Sometimes you just get lucky with un-posed group shots, as I did here. While I did ask permission first, this is how I found them.
SATURDAY
One thing that makes Los Gatos and Saratoga wine-special is the continuous stream of wine-related activities and events. Saturday was one of four Passport Days sponsored by the SCMWGA (Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Growers Association). Probably all local tasting rooms participate, and many small wineries that have no tasting rooms are hosted by local businesses. It’s a very convenient and entertaining way to sample many limited distribution wines and the latest releases from the bigger vineyards.
I had my camera along when I dropped by Cinnabar Winery on Big Basin Way in Saratoga. As is often the case in this tasting room, I found a happy, convivial, wine-talking crowd. I found each of the two-dozen or so tasting events I’ve attended to have a relaxed, mellow vibe punctuated by outbursts of levity and friendliness. I find this energy as appealing as the wine tasting itself.
The accompanying photo is typical of what’s happening in tasting venues all over the east side of the mountains. There are singles, couples, and groups sharing the wine, their reactions to it and their opinions about just about any other topic of interest. This group was having fun, so I asked if I could snap a few shots. They good-naturedly said “go for it”, so I did.
SUNDAY
These rose-blushed olives were amongst the plumpest and most colorful of the many varieties we picked this day.
On a lark, and because Regale Winery is a part of DiscoverLosGatos.com, and because we were invited by a friend, Dianne and I decided join a 60-person strong contingent of volunteer olive pickers on the Regale grounds on Summit road in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Owner Larry Schaadt is following some Napa/Sonoma and Paso Robles wineries into the olive oil business alongside his winery and burgeoning event business in the new Tuscan styled villa he recently built 1600 feet above the valley.
Couple things about harvesting olives. First, each tree bears thousands of olives. Second , it’s a big orchard – I’m guessing 40 trees. That adds up to a hoped-for 3,000 lbs of fruit that renders into about 55 gallons of oil. Bottom line – a lot of olives need to be picked.
We and the rest of the gang spent about three hours on a mid-January shirt-sleeves Sunday afternoon stripping olives from their branches. On particularly fruit-laden branches, the stripping action we were taught took me back to a long-faded memory of milking a cow. Add to this image the 5-gallon buckets dangling around our waists, suspended by a rope looped around our necks into which the “milked” berries fell.
Dianne (L), and Ronee Nassi, Executive Director of the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, make their contribution to the ton and a half goal.
It also became apparent that particularly in the business of harvesting olives, by far the easiest pickings were the extremely low-hanging fruit, which we all immediately sought out. It was virtually no deterrent that this often meant kneeling in the dirt, face buried in leaves. Yes, those plump, dense low-hanging rows of fruit brought us to our knees with their siren song.
Our compadres, nearly all wine club members, worked diligently, socializing as they picked, sometimes even breaking into song. When it was done, we were done in. Picking is hard work. Our reward was a libation-laced feast on the upper floor on the villa. We filled up on pizza fresh from the wood-fired-oven, roasted vegetables, salad, bread with Regale’s fresh olive oil and copious amounts of delicious Regale Pinot Noir and also Barbera, one of my new zesty favorites.
Never too young to learn to fine art of olive picking.
I was impressed to learn from owner Larry that all the bottled oil is gifted to wine club members and is served at tastings and events. The very same members who devoted four or five hours of their Sunday to harvesting olives and partying after, these same folks will literally taste the fruits of their labor. Regale has found another way to make wine club membership fun, physical and festive.
Owner Larry worked the fields, drove a forklift, and then served wine, which was our favorite part.
