Our wine country getaway

One of the things on my 101 things in 2002 days list was go to a winery for a wine tasting.  Greg took it to another level and bought two tickets to a wine trail in Hermann, MO and reserved us a room at a B&B in town.  (Brownie points to the hubs!) 

Here we are at our first stop on the trail; the Robller Vineyard.  Unfortunately, we didn't find any wine here that we liked.

The sample of foods they had prepared that goes well with their Norton wine.

Our lovely souvenir glasses.

There is a funny story behind this one (of course).  Greg loves to go to garage sales.  More than that, he just really loves to find a good deal.  The weekend before we went to Hermann, Greg picked up a "wine stopper" at a garage sale.  Brand new, in the package, for 50 cents.  (It is supposed to be better than cork-sized one by holding in the flavor.  I think.)  He found this one at a gift shop at the Robller Vineyard for $15.  I'm pretty sure that was his favorite part of the trip!

This was our second to last stop (Adam Puchta Vineyard) and by that point we were sooooo tired of Norton wine (we are not big fans of dry red and lemme tell you, Norton is a very dry red.)  This sweet gentleman behind the counter (wearing bib overalls!) was describing a new wine glass that had just be patented and was specifically designed for drinking Norton wine.  As I downed my sample I listened absentmindedly, I didn't notice the sweet old lady coming toward me with the bottle of wine.  To give me a refill.  When I look at her with my eyes wide, she said, "I know.  Isn't is soooooo good?!" 

I think, "Mmmm hmmmm," was about all that I could muster before I downed it like a champ. 

Stone Hill winery was the last on our tour and it nearly deserves its own post.  We were able to tour the cellars where they age and store the barrels of wine, the grounds are beautiful, and at the end of our tour we were able to sample close to 30 different wines.  Some were definitely better than others and we bought a bottle of our favorite.

He always looks so annoyed that I'm taking his picture.  He's such a party pooper!

The giant containers that they cool the liquid in (it's not quite wine at that point.)

These were bottled just after Prohibition was repealed in the US.  The tour guide told us that 20 years is about the maximum that you want to let wine age (and that's really pushing it for some varieties) and since these have been in the bottle since somewhere around 1933 . . .  I'd say they taste something like rotten vinegar.  Bleh.  But, they are a cool piece of history!

This storage barrel was one of the originals that was in use after Prohibition.  The owners harvested their grapes approximately three times per year.  Each time (before it could be used again), a person had to crawl through that tiny hole (by Greg's right leg) with a bucket of hot soapy water and a mop and scrub the old 1-inch thick wine sludge off the inside of the barrel in order to control the quality of the next batch.  Also?  The person inside doing the cleaning usually got pretty drunk from the wine fumes.  Mmmmmmm . . . can I add that to my dream job list?! 

Breathtakingly beautiful.  You can even see the Missouri River to the left in the distance.