The spouse and I just got back from the Chautauqua – Lake Erie Wine Trail where we hit 14 of the 21 wineries in two days. We ended up with two cases of mostly dry and off-dry grape wines. The wife also ended up with a bottle of sweet cherry wine (immortalized by Tommy James and the Shondells) and a headache.
Two of these wineries made mead. The South Shore Wine Company sold “Honey Mead”. I know the name is redundantly redundant, but the wine-tasting host explained that it was because most people do not know what Mead is. Maybe the release of "Robin Hood" will pique people’s interest in mead, as it is mentioned a few times in the movie. The mead had a nice nose, a golden color, and a good taste as well. However, it definitely had dessert-style sweetness. The host could not provide any details on its honey.
The Blueberry Sky Farms Winery had both a dry and a sweet “Honey Wine”. This was the last stop on our tour and we were a bit burned-out at this point. I tried only the dry version that seemed like it could have used quite a bit more aging. This winery produced all non-grape wines and we ended up purchasing a sweet Dandelion wine and a couple bottles of cooking wine. They need to upgrade the outside of their bottles, which were adorned with plain, two-color, home made, ink jet labels on printer paper, glued crookedly onto their bottles.
Presque Isle Wine Cellars has an on-line brewshop, at their “piwine.com” web site. In addition to a bottle of wine, I scored some Go-Ferm and yeast hulls, items that my LHBS does not carry. Strangely, with such a large on-line catalog, they have no brewshop storefront. One just asks the wine-tasting host for the brewshop items and he has somebody retrieve them from their warehouse. Like several of the larger wineries, this winery has gone exclusively to screw-top enclosures.
If you’re in Northwestern PA, check it out!
Two of these wineries made mead. The South Shore Wine Company sold “Honey Mead”. I know the name is redundantly redundant, but the wine-tasting host explained that it was because most people do not know what Mead is. Maybe the release of "Robin Hood" will pique people’s interest in mead, as it is mentioned a few times in the movie. The mead had a nice nose, a golden color, and a good taste as well. However, it definitely had dessert-style sweetness. The host could not provide any details on its honey.
The Blueberry Sky Farms Winery had both a dry and a sweet “Honey Wine”. This was the last stop on our tour and we were a bit burned-out at this point. I tried only the dry version that seemed like it could have used quite a bit more aging. This winery produced all non-grape wines and we ended up purchasing a sweet Dandelion wine and a couple bottles of cooking wine. They need to upgrade the outside of their bottles, which were adorned with plain, two-color, home made, ink jet labels on printer paper, glued crookedly onto their bottles.
Presque Isle Wine Cellars has an on-line brewshop, at their “piwine.com” web site. In addition to a bottle of wine, I scored some Go-Ferm and yeast hulls, items that my LHBS does not carry. Strangely, with such a large on-line catalog, they have no brewshop storefront. One just asks the wine-tasting host for the brewshop items and he has somebody retrieve them from their warehouse. Like several of the larger wineries, this winery has gone exclusively to screw-top enclosures.
If you’re in Northwestern PA, check it out!
