after dinner sneeze

Trust me, I tried my best to take pictures inside, but I couldn’t find a way to do it and not look like the other four tourists taking selfies.  I was embarassed.  (Or maybe I was just embarassing g?)  So I guess my words will have to paint the picture.  Merry Edwards has a cute little courtyard area, complete with a fountain or two.  You walk into a main reception area where you can “sign up” for a tasting.  There are 2-3 rotating tasting rooms for walk-ins that rotate in terms of which one is “going off” when.  It’s kind of like getting in line for go-kart riding at an amusement park: everyone lines up, then the first 10 or so people all get into the first set of cars and go; and then the next 10 get into the second wave, etc.  Each room opens up as soon as it’s done and then the next group goes.  I found it to be a great way to deal with an onslaught of people all at once – instead of having just a single bar, where employees have to remember which wine they’re pouring for whom, they basically invite a group of people into a closed off room with a separate bar and do a single [standing] tasting with a whole group at once (~15-min).  This way everyone gets to hear everything about the vineyard history and a tidbit about each wine, and we’re all on the same page.  Pretty cool setup!  It’s like having two-to-three revolving bars!  And by “group”, I have to admit that it can be quite small – we had only one other couple in our group, but they could have easily have accommodated more if needed.  They also offer a [free!] seated tasting that included some chardonnay, but that required an appointment; ours was four pinots and a SB.  The pinots were a great study in California pinot noir, each one with different kinds of fruit and savory flavors.  I will warn you, however, that the pinots tend to be quite spendy (~$50-$60/bottle), and I wasn’t quite moved enough by any of them to open my wallet (in my book a $50 wine better at least take my breath away).  The SB, however, was quite remarkable, reminding us of a baby Illumination … with a pricepoint to match (~$32).  And unlike most wines found at wineries, it’s actually harder to find this wine on the retail market for cheaper than at the tasting room, so I could buy with a clear conscience.  While not as petrol-driven, smack-you-in-the-face as Heitz’s SB (this one had a dollop of vanilla oak and a smidge more stone fruit like peach instead of the petrol in Heitz’s), it was a very nice showing, working well with the Dungeness crab g and I just cooked up at home …  Ahhhh – California life is just too hard – wine and crabs in November?  C’est la vie!