Wine Tour with Icing

Heaven forbid people should get to taste cupcakes...and really....CUPCAKE tasting? How utterly fussy, faux-culture, and just plain silly! Just buy one and EAT it, fergoshsakes!

And never even consider trying the other many and varied pastries of our beautiful Valley without the requisite gallons of booze to wash it all down.

All at a ridiculously high price tag. And you can bet some sad fool with more money than common sense will sign right up and get in line. I dunno...just speaking for us, if we want pastries, we either make them or go to one of our many wonderful bakeries and buy them. Your mileage may vary.

The shuttle service idea is a nice start (though it, some bits of cupcake, a bunch of alcohol, a sandwich and a tour guide is NOT worth $125.00...sorry!) to keep the drunks corralled off the roads, but are they getting back into their own cars for the drive home afterward?

Or does the shuttle bus drop them off at their hotels or homes so they don't drive AT ALL? That would be ideal.

We're not really flush with a lot of great restaurants here, but there are some truly outstanding baked goods and various Danish delicacies widely available.

Would LOVE to see a taste of the town...without the booze...but that will never happen here. There is way too much money in the alcohol industry, and too many dedicated drunks willing to spend theirs.

Just keep it OFF the road, use the toilets (as opposed to the bushes or behind your or worse MY car in the public lots) please, and don't make a mess. If we wanted streets that looked (and smelled) like the ones in downtown SB, we'd move there.

We dolphins eat unprocessed fish and squid. Why pay so much money to ride on a bus when we swim au natural and feed on natural food?

Hey, Teetotaling Temperanceer Holly----just because YOU have an apparent issue with booze does not mean everyone else does.

Have you ever had Enjoy Cupcakes? No, you haven't or you wouldn't be blithering on about how going down a supermarket aisle full of preservative-laden, lard-loaded, sugar-fer-sugarsake iced, dry as granny's sour old pucker, crappy cupcakes are just as good as theirs.

They're not. I know. I have had them and they are simply the best in the universe---bar none. And I travel alot, both on and off-world.

Now a clever person could go to their website and educate herself on any one of their nearly 200 varieties and discover that their cupcake-maker extraordinaire uses all fresh & natural ingredients, no preservatives, and concocts world-class confections like you've never tasted. Ever.

Many made with wine (alcohol safely baked off, worrywart) and each a creation deserving of an award, every single one. And yes, they are often delectably paired in "flights" with the wines many of them are made with. The utter shock! Can it be some folk are afraid to let their bound-up tastebuds loose?

And since you've obviously never gone on a guided tour into our local wine country unless you trundled up there with your own horse & buggy, what do you know about that experience?

Again---I've gone on a few terrific wine tours with a fabulous local company (Cloud Climber Jeep Tours) as well as the one mentioned in the article above and they're wonderful. Professional, courteous, safe, and fun!

Off-road excursion into or out of the SY Valley (as well as forays into the some of the vineyards), four tastings, a delicious deli lunch from Panino's, and knowledgeable guides that might make even your brain swell with stuff you think you know, but obviously don't.

A full day's adventure to say the least AND they picked us up at home! No DUI, no dull moments, jeeping over the off-road (can't do that in your creaky buckboard), and FUN!

Let's do the legal & financial math for being pulled over for buzzed driving----whew! ALOT! Or much worse than that, you could end up being issued or dispensing a permanent failure-to-thrive. Suddenly, $125 (plus a generous tip to the guide) seems like a pretty reasonable and darn good deal. Even for a modren suffragette!

So doff the pressed white dress emblazoned with that worn-thin patch of indignation, Holly, and let those who know speak to what you do not. But fer chrissakes---don't dare try it---you might LIKE IT!

Draxor, if I didn't know any better, I'd say your rants are so Dennis Miller-esque that you might be the man himself. Stow the 'tude babe, and hear another side to the story.

Now I don't want to get on a rant, but when you write "Hey, Teetotaling Temperanceer Holly". It would be reasonable for me to assume that the third word in your quote is a reference to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. If I am correct in this, then you need to pay closer attention: Holly has made it clear that she feels that anyone should be able to put into their bodies whatever they want, so your labeling of her in this case either shows you are out of the loop, or a liar.

As for cupcakes, I like them too, but I'd rather have them while sitting down watching the telly as opposed to going to a wine tasting ceremony. By the way, have you seen the commercials on KEYT?...they are sponsored by the Office of Traffic Safety and the California Highway Patrol and inform the viewer that for each tasting room one tastes six glasses of wine. (Of course, these glasses are not full) They also point out that on average one goes to four tasting rooms and that each tasting lasts twenty-five minutes. The conclude by pointing out that when you are done you've consumed the equivalent of a bottle of wine.

I would also add that I've seen some of these people coming out of these rooms and they're quite noisy and obnoxious. (as you consistently are in your posts) Having said that, I don't begrudge you your right to go on these tours. If you think putting flammable liquids into your digestive tract (ouch!) which kills brain cells and damages your liver is haute culture, then be my guest. Ironically, I take my hat off to you for having the ethics not to impose drinking and driving onto the rest of us and if everyone would have a Designated Driver/tour bus I would have no grievances with this façade of innocence that many other wine tasters promote.

By the way, do you dislike women?...the references to Holly's presumed attire (doffing the dress and the "suffragette" reference) have quite the sexist tone to them. Seems to be a lot of anger there. anyway, "à votre santé!" and next time, try to be more accurate in your comments.