Jim Barry: The Lodge Hill

Yes, I know, this is not beer. But hold on. This is one of the best wines I have ever tasted. I have probably had 5 bottles of this to myself in the last year... and besides, I am going to oak some oak chips on this for a Flanders Red I am brewing in a few days! The chips will be going into the secondary. I just have to decide the right window to add them in since I am also throwing some bugs in there.



The Lodge Hill is a Shiraz from Jim Barry down there in Australia. It is made with a grape that seems to only grow well in one section of Australia, and the vinyard Jim Barry owns in that area is called, The Lodge Hill. I guess they got lucky with the location of the vinyard way back when, in the 1940's. I am pretty sure that is when I was told the winery was opened. I should probably do a little research but I think my... bartender? Winetender? Knew what she was talking about.

I first had this wine at The 20Nine which is an awesome wine and pizza bar. I don't typically like Mushrooms but the Fungi Pizza was pretty awesome. This wine paired well with it. I don't know much about wine, pretty much nothing compared to my beer knowledge but I am going to give this a shot...

So, I take it this wine has some pretty good clarity. It is hard to tell because it has a very deep purple color. The nose was nice. A little spice, like pepper but mostly fruity and juicy. Kind of like the blackberries I used to pick in my grandmas back yard. With that wine scent as well.

This wine must have some good body. While I am sitting here swirling it around looking all fancy and the like, the legs, (kind of like the lacing of a beer), are very pronounced running back down the glass. The first flavors that open up this wine are very juicy. Kind of like the blackberries I was referring to earlier. Some cranberry and maybe, is that chocolate I taste? As I swallow it goes down with a slight sour touch that turns into a kind of herbal, minty freshness. Very good.

Whatever Wine People Say When They Drink!... Ok, Just Cheers!

Ninkasi

Pizza, Awesome Patio and Great Craft Beer. This almost sums up this place... almost. You have to experience it for yourself. I am not sure if the Pizza is always there, it seemed like one of those food trucks but different but I am glad it was there when I got there.

We ended up here after leaving Chico and being on the road forever and needed to fill up my tank... Though, this was one of the originally planned stops. We ended up getting to our final destination very late due to this stop but it was completely worth it.


I got a little anxious before taking the picture.

They have a very simple line up of 5 year round beers and a few seasonal on their 8 taps. I found pretty much all of them very tasty. The only ones that were not on my list of must have these beers every time I find them were the DIPAs. SURPRISE! One of my favorite things about the beer was the fact that they gave you trading cards wtih all of the info on them. Loved it.

They had a lot of cool designs around the place and it is fairly large. We got a lot of attention while we were there because we brought Bebop, aka Bun Light with us and I guess animals on the patio is very rare.



The one thing that dissapointed me about this place is that they do not sell growlers due to their licensing... Oh, well. I got a Pint Glass but I would have loved to brought something home with me... then again their beers are fairly cheap. I think the most I've seen a Bomber of their beers going for was like $3.00. SCORE YEAH!