Part 2 of 5

Just a quick update about my latent eye condition, which affects both of my eyes: I have iritis, which is an inflammation of the iris. Both eyes are rather swollen, too, which has caused each iris to “stick to” the cornea, the symptoms being what I can best describe as a heavy white blur. In other words, I have become partially blind in both eyes. And I’m going on one week now.

I can see for the most part, but it’s like looking out from a snow cave during a blizzard. I can barely read nor can I see long distances; driving is out of the question. For a hiker and an avid reader, that’s damn hard. I’m also very acutely light-sensitive and it hurts to look at a computer screen, especially since I must do it with magnifying reading glasses. Yes, I know I’ve got a lot of emails piling up. No, I am not yet ready to respond to them all.

Apparently iritis is a fairly common occurence. I’d never heard of it previously. But I’m going to have to be patient and endure this iritis Hell for the next two weeks or more as I visit the ophthalmologist and take atropine and prednisolone in the form of a heavy regimen of eye drops. Meanwhile I take comfort in knowing that some of you have been emailing. I’m grateful that you’re thinking of me.

I’m thinking of you, too. And I’m going to come back. There are plenty of far-off vistas that I still intend to lead you to.

~winehiker

« Part 1: The eyes have it. And they hurt. Winehiker out of commission. | Part 3: Things are beginning to look up »

Part 1 of 5

Sometime yesterday my eyes started to get really painful, red, and swollen - both of them. Not sure what bug I got, but I can’t read or drive like this. So, as much as I had intended to write today about the wineries I visited in Paso Robles this past weekend, I’m going to postpone that post until I’m post-hurtful. I’m sure you understand. Ow.

~winehiker

Part 2: From “I, Writer” to iritis »

• Tempting Spring on a Paso Robles winehiking weekend
  Paso Robles offers many fine wine-tasting experiences. And yet it’s the area’s hiking trails that can round out a visit and boast a High Gorgeosity Factor (HGF).
  (tags: wine tasting hiking winehiking paso robles vacation qpr winehiker californiawinehikes.com cerro alto montana de oro)

These last four days have been marvelous. Marvelous, mind you, not because I chose to forsake blogging for four days, but because it simply was marvelous to revel in all that Paso Robles and the surrounding community offers in the way of beautiful hikes, bountiful wineries, and spectacular countryside.

Technically it is still Winter. Yet with low rainfall totals to date, there aren’t many wildflowers blooming along the trails of the southern Central Coast. Nevertheless it is California, where the return of Spring is often tempted early. Assuredly it would seem that nowhere else can the approaching footsteps of Spring be heard as audibly as when opening your window to the voices of Nature. And Saturday as I trudged along the moderately steep but mercifully short climb to Cerro Alto Summit, I passed another hiker who jubilantly remarked, “It’s a Chamber of Commerce kind of weekend.”

Between heaving gulps of breath, I replied that I couldn’t agree more.

True, for much of the weekend the days were clear and bright, the oak-studded hills were green and lovely, and the mountaintop views were superb and commanding. Indeed, there are not many moments in this life that can be more dazzling than the moment one arrives at the summit of Cerro Alto on such a clear day as Saturday. No camera can possibly drink in the jaw-dropping expanse that we beheld all around us. We didn’t earn it without effort, and yet it was stupendously satisfying to finally gaze upon the Nine Morros, that serpentine line of nine large rocks that rises from the ocean, stretches for miles, and defines the valleys of southern San Luis Obispo County.

We doffed our packs and sat spellbound upon the summit’s rocky outcrop. We lunched, we lingered, we marveled at the marvelous. Those moments were singular, thrilling, uplifting, emotional, unforgettable.

Nature abruptly changed her mood on Sunday, greeting us with storm-scudded skies. But no caprice of Nature could deter ten tenacious trailblazers from ascending the gentle slopes of Montana de Oro State Park’s Valencia Peak. In contrast to Saturday’s 360-degree High Gorgeosity Factor views atop Cerro Alto, Sunday’s was a different rhythm, its subdued pall conjuring elements of mystery and mysticism. Gnarled Eucalyptus trees, swirling winds, and the eerie dark silhouette of Cerro Alto through shifting clouds were complemented by the close-in boom and roar of the Pacific surf.

It was a fine music. And as we gazed northward along the sandy Morro Bay shoreline, we seemed to enjoy a quiet harmony of our own.

After each of those hikes, boy did we wash down the trail dust! With over 100 wineries in the Paso Robles region, it was easy to take our pick of them. Nevertheless, we were careful to choose from a broad assortment of wineries to include small, family-owned wineries as well as those with name recognition. While not all of us winehikers made it to each of the following wineries, you can be sure that The Winehiker did. I’ve linked to those that, considering the combination of the wines, their prices, and the winery/venue experience, are most worthy of a visit.

• Le Cuvier
• Turley
• Zin Alley
• Dark Star
• Castoro
• Eberle
• Robert Hall
• Justin
• Caparone

I may be back at the ol’ blog today, but I remain viscerally connected to this past weekend’s events; it’s as if I haven’t truly chosen to return home. Perhaps it is because I felt so much at home in Paso Robles! And therefore I want to thank Randy Sefcik, whose Sunset Summit House I recommend as a very comfortable and affordable place to stay with friends or family while visiting Paso Robles.

~winehiker

Note: If you’re considering a wine vacation in the Paso Robles area, I’ve planned a 5-day wine and hiking tour just for you.

