So to recap: We had just spent a lovely night at the
Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake. During dinner at their Horizons restaurant we had a flight of wines from
Ferrante - a local winery - and were surprised at how decent they all were. So we thought we'd check out the actual winery on the way home. I had an idea that there were wineries in Geneva area but... well...
we've been to Napa and to the Fingerlakes. How could Ohio Wine even
compare?
Wow. I.... wow. I was blown away. I had NO IDEA that the quality of wine would be SO good. Or that the wineries would be SO adorable. Everything we
tasted (and obviously Matt tasted a bunch more than me) was every bit as
good as anything we had in the Fingerlakes. And the scenery is worth
the trip in and of itself:
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| Vineyards! |
And it's only an hour
away! I am basically horrified that I didn't know about this and have
it on my Must See Cleveland list. Because, seriously:
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| That's a lot of wineries in a small area. How did I not know about this??? |
We
went to
Ferrante first - mainly to pick up some wine to go with the
fish fry that night.
They have a few tasting flights but we were kindof
all over the map. We were on a mission and they were super helpful
with their recommendations. We ended up with a dry Riesling that
impressed everyone at the dinner table.
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| Clearly their wines impressed some awards type people, too! |
We also bought
an Ohio
Ice Wine because they are SO good. I'm not a sweet wine person
but I am a complete sucker for this very specific type of dessert wine.
See it's only possible to grow it in a few places because in order to
make it they have to let the grapes freeze on the vine. Then pick them
as quickly as possible as soon as it's cold enough. It's a very risky venture (the frost may not come and the grapes may rot on the vine) and it requires that they have enough people available to pick the grapes on very short notice. It's pretty neat
that they can do it here. If you live in ohio and haven't had an Ohio
Ice Wine yet get yourself a bottle STAT.
From there we had a little bit of time left so we thought we'd mosey down the road and check out another winery. (The Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake gave us a great map to use on our venture and had some great recommendations for where to go. They have a
list on their website that would be a good place to start when planning a trip like this.) We chose
Harpersfield:
Someone at Knitters Fantasy actually recommended it to me. She bought a skein of Frozen Great Lake because of a recent trip to Geneva and told me to check out the place with the giant fireplace:
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| Done and done. |
It was adorable. The ladies working there were super nice and interesting. And they have 2 little terrier dogs that hang out in the tasting room. You know how I feel about little, white, dogs:
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| This one is ours but I think she'd feel right at home in a wine tasting room. |
Anyways their specialty was Chardonnay so that's what we tasted. They have an aged in oak version and an aged in stainless steel version that it is super fun to taste back to back. You can really see what a difference that makes in the final flavors. We liked the stainless version the best and ended up going home with a bottle.
From there we decided to keep heading away from the highway and see what else we could discover. We didn't have a ton of time but weren't ready to go home just yet because, seriously:
So pretty!
We ended up at
Chalet Debonne Vineyards.
They also have a brewery on site:
And their tasting room is pretty cool:
But we were there just before they opened and it was pretty dead. Plus we were running out of time before we needed to get back and pick up the kids. Also I was hitting my limit of what I thought was reasonable to taste pregnant. So we didn't end up sampling anything here. I definitely want to go back sometime, though!
From there we headed to
South River Vineyard - the other one on our must see list of recommendations from the Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake. Because this winery? Is located in what used to be a church:
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| I love me an adaptive reuse. |
I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the insides but it's pretty neat. Also the back of it looks like this:
Yes. They blew off the back of the church to make a balcony with a view of the vineyards. Strong play. Although I probably would not have gone so... decorative... with my architectural elements:
Anyways we ended up getting a simple cheese plate from them for lunch:
We were still pretty stuffed from breakfast but I knew with the drive home then the frenzy of picking up the kids and getting them down for naps it would be awhile before I could eat again. So this was perfect. And, obviously, with lunch we needed to taste some of their offerings:
We tried one from each of their categories. All were good. They, too, have an Ice Wine although I didn't like it as much as the one we purchased from Ferrante. The wine we liked the most was their "Trinity" (LOVE the religious names to go with the rehabbed church!) Unfortunately we didn't purchase it because we were already headed home with 4 unexpected bottles of wine and 5 seemed to be pushing some sort of limit? I don't even know. Also I was picturing all of the wine we purchased on this trip as being drunk sometime this summer with friends when they come to meet the new baby and somehow a red didn't fit into that image. Honestly, I regret it. The wine was good. And seriously what's one more bottle of good wine?
Then it was time to head back to reality. Overall we had an amazing time. We were gone for less than 24 hours. Left after work and were back in time to put the kids down for naps. And in that short time we did so many things! I really can't recommend both the Geneva area and the Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake enough. For a quick, romantic, escape reality getaway like this it is PERFECT. Only an hour away and yet far enough that it feels like a completely different world.
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| Pictured: Us relaxed and not working and/or renovating. |
I absolutely want to go back again. The Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake has a
wine bus that will take you from place to place. I think a trip with friends in the dead of winter when the lake looks really cool to do nothing but go to the wineries is in order.
Yay for discovering new and amazing things in our own backyard!
Oh and we even stopped at a quaint little covered bridge on the way home. Super adorable!
Disclaimer: The Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake invited me to stay with them and post about the experience. As always all opinions are my own and I would never post about something that I didn't believe in.
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| PS: Pic of us at the finger lakes in 2006. WOW WE LOOK YOUNG! |
