Submitted by morourke@cloud9... on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 13:03
Welcome to Wine Country.
Have you been on the road lately? Have you seen how many new wineries have popped up over the last decade, offering wine tastings and vineyard tours via roadside billboards in such unlikely locales as southwestern Michigan and southern Missouri? Well, I have. And after writing about vineyard packages and wine tastings over the last few months, I thought it was about time I climbed the hill and experienced first hand what this is all about.
Historic archways and wine barrels underground.
In my imagination: a pretty view or two, a tour guide droning, followed by a few meager sips of mediocre wine. Low standards, certainly, but I couldn’t imagine what else could be involved. Let me tell you what. In the tour: miles of rolling hills blanketed in spring-green vines on trellises, chilly underground caverns dripping, hundred-plus year old underground stone archways, enormous metal tanks sweating condensation, fermenting enough wine to swim in. And the tour guide, a particularly knowledgeable high school gal, leaking histories of the winery interwoven with the town’s own, and ghost stories, and the science behind making wine. I'm tellin' ya, I had no idea a winery’s past could be so political.
This barrel used to be cleaned by hand, by the only person small enough to fit inside--the vintner's wife.
All of this followed by an extensive wine tasting of all the winery’s offerings, from cabernets to rieslings, in a historic building bejeweled with grainy black and white photos and antique vintner’s tools.
Sample, anyone?
With this grand, first-hand experience under my belt, I feel confident in ushering you all forward to explore Cloud 9’s own winery tours, currently available in nearly a dozen locations, coast to coast. California’s coast is riddled with tours, from Orange County’s Winery Jeep Tour to experiences in the famed Napa Valley, as well as lush Oregon’s Columbia Gorge and Vineyard Tour and Seattle’s Woodinville Wine Experience. The East Coast won’t be beaten, either, offering tours in New York, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. Sniff, swirl, and sip, my friends.