drinking (and hiking) in Yosemite/Sequoia

Had a ten day hiking holiday in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Here is a list of what we managed to drink (4 adults). No real notes just impressions. We described ourselves as drinkers with a hiking problem. It was a great trip and every respect.

Champagnes:
Laurent Perrier 2004 –good
Nicolas Feuillatte 2004 - good
Louis Roederer 2004 – very good

Whites:
1992 Zillikin Saarburger Rausch Spat – mature honey and toast, ok palate, pleasant
2007 Donnhoff 2007 Brucke Oberhauser Spat-outstanding, has everything
2008 Donhoff 2008 Norheimer Kirschheck Spat – damn these donnhoff were good
2009 Donnhoff 2009 Schlossbockelheimer Felsenberg Spat-ditto
2009 J Leitz Rudesheimer Berg Roseneck Spat- very good
2009 Selbach Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Spat- wonderful light on its feet, lovely
2000 Lopez de Heredia Vina Gravonia – lean lemony fruit, needs time

Reds:
2001 Ch Gracia – very impressive modern bdx, great fruit, nice balance
1998 Ch Langoa Barton – nice spot for drinking now, goos structure
1999 Ch Malescot St Exupery – silky sweet fruit, mature
1997 Ch Clerc Milon – over the hill, lost fruit, tannic
1991 Lopez de Heredia Vina Bosconia Gran Riserva – lovely mature old style rioja
2008 Tollot-Beaut Savigny les Beane Les Lavieres
2007 Grivot Vosne Romanee – silky delicious balanced, easy to drink
2006 Hudelot-Noellat Chambolle Musigny – more structured than grivot, also delicious
2000 Giacosa Barbaresco Santo Stefano – oh yes, wonderful, best wine
2005 Produttori Barbaresco Riserva Montefico – youthful, tannic needed food
2007 Fontodi Chianti Classico-great with food,
2006 Dm Banneret CNDP – recommendation from a wine shop, just ok
2007 Dm Clos d’Oratoire CNDP – delicious, ripe tasty
2006 Ant Hills Pinot Noir Peters Vnyd – drank very well, much enjoyed

Afters:
2009 Selbach Oster Zeltinger Himmelreich Eiswein “Junior”-fantastic acid/fruit balance, wonderful intensity and length
2009 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Auslese GK – excellent, great depth & length
2005 Forest Estate Botrytis Riesling-mature BA style riesling from NZ, very good
2001 Volpaia Vin Santo- sl oxidative nose, interesting wine, enjoyable
1996 Yarra Yering “portsorts”- spicy, medium weight, good
1977 Grahams vintage port- lovely drinking, not too big or powerful, “polite”


Brodie

Did you do Half Dome?

When we hiked in Sequoia last year we slaked our thirsts, but not like this. Well done!

Dan - not with 5 kids who spent a lot of time complaining! We did 5-8 mile hikes like Panorama and Mist Trail. Nothing more than about 6 hours per day. Leaves enough time to cook a good meal and have a few bottles!. Brodie

Nice list of bottles Brodie.

When I am camping/hiking I tend to stick to Stone IPA, or I guess some Sierra Nevada would be in order. I am impressed.

Howard

Brodie - great list of bottles, and it sounds like you had a fantastic time.

Did you hike the Panorama trail down from Glacier Point? We’ll be there next week and I’m trying to talk my wife into that hike. She’s worried the “Strenuous 6-8 hour” rating means it’s too difficult. We’ve hiked up the Mist Trail past the top of Vernal Falls. Do you think Panorama is more difficult than that? I figure it has to be almost all downhill. TIA.

Crikey Brodie, you would have needed a team of Sherpas to help lug the wine around!

Wow! Fantastic. Sounds like an incredible trip. Thanks for posting.

Larry - we did it from Glacier point. You can get a bus up from Yosemite village to Glacier Point and then hike down to the valley floor. It is mostly down hill, it is a 9 mile hike and you should allow a day to do it easy with stops. Lovely trail with amazing to die for views. We even got a 5 min snow storm as an extra bonus.

Jeremy - in the USA the correct term for a sherpa is a “Ford Explorer”. It carries both people and wine without too many complaints.

Brodie

Brodie, nice mix of wines, good practice for your NZ trip. Cheers Mike

Sounds like fun. You have troopers for kids if they hiked 5-8 miles/day. I was last there 2 yrs ago and managed to hike to Nevada Falls with my then 2 y/o daughter in a back pack carrier. After that trip, I retired the backpack carrier and said we’ll have to hold off on hiking until she can keep up. Yosemite is so amazing, but the dichotomy of people you see there is so drastic. On one hand you see really fit hikers, climbers, bikers, etc. and then you see really unhealthy obese people who have no interest in physical activity whatsoever and just want their corn dogs at the village grill. Anyway, great selection of wines. I usually drink beer when camping.

Did you go to Taft Point? One of my favorite places in Yosemite and an easy 1 hr hike.

In Kings Canyon/Sequoia, I managed to come back with 64 mosquito bites. Those f***ers love my spicy Korean blood. I hope they got ulcers.

5 kids!!
Yikes. Still though, that is great that you even got that much hiking in with kids.
You’ll have to ditch them some day and go around Half Dome.
How was the hike downward? Going downhill for hours isn’t necessarily easy either.

PS did you have a separate trailer for the wines??

Great list. Certainly after a long day of hiking there, wine always tasted a little better for me. Glad to hear the positive reviews about Panorama—it’s my next slated hike on my next trip there, probably in April 2012. Haven’t done Mist yet either, but did most of Upper Yosemite, Glen Aulin, all of Sequoia Grove and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir hike in the past, as well as Sentinel Dome (worth it at sunset and not too, too difficult).

Dress for it, certainly, but winter in Yosemite is absolutely breathtakingly spectacular (see current avatar e.g. from Mirror Lake).

You’re right, Dan, downhill can be pretty heavy work too—I’m always thankful for my swing dancing classes and “body centre” instructions echoing in my head when I do a downhill.

Brodie, if you’re going, you’ll adore New Zealand–Yosemite is the only place that compares. I want to do the Milton Track at some point and did do Fox Glacier and Abel Tasman, which were wonderful.

Mike, I am a kiwi and did a lot of walks in my younger days. Going back to visit family. This seems to have morphed into a yosemite travel thread, the moderators might not be amused? Cheers Brodie

E side of The Park check out Cloud’s Rest, now that is a hike and a view!

Continuing the Yosemite trail thread detour…I hiked most of that trail with my family. There’s a funny story that I won’t post publicly. Let’s just say that it’s a long, steep trail. It’s certainly not the most difficult trail I’ve been on, but in retrospect it’s not a good trail unless you have good hiking shoes AND have enough hiking stamina to put up with it…

Bruce

Thanks Bruce & Brodie. I’ve hiked the Mist Trail a number of times, by far the worst section of that is doing down the steps next to Vernal Fall. Just a reminder my knees aren’t what they used to be (and that I’ll miss them when they’re gone). The hiking shoes aren’t a problem, but I’m thinking this is one to not drag the wife along.

Joe - Taft Point trail was buried under 6 ft of snow. We tried and gave up. Still a lot of snow on Glacier Point Rd.

cheers
Brodie

Mike’s lexicon word is “tanjink”

Tanjink: A stray thought that has an effect ranging from complete forgetfulness of your previous train of thought through to life-altering experience, i.e. a little more dramatic than a tangent.

Dan Kravitz organizes a small group each year which hikes up part of Mt. Katahdin in Maine which I was fortunate enough to join last August. Once at our site, we unpack the food and wine and celebrate our hike. It was thoroughly enjoyable.