Bernhardt Winery

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“Valentine” is one of their specialty wines. It has a fuchsia color and smells like cotton candy. It goes down smooth and leaves you big fruit taste. Not really the wine for me, but the girls loved it.

“Pinnelli” is a blended wine. Bernhardt mixes their own Pinot with Sister Creek Muscat Canelli which is one of the sweetest Muscat’s I’ve ever had. The result is sharply sweet wine with a fruity flavor.

The Blanc du Bois is a bit less sweet than the Pinelli, but it’s lacking. I still think the Blanc de Bois from Torre Di Pietra Winery and Woodrose Winery is better.

The Merlot was a deep red color with highly peppery aftertaste to it. It was also a bit on the heavy side with the tannins. I liked this wine.

“Aggie Blush” which is a White Zinfandel had not been bottled for the year so I was unable to try it.

“Schrok” another blended white wine had a distinct berry flavor. Nothing special stood out about it.

Bernhardt Winery is located north east of Plantersville Texas. Take highway 105 East and go North on CR 204. Coordinates: 30.358347 -95.831591

Retreat Hills Winery

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The winery features a small tasting room with a nice outdoor area that has tables overlooking the grapevines. It’s a quaint little place and the people were very nice. Overall this place had some of the best wine I tasted on the trip. I’ve hit about 40 wineries in Texas and finding a flavor that stands out is actually a bit uncommon. The Triple M Blend from Rancho Ponte comes to mind immediately. It’s unique. Retreat Hills has some real winners for sure. Not surprising I found out later that five of their wines are medal winners. As a practice I never ask questions beforehand and really I recommend you don’t either. One person whom I’ve tasted with on occasion specifically asks for wines aged in Oak barrels only. He prefers them over wines aged in metal barrels with only oak chips. I’m not faulting him for that reasoning, because that is what he likes, but I think that introduces some bias into the tasting experience.

Back to the tasting notes. Retreat Hills has a very crisp Riesling one of the better I’ve had for sure. Not too sweet. Nice color.

The Rose was slightly darker than most. It had a bit of a bite to it, which was kind of nice. It would be a good pairing with deer.

Not impressed with Blanc du Bois. It was missing the creamy finish that is their signature. They are phasing it out.

Bought the 2009 Blazin Blush White Zinfandel. Light pink color. Apricot smell and aftertaste. Light with a smooth finish. Light ting on the tongue. Definitely a desert wine or something to sip on a hot day. I found out later, that this wine won the bronze medal at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition.

Retreat Hills is located South of Whitehall, Tx on FM 362. Coordinates: 30.284630 -95.97164

Bluebonnet Wine Trail

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The gentleman serving wine behind the bar at the Bernhardt Winery near Plantersville, TX said “We have three types of wine: Red, White and what you like.” Very true statement indeed. Don’t let Parker stop you from expanding your palate. There are to many great, yet unrated, wines out there. More importantly, there are scores of those types of wine in Texas. I recently went on a trip to wineries in East Texas. Affectionately called the Bluebonnet trail, there are plenty of wildflowers to see on the way, if you go in spring. For those with short attention spans here is the list of the wineries: Retreat Hills, Bernhardt, Cork This!, Colony Cellars, Pleasant Hill, Windy Hill, and Messina Hof. Over the next few posts I’ll be recounting the trip as well as going over tasting notes from each of the places visited.

Before I go into any of the tasting notes, I think it’s only fair to talk about my palate. I think it’s kind of funny that the wine that really got me started, my “gateway wine” so to speak is now the type I like the least. My taste has definitely evolved over time. I like my wine like my friend Eloy likes his relationships with women: bitter, dry and dark.

When it comes to white wine Muscats are what I like the least. There to sweet for me. I have never really found a Pinot that I’ve like despite many attempts. I find them lacking in the flavor category. Riesling is good as long as it on the dryer side. Chardonnay is by far my favorite of the whites. They have a pretty spot on dryness with the right amount of flavor, which to me means I’m not drinking a fruit bomb.

Rose and blush are a bit of a mixed bag. I’ve only tried an limited number of Roses’ so I’m still forming an opinion. I’ve not found a White Zinfandel I haven’t liked, but my experience with it’s been limited to large production, commodity, wines like Sutter Home and the, loathed by many, Yellow Tail.

Reds for me are where it’s at. Lately I’ve really been into Shiraz most that I’ve tried are fairly heavy on the tannins which contributes to their overall dryness and makes them awesome. Tempranillo is probably my second favorite it’s got a full body flavor that I just love. Down the line from them is definitely Cabernet, Malbec, Grenache, and Zinfandel. Like their white counterpart red Pinot just does not do it for me.

