Moon Mountain knows how to treat its members!

I have been meaning to write about this for a few days and I'm just getting to it. Karl and I are members at Moon Mountain Winery in Sonoma, and last weekend we attended our second "Moon Mountain Pick Up Party". Pick up parties are a chance for the wine club members to stop by the winery for a private event and pick up their quarterly wine club shipment. We went to our first one in December and took our friends Dana and Nick, and this time it was just the two of us. The pick-up parties generally last all day from 11 - 4, and include excellent food prepared by a chef (who is actually from Indianapolis, small world!), usually some sort of special event (in December it was a cooking lesson, this time it was a ladybug release in the vineyards), and an excellent tasting opportunity of both wines currently on the tasting list as well as a barrel tasting of Cab Franc and library wines. (Side note - Cab Franc is by far the best wine Moon Mountain produces! Karl and I can't get enough of it.) The best part is it is a members-only event, so the winery isn't too crowded and everyone is extremely friendly to one another (no sense of "competition" like what you might feel at a crowded tasting bar at an "open to the public" winery!)

This past Saturday was a BEAUTIFUL day - temperatures in the 70s, nothing but sun in the sky, and spring flowers blooming. :) We ate some amazing Asian cuisine, tasted a selection of library Cab Francs ('02, '03, '04, and '05) and were delighted to find out they were selling the library collection of Cab Francs at the employee discount price of 50% off each bottle. It was just too good to pass up so we had to buy it... (a rare indulgence!) We also had some great conversations with several people who had Indiana connections - very random! One couple was from Indiana, one couple went to IU, and the delightful Moon Mountain employee Angie is from Indiana and went to Purdue! Kind of crazy to find so many Indiana connections in one tiny winery in California.

The best part of the day was that both the head and assistant winemakers were on hand to pour wines and talk to all of the attendees. They were both completely down-to-earth and happy to talk to everyone. We were shocked at how young they both are - my guess is that the head winemaker, Carol Wilson, can't be any more than three years older than me, if that. The assistant winemaker is 26, and both he and his mom were pouring wine in the barrel cave.

The sad news is that once we move back to Indiana, we won't get to be members at Moon Mountain anymore. Indiana has some of the craziest wine laws of all the states in the U.S., and unfortunately Moon Mountain can't ship to Indiana. I guess it'll give us a reason to visit Sonoma in the future when we go on vacations though...

For now, check out the Moon Mountain website if you want to know more about it! If you're ever in the area, just know it is an appointment-only winery and they are open on Tuesdays and Saturdays.