Did this summer have a goal? I have a vague memory of hoping to mountain bike thousands of miles this summer. Priorities change and it may of had something to do with constantly tipping over in the new clipless pedals, so I'm changing this summer's goal to get out and visit some of the local wineries. I know it's now officially Fall, tough, stop wine-ing!
Our first visit this year was to St. Julian's over in Paw Paw. Both Becca and I really enjoy a couple of their wines before we even visited, so we figured this was the best place to start. We had a good tour of the facility and enjoyed tasting a number of their wines. The most memorable wines for me were a couple of brandies. A couple of them were so potent, Becca decided she wanted no part of them and forced me to finish them off. But there were two that reminded me of drinking Smucker's jam, they were that sweet. Now, I've never been one to drink jam, so I can't imagine doing that, but it was a very unique taste that's for sure.
Our second visit was to a local place in Kalamazoo called Tempo Vino. Last year we received a gift certificate for them and hadn't used it. Turns out it's downtown Kalamazoo and very easy to get to provided you are already down there to see a movie, which is what we did. For the record, I can't tell the difference between a $10 bottle of wine and a $40 bottle other then one makes my wallet lighter. For this hole in the wall place in downtown Kazoo, I'm shocked at how many wines I liked. I was equally impressed with the woman conducting the tasting for us who spoke perfect English, answered the phone and switched to Greek, and also knew Italian. All there wines are in my price range and I thought all were wonderful. They have some fruit wines that are out of this world.
That tasting at Tempo Vino went so well, that we decided to do another tasting that same day and go back to Paw Paw and try the other winery there called Warner's. I'm not even sure if they do tours or not, but for the tasting, I really liked the atmosphere. It felt as if we were in a 1800 dungeon as we tasted. I was expecting to see a head roll out from a guillotine at any moment. It never happened, so that's a strike against Warner's, but they had what is now my current all time favorite wine, Peaches and Honey. That sounds strange, I admit, but it was outstanding!
The last place we visited was Natural Wines from Peterson and Sons. I'm going to start with this tour was by far the most memorable of the bunch. First, it's run out of the basement of his house. Walking up, I could hear the banjos playing the Deliverance tune. My gut feeling was right because once inside we were actually given a set of rules to follow when wine tasting! The two that stick with me is never touch the glass as he's pouring the wine and you must drink the water he pours in your glass between tastings (which I think there were a total of ten rules). I honestly thought the guy had a shotgun pointed at my head from under the bar, it was interesting to say the least. In the end, we walked out alive and with a certificate that we survived the Wine Notsee. I'm not sure if the wine didn't leave an overall impression on me, or if it was his character that overpowered everything else. Either way, this was definitely an experience to remember!
So, I didn't tip over stuck to my bike this summer. But, I may need a tip-over as in a nap from all our wine tasting. It's been an adventure!
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