Tasting Paso Robles Friday: Le Vigne and Pear Valley

This is Le Vigne Winery's temporary tasting room. I took one look at these towering barrels and said If we have an earthquake, RUN! People tend to think Well the heavy stuff is heavy and it won't fall.

What every person in the world should know is during a strong earthquake (you never know how strong it will be until it's too late), weighted things that are not tied down sufficiently can and generally will become airborne. This includes heavy machines like bulldozers. That's right. A giant bulldozer can fly weightless in a strong earthquake.

So see these barrels. If there is a rumble, there may be a tumble. Move your bottom out the door just in case.

That said - I liked the ambiance.

Here is the new and unfinished tasting island. Looks nice. They replaced the tall bar with lower belly-ups. I like that. It was always weird to taste wine feeling like a child standing at grownups furniture. I'm five-two. That isn't that small -geez.

And on the way home, another winery had actual people climbing on the high tension towers. So we had to go tasting at Pear Valley Winery too.

All I could think was if I were doing that job, what would I do if I had to go pee.

Earthquake News

Approximately 5:30 this morning a 4.4 magnitude earthquake hit the central coast of California. It probably occurred on the Sur-Nacimiento fault. I was awake but still in bed. I felt like I was waiting for something, then the earthquake hit and I thought oh that's what I was waiting for and I went back to sleep. Since then there has been 32 aftershocks and the largest was 3.3 magnitude.

  

The Sur-Nacimiento fault is the west side boundary of the Salinian Block (number 9 in pink) and connects with Rinconada fault. The S-N fault is complex and does not equate to a straight line like how it is shown on the above maps. It is more like a staircase, and you can see evidence of this in seismology map above with the blue aftershocks making an east-west line. On a local map you can see that the epicenter is probably just west of the town Adelaida near Lime Mountain. Perhaps the earthquake was on the locally known steep (vertical) fault called Las Tablas fault, which is included in the Sur-Nacimiento fault complex.

At any rate the earthquake had gentle undulating waves punctuated with a strong compression wave. Silas woke up and looked at me but went back to sleep too.