Ah, Carmel. 
Just the sound of it evokes images of quaint thatch-roofed cottages, art galleries, misty ocean beach walks and the sunshiney voice of Doris Day wafting in the backdrop of your dreams. And dogs…everywhere.
Have you been there lately? Yikes, the place has exploded with wine tasting rooms, from the truly arty bizarre (Figge) to the newly relocated Scheid, who left behind Cannery Row for downtown Carmel. 
There are so many places to get beautifully lost in this beachfront town. It’s probably the safest place to get toasted in all the land. But let’s just say, walk carefully and don’t even think of driving, if you plan to do the entire tour of all the tasting rooms, called the Carmel Wine Walk By-the-Sea, from Caraccioli Cellars to Wrath. You can obtain a Wine Tasting Passport from the Carmel Chamber of Commerce, which is an $80 value, and includes a $10 tasting flight at each of the participating tasting rooms.
Last week, I grabbed my adventurous friend Lolin and headed out for a day of fun as the weather turned gloomy and the chill in the air solidified into actual precip. But it didn’t dampen our spirits.
First, we ducked into The Cheese Shop, where we couldn’t get past the charming Kyle Felder, who insisted we try the chive-infused Cotswald and the Prima Donna cow’s milk Gouda from the Netherlands, before a mandatory photograph of yours truly wearing the Cheese Hat behind the counter. We posed with over $350 worth of cheese in our hands, confirmed by Cheesemonger Blake Northey, who weighed our props to confirm the value of the experience: yep, priceless.
]This place is a jam-packed wondrous world of wine and cheese, somehow shoehorned into a very small space that overflows with labels you know and many that beg to be discovered. There’s a hopping good selection of beers, too. Owner Kent Torrey was packaging fine cigars of Cuban tobacco for guests at his wife’s surprise birthday party, for which he was flying her brother, unbeknownst to her, along with friends from across the country. 
Kent knows how to throw a party. If you haven’t been to The Cheese Shop lately, it’s worth checking out the “Owner’s Choice” tasting, which includes a glass of wine paired with a chosen cheese for $9.95 per person. Says Kent, “You tell me white or red, what you like in a wine, and I’ll choose the wine and cheese combo for you. Simple!” The selection included some lovely local beverages as well as out of towners.
Lunch at Grasings followed, suggested by Cheryl Warner of McIntyre, who knows every restaurant within a two-hour radius of Carmel.
The four onion tart with fried leeks was rich and satisfying, and the 2005 Narsai David cabernet made Lolin purr like a kitty. We shared s
ome calamari, also accompanied by fried leeks, and let’s just say these leeks are worth a trip – delicious! I savored them with a glass of torrontes, my fave white from Argentina. 
Fortified, we set out to sip a few beauties at Scheid, where the smart-as-a-whip Alexa, made our experience memorable and fun. Her Carmel-resident friend, Kathryn, dropped in looking for a cab for an evening date: she deemed the 2007 ideal for a fire and some cheese and crackers. While her adorable old golden lab, Mr. Wilson, napped in the Hummer (at top), drooling down the door, she ended up hanging with us and tasting the pinots we were raving about.
The faves were the 2008 Estate pinot, a Double Gold winner at the recent Chronicle competition, brimming with spicy pomegranate and nutmeg, and the absolutely stunning 2008 SLH Reserve, a combo of 777, 828, Pommard and Calera clones. This one has layers and layers of mushroom, earth, delicious raspberries, cigar and cranberry, with great acidity and super-smooth tannins. Kathryn loved them all so much, she bought one of each. Our gaiety attracted several passers by, who couldn’t resist the sound of laughter and the promise of some fine wine.
We packed her off to The Cheese Shop to get just the right goodies to ensure a tasty date: the rest was up to her. It’s amazing what a little wine will do to unleash the merriment factor. We hope she had a lovely evening by the fire. Lolin went home with a bottle of the Isabelle sparkling and the awesomely chocolate-mint infused Silver-medal winning 2007 Napa petit verdot. I chose the Grenache blanc, a grape I’d love to see more people plant.
Then, after moving the car for the 3rd time – gotta love the non-nonsense nature of Parking Enforcement in this town – we settled into Wrath’s tasting room for some more serious pinot exploration. Lolin had confessed pinot is not her fave, but this tasting, combined with the previous delights at Scheid, really turned her head. She was liking these Monterey beauties.
She was blown away by the raspberry perfuminess of the 09 Wrath “Ex Vite” pinot, amazed by the enormity and distinctive spicy rhubarb and blueberry core of the 2009 McIntyre Vineyard designate, and totally flipped over the fierce intensity of the exotic 2009 Tondre Grapefields pinot, with its signature roasted beets and blackberry flavors that flood the palate in a relentless rush of creamy, dense minerality. This may well be the best Tondre pinot ever made.
We were joined by a group of young men celebrating a 30th birthday: they were so bowled over by the 08 Wrath McIntyre vineyard chardonnay, they were almost speechless. This was a voyage of discovery. They followed our lead on the pinots and walked away with a few new entries in their newly minted wine vocabulary. We all sank happily into the darkly sinewy, peppery, leathery, chewy, decidedly masculine 09 Doctor’s Vineyard syrah, which would be the ideal mate for that onion tart at Grasings. But sometimes all you need is the right music to create the ideal pairing. The smoky, sultry, slightly raspy, yet viola smooth voice of singer Sharon Little, was the perfect companion to that matchstick, meaty, chile pepper-infused syrah. I love it when a wine tasting experience plays to all the senses, like perfectly choreographed ice dancing. Like a perfect day near the beach, only in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
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