Second cousins Mark and Arthur were in town for separate conferences, so along with their sister Christy, we met up for brunch at the Market Bar in the Ferry Building. Had good eggs and bacon in the unusually warm sun, and then walked down to the ballpark to kill some time before taking a ferry to go winetasting in Alameda.

“Winetasting in Alameda?” you say, “They grow grapes over there?” Well no, but there are a handful of wineries that make wine within walking distance of the ferry dock, something Christy and Marcus recently discovered. I know, news to me too.

Stephanie was getting tired and had dance rehearsal later in the day, so she took off for home. Marcus met up with us, and we all hopped on the ferry towards Rosenblum Cellars. Christy and Marcus liked the wine so much on their first visit that they became members, which meant we all got to taste 9-10 wines (including some on their “reserve” list) for free.

They had a lot of Zins, all decent, but also somewhat indistinguishable, especially at first taste. Their Syrahs were also nice, I’d probably grab a bottle or two if I go back. I liked their Viognier and got a bottle, and I picked up a bottle of their Mourvedre, a grape I’d never heard of, for good reason: apparently it’s rarely made into a wine unblended with other grapes. Since the grapes originate from the Provençal region of France, I decided to pick up a bottle for Stephanie. Finally they poured us a taste of their Syrah Port, which was very good, sweet and flavorful, without any overpowering alcohol.

Stephanie happened to abscond with my camera in her bag when she went home, so I took the opportunity to take a few lo-fi cameraphone pics of Oakland’s massive container cranes.