Malm Cellars...an Exclusive Look...

The other night when we were playing golf I did a terrible shot and it ended up near the green where Brendan Malm, owner of Malm Cellars was playing. He invited us to take a look at his winery and see the way they bottle their wine, as well as have a tasting. How could we decline?
Today we spent a few hours learning from him about some different wines, how they are aged, and the different unique things his business does. He sells to hotels such as the Beverly Hotel, Trump Golf Course, Four Seasons etc... So you see, very exclusive...The older kids got to wine taste a few of his wines. He also gave Veronica and I our own bottles of wine for when we turn 21... he was very generous...

Wine Tasting

Wine Tasting

He then showed us how they bottle the wines, cork them and label them. We got to do a few of our own. It was quite fun! Here's the process...


We begin with filling the empty bottles with wine:

 

We then put a cork in it with this machine:

Then the label is applied and the wax seals the top:

Once we finished up there we then went out to lunch with him to a nice little local restaurant and got a good burger! It was lots of fun.

At Lunch

Castello di Amorosa...

Today we took a tour of an Italian Castle. All of the wood, bricks, stone etc...were imported from different countries throughout Europe. Everything was made like an Italian castle would have been built. It was pretty amazing to say the least... Not to mention our tour guide was intriguing and so into it that you became thrilled by every word... Let me show through a gallery of pictures so you can get a small glimpse of what we saw today...

We enter the Castle

A look at the castle's vineyards

We are about to enter through the gate

The Courtyard

One of the intricate doors

Passing through a hall

Where the archers would keep guard on the castle (about 4"x10")

The banquet hall

The church

                                               

One of the wine cellars

One of the wines are aged in these barrels

The candle making room

Another wine cellar

Each of these barrels has aging wine in them

A look at the whole room

The torture chamber

The original "hot seat" (you would sit on the seat and underneath it there would be a fire burning to warm the metal spikes)

A suit of armor

Wine tasting

The bottle of Grape Juice that Isaac, Veronica and I  got to drink while the others wine tasted

The Farmer's Market and Merry Edwards Winery

This morning Victoria, Jordan and I went and had coffee a little cafe in old town Windsor. Afterwards we saw that the farmer's market was just getting started so we took a little walk through it. We ended up purchasing some homemade coconut granola and lemon curd. At the end of the market we saw a BBQ stand called Charlie's BBQ. They gave us delicious pulled pork sandwiches, salad rib eye steak and a cool refreshing glass of strawberry lemonade. It was super yummy!

Where we had our coffee

The Farmer's Market

Local Produce

The granola we got!

Our mid morning meal!

Yummy!

The BBQ Pitmasters!

Next we ventured over to Merry Edwards Winery. Those who were of age did some wine tasting and those of us who weren't watched and listened. 

Naomi enjoying the wine!

Then we walked through the vineyards.  It was beautiful.

After that we headed over to Bodega Bay where we had a gorgeous view of the ocean.