Smashing little winery out in the middle of the Ozarks! This great little gem sits in the rolling foothills along highway 123 and if there wasn't a sign to tell you it was there, you'd never even know about it.
What a nice experience here -- 12 wines to taste for only $5! Half off if you check in with Yelp! :) haha.. shame AT&T fails for putting you about 2 miles away with the weak signal in the area (so you can't check in), but the idea is good.
I know, you're thinking: how can they grow wine grapes here? Well, truth is, they can and they do, but not the varietals you're thinking. Think varietals like Vidal and Norton. Probably not ones you've heard of, and neither had I, until I visited. I was always told there are about 150+ varietals of grape in the world and probably even more, and now I've learned about 4 more here.
The tasting room is right in the winery -- a nondescript building that serves as the winery, barrel room, tasting room and a nice little deli section with some cheeses and sausages.
I think that my favourite wines here included the Norton and Vidal wines --- you'll have to forgive me, I did not take good notes. I do remember the Norton because it's the ONLY wine varietal that Missouri got Riedel to make a specific glass for the wine, and the ONLY Riedel glass to bear the varietal name. Yes, its a REAL Riedel glass!
Come here and enjoy the wines -- and they also have mead, although I wasn't a fan of it, they do seem to like to make it here :) I won't go into a huge thing about mead, suffice it to say its wine made from honey. And you know how picky bees are, so the honey has a different flavour from whatever pollen's they are harvesting, and thus, so does the mead.
Overall, nice place and I suppose it really gets crowded in the Spring and Summer up here -- it was a bit cold in the middle of Winter, but hey, my friend and I had the place to ourselves and could really enjoy taking our time through the tasting.
So, if you're ever up in the Ozarks near Springfield MO and find yourself wanting a nice glass of wine, come and see this winery. You will probably be just as pleased as I was and enjoy a nice glass of wine as well. read more