Lake County Wine Harvest Festival

We decided to check out a winery in Kelseyville. I was looking for Steel Winery, and I got an address from my GPS. When we arrived at the location I saw no buildings, only a big open field and some tents. "I must have made a wrong turn," I told Glenda, so I circled back around to make another pass at the address. Only then did I realize that the tents were housing the annual Lake County Wine Harvest Festival. Every wine grower in the region was represented. Amid the dozens of tents we discovered a small building which actually was Steel Winery, so we went inside to see what was going on.

We were told that for five dollars we would get five glasses of wine of our own choosing. Then we could visit the tents of the vendors to buy pulled pork, fried chicken, barbecued beef, and a whole host of other delicious tapas. Glenda and I adored a Filipino dish called a lumpia, a sort of meat filled eggroll. We had never heard of them. We sampled our five different wines along with some wonderful Mexican and Asian food. There was a new white wine called Roussanne that is between a Chardonnay and a Pinot Grigio. We met several local residents and enjoyed learning about their experiences in the winemaking business. Some of the wine growers told us that the wines of Lake County are every bit as good as those of Napa County to the south, but that Lake County has not been discovered yet. So the wines cost a fraction of the price of those grown just a few miles away. Additionally, California law requires that for a wine to claim a vintage, all of its grapes must be grown on a certain hill, using certain techniques in an identifiable location. The wine growers of Lake County generally do not sell their wines individually, but rather bring them to a central winery where a trained vintner blends them into delicious combinations. I thought they were spectacular.

Just before we left Glenda wanted me to go back into the field and pick just a few of the cabernet sauvignon grapes for her to taste. I went back, took a photo, picked the grapes and happened upon a delightful high school student who has lived all her life in Kelseyville. She was friendly and charming and engaged me in a conversation. She told me that since she was a child she had worked as an agricultural worker in her father's vineyard. I asked her where she planned to go to college after graduation. "I'll probably stay here," she said. "The grapes are my life." She seemed very intelligent and articulate, and for a moment I felt a bit of regret that someone so personable and talented would not further her education. Then I looked around at the vineyards surrounding us and I said, "That may not be a bad choice."

Then we headed Vista Point to take some photographs and returned to Worldmark. After relaxing a bit in the room we went outside to enjoy the sunset and then came back to the hooch for bed.Read more