The Wineries of San Diego and Beyond

sdgrapes@gmail.com

Please help me promote an upcoming wine tasting and food pairing fundraiser for my dear Grandma Ellie and the Ramona Woman’s Club.  For only a $20 donation per person, there will be light appetizers and a wine tasting on Thursday, Sept. 8th at the parking lot of Pamo Valley’s Wine tasting room located at 603 Main St.  There will be a presentation on “How to Taste Wine” and raffles and a silent auction.  Come out and mingle with us from 6pm – 730pm!  For tickets, call Ellie at 760.789.0602 or Jenn at 760.271.3090 or you can purchase your tickets at the Pamo Valley Wine tasting room on Friday 2-6 or Sat – Sun 11-6.  Spaces limited!

Local Ramonian Don Eccker stops in for some wine tasting while displaying his 1940 Packard Sedan and graciously allow others to be pictured  with this beautiful beautiful piece of art.  Pictured left to right are Ramona Cafe waitress Dalia; Pamo Valley Winery owner, Jennifer Jenkin; Pilot and Ramona Airport Executive, Jaye Matthews; Ramona Cafe owner Sonia Steiner.  I think this car needs to be a permanent fixture at our place!  Don later gave me detailed specs on the car:

Pamo Valley Winery is “dog friendly”.  After all, how many winery’s or tasting rooms have you visited and actually NOT seen a dog present?  You will always be greeted by our resident dogs Roxy and Teacup at our tasting room.  Many visitors have wanted to go home with them upon their departure.  They are the most loving, tame, non-yapping chihuahua crosses you will ever meet.  We’ve had pugs, german shepherds and our latest visit from Ramonians Michael and Meredith Dow brought in 3 dalmatian puppies!  Aren’t they absolutely gorgeous?  Roxy and Teacup will share their food and water and will even throw in a cookie or treat to any dog visitors.

Shahala and Rob from San Diego received a special treat while visiting our tasting room.  We had an unannounced Violinist by the name of Celia Lawley from Lake Henshaw stop in to offer us a taste of her talent.  While just a sample, what an amazing show this young lady performed!  Not only is she passionate about playing her instruments but theatrical and so engaging.  Such a pleasure to listen to and watch.  Her soul really escapes through her music. Learn more about Celia at her website www.fiddlegirl.com!

Later we had two twin sisters Tracy and Stacy stop by. Tracy is a local Ramonan and brought her sister by who was visiting from St. Louis, MO. Also in this picture is Janet from Julian and Shahala from San Diego.  The ladies shared in a toast as they cheered a joyous afternoon of wine tasting.

The San Vicente Inn in Ramona invited Pamo Valley and Edwards Cellars to attend and pour wines for guests of their sold out event on July 13th 2011.  President of the RVVA, John York was the MC of the evening. He talked about local wines and pairing with the amazing food provided by the Inn’s restaurant the Oaks Grille.  The event was appropriately themed “Wine Tasting Under the Full Moon”.  A saxophonist was also on hand to add to festivities of the evening. Pictured: Jennifer Jenkin and Mike Celaya of Pamo Valley Winery, Ramona.

Today we had a nice group visit the tasting room.  Elaine Lyttleton arranged a tour to some of the Ramona wine tasting rooms where by members of the Ramona Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee were able to get a first hand look at the tasting rooms opening all over our small town.  In addition, they had the opportunity to taste wines from their very own soils.  Snacks and a light lunch were offered by the tour leader, Elaine, during their travels.  We’ll count on this group to help us spread the word to their peers and local organizations.  Thank you all for the visit!  The group included, Elaine Lyttleton, Bob and Pat Haley, Charlie and Sandy Teichert, Dave and Barbara Worden and Carol Fowler.

Wow, the grapes are really taking shape this time of year.  This will be the 3rd year for this block of the vineyard.  We’re going to have a great crop!  We’ve just finished our hedging and halfway through our leaf thinning chores in the vineyard.  Verasion will be setting in a month or so.  Time to get the netting out to keep the birds and squirrels out.  Speaking of birds, check out what I found, not once but twice!  Some sweet mama birds and taking refuge in our grapes and laying nests.  I hope these eggs have not been abandoned.  I showed the pics of the nests to a friend and they said, “wait, aren’t birds your nemesis?”.  He was right!  Guess I just don’t have it in me to move the nests elsewhere.  I will have to make sure they are gone before the netting though.

So this is a happy yet sad post for me.  Our newest member of the PVW team (all of 4 months new!), our tasting specialist, has taken a new path in her life and will be leaving us to venture to Honolulu, Hawaii.  Dawna and her husband Adam have taken a new position in their career that leads them to this beautiful place on earth.  Do you blame them?  Adam is already in Hawaii and Dawna is tying up a few loose ends before her departure.  One of her loose ends was saying goodbye to her friends at PVW.  Mike and I spent the evening wine tasting, sushi eating, pool playing and celebrating with cocktails last night enjoying our last moments with Dawna.  This is one of those friendships where you develop a true, deep connection with someone so quickly and immediately you feel as if they are your best friend.  Dawna has agreed to stay on with us as our tasting specialist and will represent Pamo Valley wines in her new neighborhood, Honolulu!  We joked over drinks last night and tossed around the possibility of opening a PVW branch there.  Dawna agrees there is a  market for good wines in Hawaii.  If we are lucky, we’ll be seeing Dawna (and Adam?)  at our upcoming Annual Grape Stomp Festa in Julian at Menghini Winery the first week of September!  See, they miss San Diego already!  Cheers to Dawna and Adam and their new opportunity – All the best to you both!  We’ll miss you but will never lose touch!   Hugs, Jenn and Mike