Last Sunday almost seems like another lifetime now. The unsettled skies certainly bespoke the belated end of summer and the vines along Watsonville road were already giving up the crispest of their leaves to the squalls blowing in from the coast. Change, as they say, was in the air.
Sarah’s Vineyard, our first stop, is poised to fire up the newly acquired pizza oven and build out their outdoor events area. They already have a couple of bocce ball courts—impressive given that it’s not that long ago there wasn’t even a bathroom. The new lawn is studded with fallen leaves and the tasting room today is a snug shelter rather than shady relief from the Gilroy summer sun.
Back we go then up Watsonville Road to where we had noticed the newly-opened Jason-Stephens tasting room. Here the new array of outdoor teak furniture and the giant logo stenciled into the floor of the barrel room hint at ambitious plans. Winemaker Jason Goelz, assisted by Nina Turley, endures the chilly air while welcoming the steady flow of uncertain newcomers. The estate Cabernet appeals to us and we sip and buy and learn about the difference between organic and sustainable winemaking.
Finally we swing in to Sycamore Creek, solely to buy a couple of bottles of their Malbec, the best northern hemisphere example of this varietal we have yet found. Of course we stay and chat with Ted and Tammy and learn that next weekend they release the long-awaited Zinfandel, reason enough for another trip to Morgan Hill’s ever improving wine country.
It’s a distant memory now because the next day we awoke to a death in the family, which will take all of us to the east coast and because Tuesday was the day I watched mesmerized as the election of a lifetime unfolded. Nothing, in my view, could be better for America and the world than how the people voted that day. The medieval creationists and their cynical donors have been swept away. Stem cell research is no longer evil, nor is global warming a left-wing conspiracy. And Saudi Arabia may yet answer for funding the rise of global jihad.
Closer to home it is gratifying to see that the concerted efforts of Morgan Hill’s elected representatives to inflict a new tax on its residents, using the residents’ own money to finance a misleading campaign with round after round of glossy mailers, was shoved back down their throats by a two-to-one margin. Let’s hope those same voters remember that every member of the town council voted in favor of the Toilet Tax of 2008 and speedily votes them out at the first opportunity.
As for the high-speed train that will presumably hurtle down Coyote Valley, what good will it do us? And on a sad and dark note, the passing of Proposition 8 should remind us that mob rule is never far away, tolerance is anything but common, and freedoms hard won can be undone too. One wonders just how the majority of Californians who voted against gay marriage really feel about their new black president? Another brief impossible Camelot? We’ll see.
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- on 11/15/2008
Once again Sean, you've gotten it wrong. Not every member of the Council voted to put the tax on the ballot - I voted against it. Are you ever going to get it right, or are you going to keep floating the rumor that I did? Alas, you don't seem to read the comments, so I guess you never will correct it...
