The tasting room is right on the Vermont border and hosted by a lively gentleman named Tex. He has been with the company since the start and brings lightness and humor to cider tasters. Just don’t ask him where his nickname comes from. Well, maybe you should.
He put that idea on the back burner until he lost his job in 2004 and thought to himself 'what the hell?' Starting with $78,000 and a naive stubbornness, M2 was born.
Over-sized concrete chairs and sofas dot the patio. Empty wine bottles are embedded in cement. They built the winery using natural ingredients, most of them sourced locally.
Elena and her team are highly conscious of the environment and make sure the winery meets or exceeds every standard for emissions. Water is re-used for irrigation. The goal is to have a completely sustainable winery.
We walked around, exploring every nook and cranny we could. Attention to detail is evident everywhere. There's a sense you've stepped back in time and you can almost hear the sounds of the old west. We gathered inside the intimate chapel. We soaked in the magnificent views. We picked up a wine glass and met in front of the carriage house and sipped on Homan Ranch 2012 Sauvignon Blanc before heading down the hill for dinner at Will's Fargo Steakhouse, a restaurant and bar that dates back to the late 1920s when it was owned by Will Fay.
After touching down in Bilbao, we made our way into the land of wine legends - Rioja. We came over the crest of a hill and there it was. Sprawling rolling viney...
After several requests to photograph him, the monk reluctantly obliged, telling us we could each take one photo. Noticing one person shooting several photos with their phone he asked with a slight smile "something wrong with your phone?"
Winemaker Joe Hurliman has an exceptional challenge on his hands. He is not Jewish and rules of kosher winemaking is that only a Sabbath observant cellar crew may touch the grapes.
Chef Seth starts with an eight-day brine, then rubs the brisket with Santa Maria rub and puts it in the fridge for a day before smoking it for two days on a mixture of mesquite and hickory. Words simply don't do it justice.