Wine Adventures with the 2 Dollar Wine Connoisseurs: Up Lounge ---Wine Down

To celebrate our anniversary this year we went to the Up Lounge.  It is a part of the Sky Room in downtown Long Beach.  The Up Lounge definitely didn’t live up to our expectations.   We had wanted to go here for several years, so when our anniversary came around we decided to meet a couple of friends that were also celebrating their anniversary .  The entrance to the Sky Room is on the side of the Breakers building which is basically an old folk’s home.   Everything about the building said old (1930’s old) .   The ground floor entrance lead  down a haunted hallway past old photos and memorabilia of the early days of Long Beach.   

 The elevator to go up to the Sky Room looked like it was straight out of the Tower of Terror ride at Disney’s California Adventure.   The Sky Room itself looked nice  (though our friends that actually ate there said the food wasn’t as good as they had hoped for the price).   The Up Lounge was up some narrow old staircase that seemed straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie (Vertigo anyone?)

 I can’t even imagine how drunken people make their way safely back down after a couple of cocktails.  The Up Lounge  nothing like what we expected.  We thought it was going to be this fancy rooftop are overlooking the harbor.  We choose this place based on the website because of the food menu that featured Flat breads and cheese platters.  When we asked for the menu once up there the online menu didn’t really exist.   That menu is actually for the Wine down Lounge at the bottom of the building and if you wanted wine at the UP Lounge you needed to go back down the dangerous stairs and get it from the Sky room.   Even though it had a view of the ocean, it was cold and had no wine or food as advertised.  So we just meet up with our friends and headed down to the bottom floor via the Haunted Elevator.  The Elevator emptied  out  into the old 1930’s lobby of the Retirement home.  There was a cool old amusement park model that we wanted to check out ---but we were chased away quickly by angry nurses.   So we made our way to the  The Wine Down Lounge  which was completely empty when we entered at 8:30pm on a Friday night.   We ordered some wine and hung out with our friends and ordered a 5 cheese plate which was actually really good salvaging the evening.  The bartender there actually was someone who used to take my dad's backpacking classes at Long Beach City College and so we hung out and listened to some of his stories.    I'd recommend the Wine Down Lounge (although it was so empty) because the cheese platter was so good.   The Up Lounge.......NOT SO MUCH>

2 Bad Wines

We finally ran into a Russian River Valley Chardonnay that we didn't like.  I don't know if it was just a bad bottle or if Clos Du Bois Sonoma Reserve 2012  is just that bad.    The bottle we had the other night smelled like stinky feet.  As you lifted the glass of wine to your lips it had the distinct smell of dirty socks.  Apparently Clos Du Bois is French for stinky socks.  The taste was tolerable, but the smell just made it not worth drinking.  I couldn't get the stench of sock out of my nose.   As we have mentioned before  the Russian River Valley is like the Holy Lands as far as we are concerned, we hope to make a pilgrimage there someday.  I don't know where this wine went wrong?  Maybe instead of barrels the wine was aged in socks???   Maybe they bottled it right after the grape stomping???  I'm not sure what happened, but smelly sock wine is not on my  "buy that again" list.

Another recent Wine we were not impressed with was The Skinny Vine.   It describes itself as   The Slim Chardonnay.......Flavor that Flatters......NOT SO MUCH....

We like our Chardonnay buttery and this Chard was not.  It tasted like a bottle of Wine that your teenager had tried with her friends and then tried to hide the fact they were drinking  by filling up half the bottle with water.   Slim yes,  Good tasting NO.   Watered down is what it was.   Another wine for the...."Don't buy that again"  list

Three Recent Low Budget Wine Finds

A reasonably priced  Chardonnay that we stumbled across at our local Von's.   With a Von's Club  card this wine has been on sale for months for just around $3 a bottle and has replaced Two buck Chuck as one of our cheap every week wines.   It is a pleasant smooth  Chardonnay that is perfect for sitting on the patio in the early evening to beat the summer heat.   I guess we should change our name to the $3 Wine Connoisseur.

At Trader Joe's for around $5.99  there is a nice Chardonnay called Meridian from Napa Valley.  Another smooth buttery and enjoyable Chardonnay with a hint of honeysuckle and vanilla flavor that would go great with goat cheese.  It has become a regular in our wine rotation.

And finally at Trader Joe's is a wine called Three Knights (with a cool a label) for around $6.99.   It is from the Russian River Valley (our favorite wine region).   It is hard to find a Chardonnay from the Russian River Valley that we don't like and this no exception especially at this price.  

Tune in soon for many more Wine adventures.  We have been busy this year enjoying Wine and have a lot of blogging to catch up on including:  A Trip to Malibu,   A return to the Wine Bar at the Rio,   a cool wine bar in Seattle and a tasting event in Costa Mesa and much more.

Wine Adventures with the 2 Dollar Wine Connoisseurs: Napa Rose

 Several years ago one of the first amazing Wine and Cheese experiences we had was at Napa Rose Restaurant at the Grand Californian Hotel in the Disneyland Resort. We decided it was long overdue to revisit this experience so one day last month after catching the Aladdin stage show at Disney's California Adventure we wandered over to the Grand Californian to enjoy this experience again. The Napa Rose is a fine dining restaurant  with a view of Disney California Adventure Park's Grizzly River Run area. The view is awesome and so is the food, wine and atmosphere.  The interior of the Napa Rose is gorgeous keeping with the theme of the beautiful Craftsman style of the hotel. We have had dinner here as well, but really enjoy just stopping by the Napa Rose Lounge for the cheeses from around the world and enjoying a bottle of wine.  Whether inside the lounge or outside next to the fire pit area it is a Wine and Cheese experience you absolutely have to try.

