A First for Mount Diablo

I set a record last weekend. It involved a 3800-foot-tall mountain, which made the accomplishment easier. Combined with a bicycle and a bottle of wine from New Zealand, it was a shoe-in: I pedaled up Mount Diablo with a bottle of Cloudy Bay 2007 Marlborough Pinot Noir in my pannier and opened it on top. Though I can't entirely verify it, I believe that this was Cloudy Bay Pinot's first excursion up this summit - ever. I was drenched in sweat and rather uncomfortable in the ripping gale that stormed about the mountaintop, and the wine was too good to sip entirely from the bottle in such conditions - so I only had a glass's worth. It was excellent - earthy and very savory, with smells and flavors of dark purple fruit keeping a low profile behind more frontward notes of soil, mushroom, and a metallic taste I couldn't quite place.

Last year I pedaled up the same mountain with a bottle of bourbon barrel-aged stout from Deschutes Brewing Company - and that, too, was almost certainly a first ever.

As I compile more records atop Diablo I'll record them in this blog.