Who picks grapes in this kind of weather anyway???  We’ve set some records in Ramona this weekend as far as heat is concerned, that’s for sure.  Do I dare say we are having a delayed/extended summer? Saturday was 101, Sunday was 105 and today was 108 in our lil’ country town today.  Whoa.  It’s 9:30pm (well past my bed time) and it’s about 85 degrees out.  Not so bad if you have A/C but I’m sitting at my PC with the office window open and a fan blasting on me griping about how hot it is. 🙂  Who me, complain?  Nah.  Not with a glass of Pamo Valley’s 2008 “Passion” in my presence (not yet bottled).  It’s too hot for bed though. We had a great wine weekend.  Friday night we headed to Chinook Vineyards to drop off our trailer and bins for the Saturday early morning pick of Petite Sirah. Elaine and Norm are the BEST hosts. They invited us to stay for happy hour and dinner.  Happy hour consisted of Elaine’s homeade Sangria (never did find out what wine she used) and this really yummy mushroom and brandy patee that she whipped up and those fab costco crackers that I can never find locally. Really yummy.  Then, amongst several of Elaine and Norm’s friends (and soon to be ours) we had a nice, intimate dinner. The menu included lasagna, caesar salad, french bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And Elaine and Norm are very good at serving local wines ALWAYS!  They were serving Hawk Watch, Edwards Vineyards and Pamo Valley wines.  We all had such a great evening, unfortunately the night had to come to end as there was an important day of picking, crushing and entertaining ahead the next morning!….. More weekend updates tomorrow… my wine glass is empty!