at the beginning of our tour and some random dude came and joined us. Our boss just kind of gently pushed him way down trying to hide him from the picture without making a scene. Later during the tour we saw him walking away from the winery as if on a casual stroll. Interestingly, across the street from this place is a Meadery that I'd like to try sometime.
Our final winery of the day was Carlson Vineyards. This was a small winery and we just did a tasting here rather than a tour. Although their tasting room is small they had a great system of getting everyone through the many wines they had. They also had a great number of sweet dessert wines which I normally don't like but they had a cherry wine that they dipped the rim of the glass in chocolate for so it tasted like a cherry cordial. Here I bought that wine and chocolate along with 2 bottle of a Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend that they had on sale for really cheap.
After this we headed to the resort, Gateway Canyons Resort which is developed by the founder of the Discovery Channel and is absolutely incredible. We are all saying that then next time we need to have a full day to spend here at least.
For dinner that night we had a 5 course dinner with wine pairings from Two Rivers Winery. Our appetizers were mini crabcakes with mango-pineapple salsa, fried oyster shooters and tiny quesadillas. The quesadillas were interesting as the chef had taken a 1/4 (or maybe 1/6) of a tortilla and rolled them into a cone with the chicken filling instead of doing the wedge style. This made them super easy to eat and is something that I'll do in the future to serve guests. The fried oyster shooters were delicious and the crabcakes were perfectly balanced and not too bready and all of these were paired with a chardonnay.
Our second course was a salad with a prickly pear marinated prawn, spiced candied walnuts and grape tomatoes over greens with a prickly pear vinaigrette which nicely balanced the pepperiness of the dressing and walnuts with the sweet of the dressing and tomatoes. This was paired with a reisling which isn't normally a wine I enjoy but this one was spectacular.
Third course was cordova sea bass with a cucumber-lime salsa over israeli cous cous with asparagus. The fish was perfectly seasoned and cooked. In fact, I never picked up the salt or pepper all night which is rare for me. With this dish we chose either the chardonnay or the reisling from earlier.
Intermezzo was a lemon sorbet in champagne (the only non-Colorado wine of the weekend).
Fourth course was a beef tenderloin with haricot verts sauteed with pearl onions and blue and yellow fingerling potatoes in a port wine sauce. The beef was perfectly done and this was paired with a cabernet sauvignon.
Our final dish of the evening was a choclate mini bundt cake with raspberry coulis which was fine but I can do it easily myself. This was paired with a port wine which again, I'm not usually a fan of but this was incredible. All in all a wonderful evening. The entire night the chef would describe the dish to us before serving while, Rudi, our wine tour sommelier (who is also a wine judge) described the wine and why they were paired together.
Sunday we woke up had a quick breakfast and then went to the on-site antique car museum owned by the resort owner with over 10 million dollars in cars, including a 3.2 million dollar Oldsmobile concept car. We then went to our 4th winery, Two Rivers (the same one the wines the night before were from) and had a catered lunch and tour. This was my favorite winery as they have a chateau like building, friendly people and interesting stories. Here I purchased the reisling and the port from the evening before.
Our final winery of the day was Grand River Winery. This place was okay but I was kind of overdone with alcohol and I didn't like the way the tasting was conducted. No wine purchased here although I did like the voignier.
The bus drive back was a long quiet one for the most part. The only exciting bit was to see snow on the mountains and Copper Mountain making snow! It was a wonderful weekend but the mood in the office today is definitely one of exhaustion!
I posted these pictures below on the photo thread but thought I'd add them here for your reference. These were taken at the resort.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce26b3127ccebd1f47d7400e00000026100AcsmTNm3aMm Lg
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce26b3127ccebd1f47dac13300000026100AcsmTNm3aMm Lg
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce26b3127ccebd1f45e6403e00000026100AcsmTNm3aMm Lg
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce26b3127ccebd1f5f6740b200000026100AcsmTNm3aMm Lg