Wine Camp

This is an ode to the US State Park System as well as to the wines (both nice wines and more ordinary wines) which made their way to our campground table. In the real life, especially when you camp, you depend on the local store selection and on the (often restricted) budget you want to spend on a barbecue bottle. This is by no means a panorama of american wines, and whatever wines we had, we had a great time...

This was in the Champoeg State Park south of Salem, Oregon. Our neighbours, who were from Florida, had this huge Alfa motorhome with flags of all sizes everywhere.
We had bought some pork boneless top loin at Safeway and had the barbecue with a Navarro Pinot Noir "methode A l'ancienne" 2003 that we bought at Navarro, Anderson Valley (By the way the young lady clerk there was not very friendly and her tasting pours were the most ridiculously small we ever had_you can't taste anything with so little wine) and which is made with the Burgundy style of punching the cap.
A nice, fruity wine with notes of jam and currant on the nose.

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Unchronological post. We arrived quite late in the Curt Gowdy State Park west  of Cheyenne, Wyoming, near hwy 210, but early enough to have the time to set the tents up and enjoy the sunset on the desert landscape and the lake. Rough beauty and nice smell of the desert vegetation in the cool of the evening.
This Bogle Vineyards Merlot 2004 was advertised at the store as having won a gold medal. It was way too much oaky, but we still had a good time with it and the camping food.
There was a wind storm that night and several tents were down in the morning...

Not a State Park, but an RV Park. This was near Wells, Nevada, and the Angel Lake State Park campground was way too high in the snow-topped mountains of the East Humbold range. So we stopped at the brand new Angel Lake RV Park near Interstate 80. Great place, managed by a former rancher named Steve Wright (he owned 1800 cattle in his ranch).
After eating at the nearby 4-Way Café, a local eatery (interesting ambiance) with big portions, which were welcome as we were hungry, we had a couple of glasses of this Sutter Home Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 while enjoying the light, the sky, the moment...

We had crossed the border in Buffalo, NY, earlier in the day. I expected this crossing to be ardous (the first since 9/11, and my passport states that I am born in Morocco...) but it went smoothly, after just a 40 minutes wait in the non-canadian-citizens bureau.
This same evening, we reached the Harrison Lake State Park, a neat (a little too neat, maybe), immaculate garden-like park located west of Toledo, Ohio, north of I 80.
We opened that evening a nice bottle : Vineland Estates Cabernet Franc 2004. This supple, spicy wine put warmth in our mouth and spirits for our first american picnic dinner.

Visiting Seattle while enjoying the quietness and beauty of the Puget Sound woods : We opted for staying at the Manchester State Park on the Kitsap peninsula. Not very conveniently located (needed to take a first boat from Port Orchard to Bremerton, then the Ferry to Seattle...) but gorgeous vegetation with mosses and ferns.
We had great fish barbecues  there : Wild Copper River Sokeye Salmon fillet... Great food, bought at the Port Orchard Safeway (I hope Safeway will reward me for the repeated advertising...). But the wine was not right : This Leaping Horse Chardonnay 2004 was a poor choice. I guess the 6 Dollars we paid for it are why this flat, sweet mouth. But the grilled salmon made the meal magic. The next day we completed our sampling of the very cheap wines with a not-very-good but  humourously-named  "Bob's Really Good Red" (5,39 Dollars) [see pic on the right], a Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 vinted by Roumigiere Vineyards and that I had bought in a small grocery store in central California. Nobody in my party wanted his glass to be on the picture in front of the fireplace (ungrateful people)...

The Russian Gulch State Park is located close to Mendocino, on the California coast. This is  the coast, much greener than just a couple of miles inland. We spent a night there after visiting the Lazy Creek Winery, en route to Oregon. This was also the day we discovered a great radio station (really greaaat music...) which fit so well when driving through the relaxed communities of this laid-back California backcountry (many ex-hippies settled here) : The Krush, KRSH "Wine Country Radio" , such a well chosen name. You even can listen to it online, isn't internet magic ?...
We had bought a huge steak for dinner (Safeway again), big enough for the three of us, that we grilled on the fireplace. We had with it a bottle of Farella-Park Cabernet Sauvignon 2001. Nose : Black currant, spices. Silky texture, chewy in the mouth. Nice wine and pairing.

The Washoe State Park is the closest from Reno, Nevada, a gambling city close to California and Lake Tahoe. The park is such a contrast with the city : quiet, with a pure landscape of snow-topped mountains, a lake with wild birds, and the fragrant desert vegetation around, especially sagebrush.
This evening, we had probably pasta as I see a jug of sauce on the table, with a bottle of Gallo Twin Valley Merlot, no millesime. That's what you get when you loose the grocery store money in a casino...

Located in the closest State park near Sacramento, Folsom Lake State Park Campground is reached from Interstate 80 after a long narrow winding road. This day was hot and the wine was welcome to recover in the cooler evening after a long trip. This was a Redwood Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 (California). Not exceptional if I remember (I didn't note anything) but it was OK.
In this campground, I helped France get another friend : I found a silver ring near the tap (probably when I filled up the folding camp sink on the picture) and waved the guy I saw driving back there near our spot a couple of hours later in his pickup truck. Even if I doubt anyone would have pocketed it, the guy was euphoric with relief to find his ring : Chris Eaton, originally from Michigan, married a couple of weeks before and thanked me repeatedly and warmly for having made his day...

Comments

[Steve]

Hope you enjoyed your visit to North America (and especially Northern California)! Looks like you saw quite a bit, and found plenty to do. Sorry to hear about your experience at Navarro--they do a terrific job with Alsatian-style varietals (Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Gris). Their hearts are in the right place, too. Check out their website at navarrowine.com. You have fans here in San Francisco and I hope you got to meet some of them!

[Noah]

It kills me to see the wines you are drinking! The wines you write about in france have so much authentic quality and are so real, to see you drinking fetzer home and bogle is such a shame. These are the very wines that you rally against, full of chemicals and industrial additives. We have wonderful wine all up and down the west coast of the united states but you have to venture outside of safeway (speaking of chemicals...) to find them. Even on a camping trip you could have found better wines than that, and wines that would not have polluted your body.
Dont get me wrong, I LOVE your blog. I think it is one of the best blogs I have ever seen. Please keep it up, and if you ever come to Seattle again, e mail me and I will give you a place to stay AND plenty of good, organic, wine to drink.

[Peter Matusov]

Bert, I absolutely have to include you in the future plans on travel in the States!
We are not dead-set on drinking tequila every evening :)