Making Wine Tasting Modern

This summer we went on a tour of a few vineyards in southern Oregon in the Applegate Valley. They say to not judge wine by it's bottle but I did in fact judge a Vineyard by its building. Case in point Fiasco Vineyards also known as Jacksonville Vineyards (2 smaller pix above are from their website). We visited this vineyard in particular because I really liked their use of corrugated metal. This building is very modern looking. Many of the tasting rooms in our lovely state try to mimic an Italian or European retreat. While this is lovely it's not really authentic to the region, community, or our times. Fiasco was nice because while they did grow some "Old world" grapes while their building design sense is very modern. I didn't take pictures of the inside but it was very informal with concrete floors with a mix of rough river rock in the center of the floor where they had wine barrel tables for more wine sipping. The wine was not my favorite but I admired their use of passive solar, big glass doors on the south side, and materials. Wine tasting doesn't have to be stuffy - it should be comfortable. Another vineyard that is drop dead gorgeous and has amazing wine and views is Wooldridge Creek Winery. I can't say enough good things about their wine and the people that run the winery and make the wine. I haven't tried a wine I didn't like! Their building is also a great use of space. They have an amazing large outdoor patio with huge ceilings but furniture and tables to make it feel as though you're sitting in an outdoor living room. This picture is from their website. Man I love this place. I know vineyards are popping up all over the country. I've even visited a vineyard in Missouri! They are a great place to check out different design features that you might want to bring into your own home on a smaller scale. I know for sure our Thanksgiving weekend will take us back to Wooldridge Creek Winery. I seriously cannot stay away. I'll take some more pics of my fave features from their tasting area. Goodness all this vineyard talk is making me thirsty! Cheers!

Modern Fences 1

Another place that Mr. Monkey and I will be looking to update is our fence. It is in bad bad shape. Part of it blew over in  a wind storm over the winter. This is the first of many posts with pictures of fencing. While the old standby - cedar - is lovely and can be built in creative ways I would like to contribute to the interesting modern fences of Eugene. 

Here's a possibility we're considering. It's a picture of a cool fence with mixed materials we found on a walk in Tucson, AZ in the Sam Hughes neighborhood. Mr. Monkey is not so sure about corrugated metal but I'm liking it. I also really like board form concrete. But Mr. Monkey is right to think that it may too different for the neighbors that we share this fence with. Thanks to CMM for the board form picture.

Finally here's a slideshow of cool fences from Dwell Magazine's website. Actually they're not that cool - they're convenient because they're gathered together in one spot but in general they are pretty standard. It's still fun to go to the Dwell website though. So many slideshows so little time . . .