This year 67 Iowa wines from twelve Iowa wineries are available for you to choose from at the Iowa Wine Garden … sample, choose your favorite, and purchase a bottle to open and enjoy – or take with you. Tonight my husband and I are attending Wine & Prime — which is receiving rave reviews — so we’ll be sampling and selecting a wine to enjoy with our prime rib, potato, salad and chocolate mousse! I’ll let you know what we select.
Participating wineries at the Iowa Wine Garden are: Jasper Winery, La Vida Loca Winery, Madison Country Winery, Park Farm Winery, Penoach Vineyard, Winery and Nursey, Prairie Moon Winery and Vineyards, Santa Maria Vineyard & Winery, Southern Hills Winery, Summerset Winery, Tabor Home Vineyards and Winery, Tassel Ridge Winery and White Oak Vineyards. Winemakers and staff from the wineries are pouring, and it is always interesting to visit with them.
There are tables in the Iowa Wine Garden and folks are sitting down in the fan-cooled tent and spending some time off their feet, relaxing, laughing and having fun. Many are taking a free copy of Make Mine Wine to the table, and browsing through the Summer issue. After reading Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Squeeze? I hear some planning to participate in grape stomping this season. One of the most surprising things for many is the list of all Iowa Wineries – the wine trails and the wineries that are not associated with a trail. It fills a page – small print – and will serve for many as a check list as they spend weekends visiting Iowa wineries.
I love the stories that I hear. Yesterday a guy who grew up in Ames and lives in Arizona said he was back for a family reunion. The event was held at Fireside Winery near Marengo. He was amazed to discover the winery in the middle of the cornfields and very pleased with the high-quality of the Fireside Wine. I asked which ones he tried. He shook his head, assured me that he was with a group of twenty people, and said, “All of them!”
One couple told me that they had always prided themselves on stocking and drinking high-priced wine, since they felt the price assured them they were drinking the best. One night they stopped into White Oak Winery at Cambridge and found a wine that is now their favorite, and more reasonably-priced to boot. Since then they are traveling to other Iowa wineries and have add a new more local wines to their “must have on hand” list.
A young couple was entertaining friends from Oregon, who brought wine to share with them, so they brought out their favorite Park Farm wine, and the friends ended up taking a few bottles back to Oregon with them, along with a new appreciation of Iowa wine.
Many folks have asked if I’ve had Prairie Moon Winery’s ice wine. They all feel like they are giving me a tip on a new great wine and of course I have to tell them I already love that Winter Moon.
Come on out to the Iowa Wine Garden – I look forward to meeting you and hearing your stories from Midwest Wine Country!
Cheers!
Barbara Rasko
Publisher
Make Mine Wine