Below is the list of wonderful cheeses that we enjoyed on our latest trip here in February....

The Mine Shaft Blue and Bucheron St Saviol from France  were 2 personal favorites.

With some Russian River Valley Chardonnay it was a nearly perfect Wine and Cheese Adventure

Here is a view of the outside patio fire pit area at night from our previous visit here several years ago.

Wine Adventures with the 2 Dollar Wine Connoisseurs: Wine with Wyland

We planned a little one night trip to Laguna Beach in January to kick off the new year.  We stayed at one of the places we had wanted to stay at for awhile Laguna Casa Del Camino, a cute little hotel with a rooftop bar and the world's smallest rooms.  I'm talking so small that you better be careful sitting on the toilet because you may hit your head on the sink small.  And the rooftop bar with the ocean view----Well I'm sure you could see the ocean if you could get past the 500 people that were standing room only lined up shoulder to shoulder in order to see it.....but I'm getting ahead of myself......First there was wine tasting.

When getting ready to head down to Laguna for the day I was looking online for what we could do while down there.  We stopped for lunch at a beach side restaurant called The Deck which had a great view of the beach and ocean and was playing some great music put you in the beach vacation kind of mood.  The food wasn't bad either. After breakfast we headed inland just a bit to the Laguna Ranch Winery for a little wine tasting.   It was a last minute trip idea  so when we got there we found ourselves for the  second time in a row being the only people in the place without a +Groupon!! Oh well ... 

 They had a wide variety of some good wines for tasting. 5 free tastes with the purchase of any bottle of wine.  We knew wanted to get a couple of bottles anyway featuring some of the cool Wyland themed artwork.

We tasted some good  wines ---the Wyland Chardonnay 2011 and the Laguna Ranch Pinot Grigo 2010  which had a hint of lemon were our 2 favorites.  We also really enjoyed the 07' Wyland Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  While there we found out that they actually had a 2nd location right near PCH where we were staying so we decided to go and check that one out as well. 

Lucky for us that turned out to be a memorable decision.    

Talk about perfect timing!!!   About 3 minutes after we walked into the second location a guy with fish tattoos and a Hawaiian shirt wandered in and asked if anyone had been buying the Wyland wine. Next thing you know he jumped behind the counter and started signing bottles of wine.  Yep it was the +Artist Wyland  himself!! He just happened to be in town for a charity event and stopped by the winery to say Hi. He was very nice conversing with everyone as he signed a few of his most popular bottles of wine. 

So we had to get a couple more bottles of course and more wine tasting as well.   It was quite a lucky bit of timing since he now lives in Hawaii and just happened to stop by.  Wine Tasting with Wyland....who would have thought that when the day started.

So we tasted more wine and talked with some cool people and took home a few more wines for our collection

  Here is the website for the Laugna Ranch Winery.....

Stop by for a visit next time you are in the Laguna Area

+http://www.lagunacanyonwinery.com/

Until next time Cheers from Kim & Brad 

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Wine Adventures with the 2 Dollar Wine Connoisseurs. The Orange Coast Winery

Located in a strange little location sitting in the middle of a business district  a few blocks inland in Newport Beach sits a fun little wine diversion, The Orange Coast Winery...We stopped by as a part of our Anniversary celebration to check it out.  The Orange Coast Winery featured wines from Wiens Winery in the  Temecula  region. The wine tasting area featured 2 separate wine tasting rooms that were a mix of Shabby Antique meets Industrial Modern.     

Do a tasting or have wine by the glass.

The process of Making White Wine

So if want a little Wine Tasting while in Newport Beach stop on by.

Their website is below.

http://www.orangecoastwinery.com/

Our  Next stop on our Anniversary celebration was  Villa Nova a great Italian restaurant down near the bay which has an extensive Wine selection of wines that are mostly out of the $2 wine Connoisseur budget.

We enjoyed a nice bottle of   Sonoma Cutrer  A Russian River Valley  Chardonnay .......  (There is just something special about the Chardonnays from that region)

We had an excellent dinner including an amazing  Fried Mozzarella  appetizer and as a special treat for dessert they made us  their special  Villa Nova Souffles....for our anniversary.

Chocolate Souffle with a Hint Grand Marnier, Served with Fresh Raspberries and Homemade Whipped Cream    (OMG was it good)

Here is their website....

http://www.villanovarestaurant.com/default.asp

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White Flight at Golden Vine Terrace

A Quick Weekend trip to the Disneyland Resort for some Wine Tasting and a little Elvis. Summer 2012

First stop the Wine.....after a great lunch at Wine Country Trattoria...we wandered over to the Golden Vine Terrace for a little Wine Tasting --where we did a White Flight with the help of a Cast member named Windsor.

Up first was a Viogner from the Central Coast in Santa Barbara area.   A pleasant white wine with a hint of apricot.

Followed by a little Sauvignon Blanc from Sonoma Valley.

...Our favorite of the 3 wines we tried---Chardonnay and Sauvingon Blancs are usually our favorites.

Then a little Gewurztraminer from France....We liked it but good luck ordering it in a restaurant.....Because that is a hard name to say.

The Vines at DCA

After Wine---a Little Elvis over in Tomorrowland.....

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