Birthday 2009

Another Birthday... Yuck! Celebrated With Wine... Yeah!

Temecula here we come. To celebrate we decided to go to Temecula and taste some wine and have a nice leisurely lunch!

This Day In History!

380 – Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal entry, into Constantinople.
1429 – Joan of Arc unsuccessfully besieges La Charité.
1542 – Battle of Solway Moss: The English army defeats the Scots.
1639 – Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus, an event he had predicted.
1642 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).
1850 – Danish troops defeat a Schleswig-Holstein force in the town of Lottorf, Schleswig-Holstein.
1859 – Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Lookout Mountain – Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg.
1906 – The Canton Bulldogs-Massillon Tigers Betting Scandal, the first major scandal in professional American football.
1922 – Author and Irish Republican Army member Robert Erskine Childers is executed by an Irish Free State firing squad for illegally carrying a revolver.
1932 – In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
1935 – The Senegalese Socialist Party holds its second congress.
1940 – World War II: Slovakia becomes a signatory to the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
1941 – World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.
1943 – World War II: The USS Liscome Bay is torpedoed near Tarawa and sinks with nearly 650 men killed.
1944 – World War II: Bombing of Tokyo – The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital from the east and by land is carried out by 88 American aircraft.
1962 – The West Berlin branch of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany forms a separate party, the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin.
1963 – Lee Harvey Oswald is murdered by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police department headquarters. The shooting is broadcast live on television.
1963 – Vietnam War: Newly sworn-in US President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam both militarily and economically.
1965 – Joseph Désiré Mobutu seizes power in the Congo and becomes President; he rules the country (which he renames Zaire in 1971) for over 30 years, until being overthrown by rebels in 1997.
1966 – A Bulgarian plane with 82 people on board crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.
1966 – New York City experiences the smoggiest day in the city's history.
1969 – Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.
1971 – During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (AKA D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money. He has never been found.
1974 – Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed "Lucy" (after The Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"), in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression.
1992 – A China Southern Airlines domestic flight in the People's Republic of China, crashes, killing all 141 people on-board.
1993 – In Liverpool, 11-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of the murder of 2-year-old James Bulger.

Today we do Faulkner & Thornton!

Did you know? - Wine tasting (often, in wine circles, simply tasting) is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onwards. Modern, professional wine tasters (such as sommeliers or buyers for retailers) use a constantly-evolving formal terminology which is used to describe the range of perceived flavors, aromas and general characteristics of a wine. More informal, recreational tasting may use similar terminology, usually involving a much less analytical process for a more general, personal appreciation.

The Adventure Begins With A Short Drive To Wine Country!

Map
1 hour 17 minutes / 72.59 miles Fuel Cost: $7.63 at 28 MPG

Wine Country
Many places to visit

Arrival At Faulkner

They have several small vineyards with specialized grapes

Beautiful day!

Dining in the new restaurant

The photographer gets photoed

Wonderful view

Grape vineyards everywhere

Road from the street

The business end of the activity

Let's Taste Wine

We are ready!

Guard bird!

Poarch was great for summertime

Greens and browns

We had some winds

The wine tasting room is quite nice with great views

Blue skies

Thornton Winery Was A Few Miles Away

We Be Fussy About Tempperatures Of Our Wine!

Light bodied sweet dessert wines: (Ex: Trockenbeerenauslese, Sauternes) 41-50°F (5-10°C)
White sparkling wines: (Ex: Champagne) 43-50°F (6-10°C)
Aromatic, light bodied white: (Ex: Riesling, Sauvignon blanc) 46-54°F (8-12°C)
Red sparkling wines: (Ex: Sparkling Shiraz, some frizzante Lambrusco) 50-54°F (10-12°C)
Medium bodied whites: (Ex: Chablis, Semillon) 50-54°F (10-12°C)
Full bodied dessert wines: (Ex: Oloroso Sherry, Madeira) 46-54°F (8-12°C)
Light bodied red wines: (Ex: Beaujolais, Provence rosé) 50-54°F (10-12°C)
Full bodied white wines: (Ex: Oaked Chardonnay, Rhone whites) 54-61°F (12-16°C)
Medium bodied red wines: (Ex: Grand Cru Burgundy, Sangiovese) 57-63°F (14-17°C)
Full bodied red wines: (Ex: Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo based wines) 59-64°F (15-18°C)

Wine flights were popular!

Did you know? - Tasting flight is a term used by wine tasters to describe a selection of wines, usually between three and eight glasses, but sometimes as many as fifty, presented for the purpose of sampling and comparison.

Time to make a selection

Did you know? - Zinfandel is a variety of red grape planted in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in the "heel" of Italy, where it was introduced in the 1700s. The grape found its way to the United States in the mid-19th century, and became known by variations of the name "Zinfandel", a name of uncertain origin.

The grapes typically produce a robust red wine, although a semi-sweet rosé (blush-style) wine called White Zinfandel has six times the sales of the red wine in the United States. The grape's high sugar content can be fermented into levels of alcohol exceeding 15 percent.

The taste of the red wine depends on the ripeness of the grapes from which it is made. Red berry fruits like raspberry predominate in wines from cooler areas, whereas blackberry, anise and pepper notes are more common in wines made in warmer areas and in wines made from the earlier-ripening Primitivo clone.

Paul prefers the dark reds