ADVENTURES, CHALLENGES, AND INSIGHTS OF A COUPLE IN EARLY RETIREMENT
Every year we make a pilgrimage to Nice, France to pick up our residency cards. This year we decided to take a car from there and drive through the south and middle of France to get to Bordeaux. On the way, we made a number of stops and our first stop was Chateauneuf-du-Pape the premier wine region of Cote du Rhone.
During our quarterly visit to the Bay Area, we decided to take advantage of the California sunshine, so welcome after the cold, damp, and grey of Ireland. Pretty country, not great weather. We took a short trip to the wine country and even had time to float down the Russian River.
One of the places we wanted to visit on our roving retirement tour through Spain was Jerez the home of Sherry wine. Happily, we were able to stay for a few days and see the town and learn about Jerez and its namesake Sherry first hand.
One of the special things about our roving retirement nomadic life is sampling all of the food and wine available in the places we visit. So, we decided to take the time to visit both the wine regions of Penedès and Priorat, which are inland from Barcelona and Tarragona.
When I first started going to California Wine Country (at that time, mostly Napa Valley), you could still taste wine for free and good, inexpensive bottles were available for purchase onsite.
