Yellowstone 8/9/18 (Salt Lake City Wine Tour)

The day started with returning the rental car to the downtown Marriott. This took no time as we only needed to park and drop the keys in the lobby lockbox.  We found a breakfast place a couple of blocks away and headed to The Rose Establishment.  The blocks in SLC are pretty long compared to other downtown areas.  We actually walked over 2 miles by the time we got back to the hotel.

A lot of locals appear to use one of the scooter services available here.  You sign up with an app on your smartphone and then can use any available scooter.  You unlock it with your phone, climb aboard and ride to your destination. You simply leave the scooter on the sidewalk when you get to where you are going and your credit card is billed based on the distance/time you used the scooter.  There appear to be 2 different companies providing this serve in SLC.  We did not give them a try!

Our wine tour was scheduled to start at 11am with Wendy and Rick of Utah Wine Tours at our hotel.  They showed up right on time and we climbed into a very comfortable Expedition.  We learned a little bit about the local history as we headed to our first stop, the Proper Brewery, for lunch and a few beer samples.  Over the next 7 hours we visited three wineries, one south of SLC and two in Park City.

The first winery was LaCaille.  It is a beautiful property now used for weddings and other events.  The original owner built a French style home that is the main venue on the property.  They have a small vineyard that provides the grapes for their white wine.  Their reds are made with juice sourced mostly from California.  The property is beautifully landscaped, with flower beds, shrubs and trees throughout. The main building was the original owner’s home and is quite elaborate.  The decor is beautiful, but almost overwhelming with elaborate details and treasures everywhere.  We enjoyed seeing the property and purchased a bottle of our favorite red.

The other two wineries, both in Park City, were not as picturesque, but rather in retail settings.  At Cognition, we purchased 3 bottles along with a charcuterie plate for our dinner back in our room.  The labels for Cognition wines are paintings by a local artist Bill Kranstover and include local landmarks and scenes that compliment the wine or it’s origin.  The last winery was Old Town Cellars and resulted in a one bottle purchase.

In each of the wineries, we were able to meet the winemakers and heard a bit about their approach to their chosen profession.  Old Town Cellars was actually preparing to bottle wine over the weekend, unfortunately we won’t be in the area to observe.

We eventually returned to the hotel a little before 7pm, and settled in our room to enjoy our meat and cheese platter along with, you guessed it, a little more wine for me and amaretto for Mary!

Pictures 8/9/18

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