Father's Day - Conn Creek Winery

It's been busy and crazy at work so I've fallen behind on blog postings so these are a bit late. We took Tim out to Conn Creek Winery in Napa to celebrate a Fathers Day Ribs Cook-Off between two Napa Valley chefs. It was super fun and the food was amazing. They had these home-made pickles that I still remember and wished I could have taken a jar home.

Two chefs made their own special rubs of ribs. I think one was a dry rub and one was a wet bourbon style rub from my memory. People attending the bbq then voted on which rib was the best. The winery was small, intimate, and tried to include family friendly events like giant kids coloring books for the kids which Alia was into for a couple of hours. She even made friends with some other kids her age there.

 The best part was that part of the bbq was having the dads sign up for a wine blending contest. Each hour per group, you could make your own "blend" from their 18 barrels of wine in a small 100 ml batch. Their master wine blender then chose the best tasting blend from that group and the winner received a full custom bottle to take home with their "blend." Tim won in his group! The last picture is the custom bottle they made for him to take home. He blended 5 barrels together. I thought this was a neat part of the event, regardless if you won or not. Although it was a long day and drive out, we'll definitely consider making this a tradition each father's day.