I won a silent auction at my daughter school for a wine tasting. The auction was for a tour and tasting for a group of 10. So this past weekend my friends and I get together to use the coupon. The tasting and tour was for the Cooper-Garrod winery in Saratoga.
The tour started out with the wine maker, George Cooper giving us a tour of how the wine is made. He mentions that he went into wine making after retiring from NASA in 1972. I am think what a cool time that must have been. Working for NASA during the cold war must have been a kick.

At the end of the tour we go to the tasting room. Once inside I noticed a bunch of pictures on the wall with the title "Before Wine Making" above them. The pictures were of experimental aircraft from NASA, except one. At the top was a picture of a P47 from WW2.

I start asking George about the P47 and when he flew. Turns out he started flying right before D-Day. He flew cover for the troops on the beach that day. He flew 81 missions before the end of the war shooting down 4 German planes. He also flew in support for the Battle of Bastone and the Battle of the Bulge. One of my friends hears the talk about planes and starts asking about the NASA flights. George did 1000 flights for NASA. All talk about wine stopped as George told us about his flying days. We spent the rest of the time sipping wine and listening to George's stories about flying. I could have spent all day listening to him talk about going 3 times the speed of sound and other adventures.

So if you are ever wine tasting in the Saratoga hills check out www.cgv.com/. Ask for George.

I was at a Wine tasting event this weekend as well. ICA?

Encourage George to capture his history in writing. Fascinating stuff.