WildSeed Farms

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This Wildseed Farm is not your typical nursery. Sure you can buy potted plants, herbs, and all manner of assorted flowers, but what makes this place special is the stuff you can’t buy. They have sectioned off a big chunk of their 220+ acres and dedicated it a trail you can walk while surrounded by fields of wildflowers. I probably spent around four hours there just walking around and taking pictures. There’s a little market place there to, where you can buy beer, wine, sandwiches, and all sorts of locally made products. I picked up some cherry jam, and some honey bottled by a local bee farmer. The best part is you can take any of the drinks out on the trail with you.

To get there, take highway 290, 7 miles East out of Fredericksburg. Then after your done, go hit up Rancho Ponte and Grape Creek Vineyards. Both are just a few more miles down the road and well worth the stop.

Kindle Nation Daily Retort

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One of today’s top items on Digg.com was a post from the Kindle Nation Daily talking about the iPad is the next Kindle. The author makes a number of arguments about what impact the iPad is going to have on the tech market. Since I’m sort of in the market for an eReader I figured I would take his arguments and offer up my own views.

1) The iPad will kill the Netbook. &  2) The iPad will not kill the laptop dead, but will seriously wound it’s mass appeal.
This is a pipe dream. I won’t be typing a term paper on it.  Sure there are external Bluetooth keyboards for it, but they run on batteries, and there not attached to the device. I’m kind of screwed if the battery goes out or I forget it at home because it’s charging on a wall plug somewhere. Apple has a full sized keyboard if you can find a place to lug something that annoyingly large around. Touch typing long docs is not an ideal option. The device will not even edit Word docs. Say what you want about Microsoft, but most colleges and business run on MS Office. Not every location is WiFi enabled and 3G is a battery drain even on smartphones. Some people would argue these WiFi-less places are lame and they wouldn’t be there anyway, but having an Ethernet port is infinitely more useful. The hard drive is also pretty small for the price tag. What about my boss wanting that presentation to be projected? External video outputs? Nope. It’s not a business tool. It’s not and educational tool. It’s an entertainment device.

3) The iPad will also kill or seriously cannibalize sales of the iPod Touch.
Agreed to some extent. I can’t really take it jogging with me like the Nano, the Touch, or the Zune for that matter. I wouldn’t take it on a backpacking trip either, so for people in those demographics the choice is clear: No way.  But, if your looking for an MP3 player with more bells and whistles, then yes I can see this as a solution.

4) The iPad could even cut into iPhone, BlackBerry, and Droid sales.
It’s not like you can fit it in your back pocket. I’d be interested in seeing someone comparing battery life on a Droid to an iPad using Skype to make calls, but really Installing Skype is not a big enough selling point. Most Droid apps are free and the BlackBerry is the de facto business phone. I just don’t see it.

5) Will the iPad be a Kindle Killer.
Maybe, but is that a really a bad thing? Profit margins are extremely low on the actual Kindle device. The real money is in content sales. It’s not a huge financial hit to miss out those unit sales. The PS3 would be profitable if they could sell some decent games. As long as Amazon can sell books via an application the device does not matter.

Books, iPads, and Nooks.

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I found myself reading a lot lately. Last month I read The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, Rework by Jason Fried & David Hansson of 37Signals, and Tribes by Seth Godin. It’s an odd combination of books for sure, especially if you compare Dan Brown’s writing style to Jason and David’s, which you really can’t, but humor me anyway. Jason & David, write to get to the point quickly, while Dan is extremely descriptive. The point is I’d be bored without variety.

I really love Dan Brown’s work. If nothing else, his books inspire me to think and do some research. I ended up reading with the laptop up so I could Google pictures of locations and scans of paintings.

Rework, makes a number of good points. After reading thought it, I was happy to see that they shared some of my own personal views on business. I’m not crazy after all apparently. Out of all the chapters, the one most near and dear to my heart is Meetings are Toxic. Nothing ever really gets done and some douchebag ends up eating everyone’s time or derailing the thing entirely.

Seth Godin writes mostly about raising an army of minions to carry out your will…. Cleverly under the guise of empowering groups with solid leadership in order to make a change. The basic premise is there are people out there who want the same things as you do, they just need leadership to unite them and blaze the path.  Now I just need to find some minions.

