Of Wine & Song

Saturday I went to visit my Urchin & she took me to the Clifton Wine Festival.  I’ve never been to a Wine Festival but it sounded interesting so off we went.  They had 12 to 14 wineries, several food vendors, a couple of jewelry crafters, 2 tobacconists & a dozen other assorted vendors.  There was also a stage showcasing various local electric bands.  The music wasn’t much to my taste but it wasn’t loud enough to be annoying, the jewelry was lovely (and way beyond my price range) & the food selection was decent.  It was well attended, too crowded for good photos but not so crowded as to be physically unpleasant.  Mostly my Urchin & I wandered around listening to very entertaining descriptions of the various wines while we waited our turn to taste  whatever caught our fancy. 

The wine tasting part was delightful.  I sipped every dry, semi-dry and semi-sweet white wine there.  I tried wine aged in oak barrels, wine aged in stainless barrels.  Most the wines were made from French varieties of grapes with 2 Australian, 2 Bulgarian & 1 Georgian (as in Russian) grape wines for variety.  Prices ran from $15 to $22 with a few fruit wines at $12 and 3 or 4 premium ultra award winning wines at $25-$30.  I even sampled a semi-dry cranberry wine, which was excellent but since it had some red wine in it is likely to give me a smashing headache.  Those sulfides do me in big time.   Urchin bought a bottle of rose to share with JR and a bottle of the Georgian Rkatsiteli for each of us. 

After the wine fest the Urchin & I headed out with Carly & Dean for a house concert at Andy & Sandra’s place.  This is the front of their little home in the country – colonial mostly with some later anti-bellum additions.    Plenty of porch for socializing.

Here’s the back porch just as folks were moving inside for the potluck & concert.

This grand dame in the back yard has seem more than a little history.

I really like the way Andy blended the modern kitchen fixtures into the room.

The servants’ staircase in the kitchen and a sideboard.

The solar where the concert was held & the main staircase.

The old dining room with some of the potluck spread out.

The new dining room with most of the potluck spread out.  What’s an FSGW event without good food ?

George & Lorraine brought this – it looks almost too good to eat & it tasted as good as it looks.

The concert was Deborah Robins & Larry Hanks.  I hadn’t heard Larry since the late 70’s & had never heard Deborah.  They do western music -  swing band numbers from regional & family bands, Carter family, U. Utah Phillips, Woody Guthrie, cowboy, lumbering & mining songs as well as humorous novelty songs.  And Larry plays a seriously mean Jews Harp.  Larry put on a great set when I last heard him and Deborah adds her own wonderful voice & guitar picking to the mix.  They’re two great performers who compliment each other very very well. 

I drove home Sunday morning still a bit tired but very very happy.  Thank you Urchin, Carly & Dean – it was an awesome day.