Bah. Day 4? 5?

It's all just blending together. Not sure what day it is, but I know that I'm in the state of California.
But I do have my notebook, which I've been writing in, so I will reference that for today's blog.

Wednesday night Jay, Toy, me, and the shark-man himself (Kyle) went out for sushi. We ate a million rolls and drank a ton of japanese beer and sake. Kyle, aside from being unfazed by the infamous great white sharks, is a winemaker {"vintner"}, and he has a dog, DOG [dee-o-ghee]. His hands are stained a deep purple, almost black, from working with the grapes.

Yesterday, Thursday, I went to work with Toy @ Bridlewood Winery to learn all there is to know about wine. It's beautiful here; the grapes, the hills, the horses. I hung out in the office for a bit while Toy got some work done. She gave me the "bible" with all of the information about wine. Here are some things that I learned:
-Top 3 US States in terms of wine consumption: CA, NY, FL
-Why swirl? Because when you swirl your wine you invite oxygen into the glass, which allows the aromas to escape (if you taste or smell vanilla, the wine was most likely aged in oak casks)
-One bottle of wine has 2.4 pounds of grapes.
-Bacchus: the Greek and Roman God of Wine
-The horses @ Bridlewood are named Oprah (cause she's a big, black powerful woman), Charlie, Dr.Pepper, Cannon & Utah. There were a few more, but I didn't like them as much as I liked these horses.
-Fermentation: the process that occurs when yeast changes the sugar in grapes into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
-Tannin: a bitter compound found in the seeds, stems & skin of grapes, and is extracted from wooden barrels. It is quite astringent and causes a puckering sensation in the front of the mouth.
-Tannic: word used to describe wine in which tannins overpower the fruit and other elements. A tannic wine is not well-balanced.

In the afternoon, Juan took me on a tour. First, you crush the grapes. Not with your feet people, they use a machine. Then the wine ferments with yeast in steel containers for 2-3 weeks. After this they are moved into barrels where they will sit for anywhere from a year to 3 years. At Bridlewood they use 75% French Oak and 25% American Oak barrels. I drank unfiltered, still fermenting white wine - it was cloudy, still very fruity, and tasted almost like a white-wine spritzer or a mamosa. Similar to sparkling wine. Juan's job is to taste and test wine. Difficult, I know. He said sometimes you "just dont want to drink anymore wine" hahaha. He also told me that the best way to learn about wine is to drink drink drink. SO I took his advice, starting right then and there, and proceeded to drink for the rest of the day, and into the evening. Around 4 pm Jbird picked me up and we headed to the Red Barn , a local and famous spot. Jay and I sipped cocktails for a couple hours until Toy met up with us. After that we headed to some other bar, where we drank some more drinks! Debauchery should be today's word.

This morning I'm feeling a tad-bit hungover, which serves me right. I'm going to sip some tea and prepare for what the rest of the day has in store for me. Jay is getting done work early, so we will get to go for a surf. Definitely need to rest up for that...