A Wine Weekend

Part of a weekend, anyway. Yesterday morning, bright and early, we drove north to the home of friends in Gilroy (south of San Jose) and then the four of us drove northeast to Lodi in California's Central Valley for a winery event at Bokisch Vineyards.

I've posted about them before, a couple of years ago. The winemaker is of Spanish/German parentage, thus the German name combined with the Spanish varietals he plants and makes wine from.

Every year, when the winery releases a new vintage of their wines, they host an event for members of their wine club (as well as non-club-members who just like their wines). In the past, it was a traditional paella feast, using the biggest paella pans I've ever seen - about 3 feet in diameter!

Since they've visited Argentina several times in the past couple of years, this event was a traditional barbeque in Argentinian style: whole lamb (butterflied) and goat (not butterflied) roasted slowly over an open charcoal fire.

*Note: if the sight of a lamb carcass, butterflied and roasting, upsets you, please feel free to close this browser window and visit the next blog on your blog roll. I acknowledge that humans are carnivorous, however, and do not faint at the sight... And I do love lamb and goat, even though there isn't much meat on either one...*

The traditional Argentinian method of roasting a whole animal uses a metal structure called a "cross" for obvious reasons:

The two lambs, front left and back left (almost invisible behind the frontmost critter) are butterflied; the goat is simply spitted on a rotisserie. All I can say is "yum."

The meal, accompanied by various Spanish and Argentinian appetisers and side dishes, was absolutely delish. And the beverages served were equally appreciated:

Garnacha Blanca
Alberino
Verdelho
Verdejo
Garnacha (Rosso)
Monastrell
Tempranillo
Graciano

Needless to say, we brought home an adequate quantity of many of the above wines...........