18 Years of Wedded Bliss

Last night we celebrated our 18th anniversary, and boy did we do it in style! A winery, Aspen Peak Cellars, has opened up in Conifer, which is only a 20 minute drive for us, very close in mountain terms. It was a close call on time, we took the kids to Water World with the cousins yesterday. We still had chores and the campground rounds to do when we got home, but we had been looking forward to it for a few weeks. It wasn't too difficult to get ready in a short amount of time; we were pretty excited!

I have to give you a little bit of background here. Tom drinks Michelob Light only, and I am not much of a drinker at all. We know absolutely nothing about wine, but heard the food was great and took it as the perfect opportunity to learn something new. Their dinner was all inclusive, at a great price, and we were able to keep our business local, all of which helped make our decision that much easier. As we are driving there in our dressed up duds, we start joking about how funny it would be if they put us at one big table, and shared the bottle of wine with everyone, etc. Tom is a very social guy, but I must say that I am not too big on groups, especially when I'm learning something new. So it was a really funny scenario that we had envisioned. I said if that happened, I'd just suddenly get a migraine-Ha!

The setting is a spectacular historical home with a beautiful view. Tom and I are both local history buffs, so just that was a real treat. As usual we were the last to arrive, and they sweep us into the back room where two chairs are awaiting us at a table for six. The very gracious owner explained that they were pouring our Champagne-okay-that helps migraines right? Tom and I were dying to start laughing-it was the exact scenario we had joked about on the way there. Not only did the two other couples know a ton about wine, but they even knew the owners!

The dinner was a four course gourmet meal, each course served with a different Aspen Peak Cellar wine, made right here in our little mountain community. We had things like pate, scallops (cooked in wine of course), and lobster purses with bison steak being the main course; of course the grilled pear with almond ice cream for dessert went over very well with my very sweet tooth. The company was great, as a matter of fact one of the other couples was celebrating 42 years of wedded bliss. Nobody cared that we were absolute newbies to the world of wine and the owner came around with each course/wine and explained how it was made, the types of grapes that were used, and how their wine differed from the commercial wines. I didn't leave with any wine, as we were quite anxious to talk about our hysterical "romantic anniversary dinner". I gotta tell you though, they have definitely turned me into a "wino", the wines were wonderful. By the way, anyone know a good way to get rid of a wine headache? Ha!