• Wine consumers: we’re not normal, but we’re sexy
  Wow. I always knew I wasnt quite normal. Now that there’s Project Genome, its nice to finally know why.
  (tags: wine consumer producer industry research normal sexy winehiker californiawinehikes.com)
• American Wine Blog Awards winner to be announced next week
  The window for voting in Tom Wark’s inaugural American Wine Blog Awards is about to close, but you still have time to vote.
  (tags: american wine blog awards vote blogs bloggers best voting)

The window for voting in the inaugural American Wine Blog Awards, championed by Tom Wark’s Fermentation blog, is about to close.  So, dear oenoblogophile, if you haven’t voted yet for your favorite wine blogger who’s been nominated in any of seven categories, you only have until tomorrow, so do scoot on over to Tom’s blog to vote right away.

The results should be exciting, and according to Tom, we’ll quite possibly find out who the winner is as early as next Tuesday, February 20th.

~winehiker

Promoting environmental awareness usually ends up dividing the world into two camps - environmentalists that want to save the world, pitted against huge corporations that want to conquer it. Can the twain ever meet? Yes, says Interface founder Ray Anderson.

read more | digg story

According to an article in Tuesday’s Wine Industry Report from Fine Wine Press, “If you’ve had wine in the last seven days and if you bought a bottle of wine priced at over $15 in the last three months, if you have more than 18 bottles in your house at any given moment, and if you’ve tried a bottle of New Zealand wine in the last year, YOU ARE NOT A NORMAL WINE CONSUMER.”

Wow. I always knew I wasn’t quite normal. It’s nice to finally know why.

And yet, should wine producers be alarmed that more people aren’t normal? Not really. Leslie Joseph, vice president of consumer research and consumer affairs for Constellation Wines U.S. and lead researcher for Project Genome, has it all figured out:

When it comes to selling more wine, the best strategy is to enjoy the “sexy” segments (which according to Project Genome include the “Enthusiast”, the “Image Seeker” and the “Savvy Shopper”).

These days, I can surely tell you that I’m keen on value, and I shop for my wine accordingly. And as a blogger about wine, the term enthusiast goes without saying. I just plain love the sensual aspects of wine.

But to be seen with wine? To show off my vast steel-encased triple-padlocked bought-it-all-at-once collection? No, no: that’s where style and substance don’t mix. I’d rather just drink it. So if there’s a wine rap sheet on me in some byzantine bureaucratic bunker somewhere, I guess two out of three counts of sexy against me ain’t bad.

It’s better than being normal.

Ms. Joseph also advises the wine industry to focus on the “traditionalist” fundamentals, too. Her Project Genome research has come up with the following additional facts:

Traditionalists: make up 16% of consumers and represent 13% of profits
Satisfied Sippers: represent 14% of consumers and 7% of profits, and
Overwhelmed: consumers make up 23% of consumers and 11% of profits

Ms. Joseph shared these findings and more with industry leaders at the 11th annual Unified Symposium in Sacramento, California on January 25.

My conclusion? If everyone else was as sexy as I am, wine producers and marketers would be ultramegafilthy rich and you’d need to make the Forbes 500 list just to register on winebid.com. But I think there’s plenty of sexiness to go around. I think I’ll drink another daily dose of that healthful red sexy tonic this evening.

Source: The Wine Industry Report
Also see Constellation Wines U.S.

~winehiker

• The History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less
  Rather Earthcentric, but get out your Funk & Wagnall’s for this gem.
  (tags: earth education cool writing astronomy differentiation evolution star world universe)
• Tastings.com
  The Beverage Testing Institute: Like what you drink, drink what you like.
  (tags: drink food magazine reference wine review tasting)
• On love, wine, and being a naturalist
  A short essay about the love that is inspired by rediscovering and knowing Nature.
  (tags: life nature balance happiness naturalist wine love winehiker californiawinehikes.com)
• A Valentine’s Day Special from the Washington Trails Association
  Into the “hearts” of the wilderness.
  (tags: heart valentine photography wilderness nature)

American naturalist and essayist John Burroughs once wrote:

“A sense of the power and mystery of Nature shall spring up as fully in one’s heart after he has made the circuit of his own field as after returning from a voyage ’round the world.”

That statement sure rings true with me. I can hike the same trail over and over again in different seasons or in the same, and still I find that I cannot divorce myself from that sense of wonder that I used to know as a kid. I still want to get belly down on the ground sometimes just to marvel at the life going on within a square foot of space.

I hope I never lose this sense of awe, this inspired revelation, this connection to our world’s intricate graces, this true love.

And so I endeavor to keep on learning, exploring, taking my world into deeper realms of understanding, connection, and reconnection. Whether it’s that tongue-brain connection that tells me why I like a wine and not just that I like it, or whether it’s being able to observe and uncover the relationships between rock, tree, cloud, vine, flower, bird and insect, I continually want to know more about this relationship between me and my earth, us and our earth. I feel it strongly, viscerally. I feel it because I choose to live in the present, this moment on the trail, right now.

I want others to share this, too: the desire to find the beauty, curiosity, wisdom, and strength from this natural world that surrounds us, supports us, and waits for us to accept it, acquiesce to it, embrace it. And therefore I want to teach others to watch, listen, observe, and feel Nature. Indeed, we can all gain strength from feeling Nature’s continuity, diversity, magnitude and intelligence which are all around us every day.

We just have to choose to feel.

It is for these reasons that my love affair with the natural world is very much like a love affair with wine.

~winehiker