Wine Club Barbecue June 21, 2007

Who would have known when we picked this date back in February that it would be 102 degrees that day.  June is a tricky month.  We should have expected surprises. 

About 15 people showed up for our first Heritage Oak Wine Club event June 21, dispite a dire weather forecast: Hot.  We assembled around 4 PM.  A lot of us immediately went down to the Mokelumne River and stuck our feet in the 55 degree water.

Some thunderheads rolled through and it actually rained for about five minutes.  Great big drops hit the water with a splat!  That is unusual here in central California during the summer. The nice thing was that the temperature dropped noticeably after-wards and it turned into a very pleasant evening.

The Bartlam family showed up in force.  Tyler immediately took a chair down to the river while younger JP played in the sand. My mother Joanne Hoffman joined them after closing the tasting room at 5 PM.

 

  

 

 

Rad Bartlam cooled his heels with some Heritage Oak Red.

 

 

 

 

Norma Mettler agreed the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc was a big hit.  Also seen here is Dawn Worthen, Laura Mohr and daughter Katelyn.  

 

  

 

 

While Pat Byrne fills us in, Norm Worthen and I took a break from cooking Tri-tip and chicken on the three Webers I brought down to the beach.

 

 

 

Jim Rott and Mark Mettler figure the best strategy to deal with the heat was to not move any more than necessary.

 

 

Thanks to all who showed up, particularly to Dawn and Norm, who came early to help set up, cook, clean up and be generally supportive.  Not shown in photos is my hard working wife, Carmela, without whom, none of this would be possible, and Sally and Leonard Humphries, their daughter Liz and husband George.

Weather wrap-up: The thunderheads continued to rumble around all evening.  The next day the news was fill with stories of all the fires that were ingnited.  Over the next few days, that number grew to over 1200 separate fires.  They are still burning today, two weeks later, and the air is still full of smoke.