The Brotherhood of the Grape

Boy, did I ever need a day like Wednesday.

Seriously drained from book deadlines, tax hassles, having the fathers of two very close pals pass away in the same week (RIP, Bob Faulkner and Marty Mills), and all kindsa other challenging stuff, I accepted the assignment to go wine-tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley with Dez Fafara from Devildriver for a Revolver feature. I thought it would make for a nice respite from everyday reality; and, having met Dez on a couple of previous occasions, I knew he'd be a good interview. Plus, the dude knows wine — I figured I could learn a thing or two from him.

What I didn't expect was that I'd be in for an amazingly relaxing, restorative and positively life-affirming day, which is exactly what it turned out to be.  After various adventures in Santa Ynez and downtown Solvang (which is to Denmark as Disneyland's New Orleans Square is to the Big Easy), we wound up at Rusack Vineyards in Ballard Canyon. Finding that Rusack's 2005 Sangiovese was very much to our liking, we repaired to a table in the shade of a gnarled old oak tree, and spent the next three hours lost in hilarious, wine-fueled conversation: Just a couple of old Italian-American gentlemen born under the sign of Taurus, sipping and savoring the hearty red, solving the problems of the world, trading tall tales and cracking each other up, as some beautiful black cows lolled about peacefully on the golden rolling hills off in the distance. It was absolute heaven.

Oh yeah -- look for the full story and interview in the October issue of Revolver, which will actually hit the stands in late August...

(And thanks to ace photo chap Zack Cordner for taking the picture!)

Comments

[Greg Barbera]

i love it when shit like that happens!

[Erik]

Dan, that doesn't sound like any fun at all...

[hipspinster]

wow, i feel more relaxed just LOOKING at y'all. sounds perfect.