All this recent book reading has got be back on the eReader kick, except this time the market has more to offer than just the Kindle. I’ve pretty much decided the Sony is not even in the running. The Kindle 2 looks pretty slick, but I haven’t played with it. I have played with a Nook though, and it was pretty nice. The selling point for the Kindle would probably be the web browser. I considered the iPad, but really it’s overpriced for what you get, the battery life is abysmal compared to the Kindle and the Nook, and it weighs more. So it looks like if I do get something it’s going to be either a Kindle or the Nook.

Seam Sealing a Tent

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For the first time ever, I ordered a tent that didn’t come seam sealed from the factory. Most website and forum post will lead you to believe that it’s an easy thing to do. Which I’ll admit it is, but it’s one of the most tedious tasks I’ve done in a while. Materials react to chemicals differently so check with the manufacturer to see what they recommend for sealant. In addition to the sealer I recommend a good set of rubber gloves, a plastic mixing bowl, something disposable to mix with, and a pack of Q-tips. Also the fumes are dangerous so only do this outside or in a well ventilated area like an open garage with some fans. The ingredients I used were GE Clear Silicon II, mixed with mineral spirits with a ratio of 1 Tbsp silicon to 2 Tbsps mineral spirits. Both items can be found at your local hardware store. I mixed the components in plastic container, until it had a semi-viscous consistency. If the mixture appears to thick add more mineral spirits. From there it was just a matter of dipping the Q-tips into the mixture and painting it slowly on the seams of the interior and exterior. Use the gloves while mixing and painting so the mixture does not get in contact with your skin. Typically it’s best to do the exterior and let it dry for a day, then do the exterior another day which is what I did. After the initial sealing is done, test it for field use by pitching it outside and letting a sprinkler loose on it. Check for leaks, note them down and repaint missed spots.

Boerne Chocolate Walk

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The walk is a once a year event, where a large number of merchants in Boerne, TX give out chocolate for people visiting their stores. Tickets are limited to 250 people, and they must be bought in advance. The majority of the shops are on the main street, and within walking distance of each other. I think we put in about 5 miles just wandering around the town and checking out all the shops.

Boerne is a pretty quite town, with a lot of interesting photographic material, especially downtown. If Antiques and crafts are your thing, there are a plenty of shops up there to suit you. All the chain restaurants, Chili’s, Pizza Hut, Sonic, etc are there, but my advice is skip out and get some local food from places like The Little Gretle or The Dodging Duck Brewhaus, and yes for the beer aficionado’s, The Dodging Duck, brews their own beer on site. If you plan to go to a local place, watch the time. Most of them shut down for about 2 hours between breakfast and lunch and then again between lunch and dinner. Check the websites for the most accurate information.

Lost Maples

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This was an interesting trip to say the least. First of all I accidentally hit the wrong button on the GPS and wiped out the track map, so I have nothing to upload to everytrail.com. Second, I got sick after we got to camp. It started as a headache, but I ended up spending some part of the night hurling outside the tent. =( Not exactly the best trip in my opinion. The latter brings up a good point. Since it’s the start of the year, review the contents of your first aid kit, and ensure the meds are not expired. I only did a quick look to see if I had some in the kit, but they were unusable. Some Advil and Tums could have helped.

We figured going in the off season during the school year would cut down on the number of people there, and well, it almost worked out. The general populous of day hikers were non-existent but the park was literally overrun with Boy Scouts. There was something like four troops with at least 10 kids each, at the trailhead when we arrived. Let’s just say the hike and camping were less than quiet. We were camped a mile away from the nearest troop and could still hear them. No big deal though, I’m glad to see people getting kids interested in the outdoors. Way back, when I was in it, going on a troop camp out was what I looked forward to. Beats playing video games all weekend for sure. It dropped below freezing at night, so they all should have earned their polar bear badges. Good for them.

I’ve been attempting to pack less weight, and I did, but there is room for more. I need to look at new sleeping bags. I have an old Mountain Hardware Lamana 32. I’m pretty sure there is something lighter on the market now considering it’s at least six years old. I need to replace it’s compression sack with a lighter version as well. The tent I have for winter is a four season, two person, Kelty Radiant 2 which eventually needs to be replaced with something lighter. Those items are the major pain points right now.

TX Wine Trail

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View Texas Wineries in a larger map

24 wineries in 3 days. Not bad if I do say so myself. I’ll try to write something more about the trip later. I need to find out how to attach the kmz of all the waypoints to this post.

Update:
The kmz with the waypoints can be downloaded here.