Wine Wanderings and Wonderings

The weekend before last was all about the grape… And great friends.

We went wine tasting, enjoyed an all-farm dinner at beautiful Buttonwood Farm Winery where one friend works part-time, and savored wonderful wines on the patio of our vacation rental in California’s Central Coast wine region.

An image from last year’s Buttonwood dinner – captured on My Los Olivos blog by a fellow diner

Calories aside, all weekends should be like that. But, eventually, you come home, sometimes with cases of wine to store and enjoy. This post is all about the storing and enjoying. I’m not a wine snob and I don’t have a wine cellar in my townhome. I don’t even have room for a wine fridge. If I did, I’d want a built-in, dual-zone model like this one from Sub-Zero... That'll be for the next house!




What I do have is a handsome Vicenza Console from Ballard Designs that holds whatever wine bottles I happen to have on hand, along with wine accessories.




The wine accessories include a decanter that lets my reds breathe while I’m preparing (or reheating) dinner and a very easy-to-use Rabbit that makes opening wine bottles a snap.



While I own a very delicate set of wine glasses from my parents’ 1955 wedding, the ones I use on a regular basis are bargain busters from IKEA. I don’t worry much if one gets broken.



I’m considering moving them out of the wall cabinet where they currently live onto shelves like this Holman from Pottery Barn with built-in stem glass holders -- one reds, one for whites.




My builder's decision not to put a cabinet over the dishwasher works very well for this purpose. It’ll be one of the first things I see when I come upstairs into my living area – and an invitation to relax over a lovely glass of wine when I finish my workday.

Here are some wines from around that area that I’ve enjoyed enormously. Maybe you will, too? Click on any of the wine images and you'll be taken to its winery.













And this is the breathtakingly beautiful country in which they go from vine to wine. This shot from santaynezwinecountry.com was also taken at Buttonwood.