Busses by the Barrel, or Vanagons visit Viticulture

The 25th annual Santa Clara Wine Festival is Saturday April 29, 2000, from 12 PM to 5 PM at Casa de Fruita on Pacheco Pass Rd., near Hollister, Cal, south of San Jose. The $30/person includes: wine tasting, barrel tasting (pretty chewy?), 1:30-3:00 food including New York Steak, Pasta, many other dishes, souvenir wine glass, live music, barrel race (running barrels?), and other activities. No pets, including those under 21 years old.

Tickets are available at 800-548-3813 from the sponsoring Santa Clara Valley Wine Growers Association, representing "The oldest continuously producing wine region in the state" (read "nutrient stressed old vines"). These small winery owners are neat people so it's a pretty folksy event. By (almost) sheer coincidence some of them officially started their wineries with fully producing vineyards in 1933, the year prohibition ended, and they've been making excellent wine ever since.

We're attending and will stay overnight at the Casa de Fruita RV park in a big pull through spot for a little (required content) Vanagon. $26/night. 800-548-3813 is the reservation phone number and the campground is filling up fast. CdF is owned by a fun loving ranching family that creates an enjoyable experience in a pleasant rural valley setting.

If anyone else is going, you can p-mail me and we can plan to get together Saturday evening for a little sipping and conversing.

Cheers, Tom Neal '87 syncro with new clutch slave, clutch master, & brake master, and now featuring as "leak of the week" the rear seal on the front diff, not counting the omnipresent coolant leaks.