Your Local Winery
In the past ten or so years, local and small wineries have begun to multiply and it seems that every small town America has their own local vineyard or winery. This is a great thing and should not be taken for granted. A favorite past time of this author is to go to every small town winery she can find. The variety of taste and experience is second to none. There are of course your not so good wines and then there are the fantastic wines that quickly become your favorite. Wine regions are fun to explore because you can tour the vineyards and see the wine making process as it is being bottled or mixed. You have a range of large and small wineries so you are never bored and can pick and choose which to visit as they are very plentiful. Be sure you have a designated driver or take a tour bus as tasting that many wines, no matter how small the taste, can and will get you a bit tipsy!
Some of the most fun while traveling is trying to find wineries where ever you go. You can do a simple search online to find out all the information you need to get you to the next place. I don’t think I have ever been anywhere in the world where there was not a vineyard to visit. Some of the local wineries will not have their own vineyard, but will instead buy their grapes and experiment with their own concoctions and this is perfectly acceptable. Some of the best wine I have tasted came from wineries that just make the wine but they did not grow the grapes. While there are many different places to explore, each with their own customs, there are some general things to expect when visiting a winery.
Each vineyard and/or winery will have its own tasting room. This is where you can sample all of the wines on offer at that particular winery. They will normally provide you with a list of their wines to sample and this list will have descriptions of each of the wines. A general rule of thumb is if you are going to try multiple wines, to start with the driest of the wines and work your way towards the sweetest. These tasting should be free, but there has been the occasion where I have had to pay for a sample. This was when sampling Ice Wine which is extremely hard to make and is in limited quantities. If you have the chance though, I highly recommend trying a sample. Generally I paid around $5 for a taste but it was well worth it!
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