Memorial Day Burgers

I busted my butt last week to be able to take Memorial Day off so I could feel more or less like a normal human being at least for a day. Truth be told, most of the people that I need to deal with don't work on Memorial Day, so even if I work, it is not a super-productive day. In any case, I planned both to be off and to grill burgers, so I ordered some burger from our beef supplier, Martin's Angus Beef. After working all morning and some of the afternoon in the yard, I wasn't up for doing more than pattying some burgers and grilling them. And my only concession to side dishes? A bag of chips. I don't eat many burgers in a year, maybe one or two, so they need to be awesome. This one was.


Now That's a Burger!

And as the burger was awesome, so was the wine. Ann brown-bagged a wine for me to taste and it was obviously by color and nose a Pinot. Having really acclimated my palate to Oregon Pinot Noir over the last month, my first sip of the mystery Pinot was a dead giveaway. It was clearly California Pinot but not from Paso or further south. It had to be the 2010 Dutton-Goldfield "McDougall Vineyard" Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir that Kenny and Mel brought back from their Apple Blossom trip to Sonoma. We gave Kenny and Mel a bottle of Patricia Green "Quail Hill" 2002 in exchange. After drinking so much restrained Oregon wine, this wine that is restrained by California standards seemed way over the top with huge very ripe dark cherry fruit and only moderate acidity.


Awesome California Pinot vs.

After this, we opened a bottle of 2011 Patricia Green Balcombe Dundee Hills by way of contrast. This wine displays similar fruit but also brings a noticeable acid core to the party. It was very, very interesting to taste these wines side by side.

Awesome Oregon Pinot

And while I was at it, I managed to get a good shot of these two goobers as well!


Sometimes I Take a Good Photo