Weiner Dog White

Weiner Dog White
Alto Vineyards Reserve from Alto Pass, IL
This is a very smooth, well-rounded wine. It's slightly sweet with very little aftertaste. The nose is good, but doesn't do justice to its full flavor. 4 out of 5 stars.

Vintage Illinois wrap-up

Last weekend (Sept. 20) we attended the Vintage Illinois wine festival with M's sister and her friend. The four of us drove out to Utica, Illinois, where the festival was held outside at Starved Rock State Park. Twenty-nine different wineries from around Illinois had tents set up so that attendees could sample and buy their different wines. The event was a lot of fun, but about halfway through the day rain began, and drizzles turned into non-stop downpours. Unfortunately due to the rain, we ended up rushing through at least half of the tents, and we weren't able to get a good sampling from the different vendors.

For posterity's sake, we're copying over the notes we made in the passport book. This is a smattering of the wines we liked, but it's nowhere near complete as to what each winery has available, or what might even be the best wines from the vendors. This is all very random, to say the least.

• Kickapoo Creek Winery, Edwards (previously visited)
  Chocolate strawberry, Dave, Jubilee Gold
• Village Vintner Winery, Carpentersville (previously visited)
  Big Bella, Amarossa, Pom-A-Berry
• Illinois River Winery (previously visited)
  No wines tried at the festival.
• Baxter's Vineyards & Winery, Nauvoo
  Purple Fang, Brenda's Blush
• Mary Michelle Winery/Illinois Cellars, Carroliton
  Velvet White, Velvet Rose, Norton
• Cooper's Hawk Winery, Orland Park
  Almond Infusion
• Willetts Winery & Cellar, Manito
  Unfortunately, we didn't enjoy the wines we tried from Willetts.
• Von Jakob Vineyards, Pomona
  Little Grand Canyon Gold, Honey Blush
• Galena Cellars Winery, Galena (previously visited in St. Charles location)
  General's Reserve Red, Sparkling Muscat
• Owl Creek Vineyard, Cobden
  Owl's Leap (spicy!), Bald Knob
• Fox Creek Vineyards, Olney
  Cayuga White (spicy white), Vixen's Creek, Deer Farm (too sweet)
• Berryville Vineyards, Claremont
  Sunlight, White Squirrel, Red Top
• Blue Sky Vineyard, Makanda
  Misterioso, Rocky Comfort, Chambourcin
• Starved Rock Marketplace, Utica
  Pioneer Red, Catawba, Burgoo (not enjoyed by us)
• Fox Valley Winery, Oswego (previously visited)
  White Sangria, Traminette
• Waterman Winery & Vineyards, Waterman
  Barbed Wire Red, Truck
• Spirit Knob Winery, Ursa
  Edelweiss, Norton (chalky, not enjoyed)
  
• Wild Blossom Meadery, Chicago
  Pom Nectar
• Pheasant Hollow Winery, Whittington
  No notes for this vendor.
  
• Lavender Crest Winery, Colona
  Spice, Out of the Blue
• Massbach Ridge Winery, Elizabeth
  Blackhawk Red
• Piasa Winery, Maryville
  Ouatoga Gold
• Prairie State Winery, Genoa (previously visited)
  Recession Noir, Oak Savannah, Kishwaukee Blue
• Vahling Vineyards, Stewardson
  Friar's Favorite
• August Hill Winery, Utica (previously visited)
  Almond Infusion, Trapolino, Augie's Blackberry
• Lasata Winery, Lawrenceville
  No notes for this vendor.
• Alto Vineyards, Alto Pass
  Dawg House Red, Traminette
  

It's a start

Over the past year or so, M and I have made it our unofficial goal to try wines from the many, many wineries here in Illinois. You wouldn't think that Illinois is "wine country" in comparison to Napa Valley, but you'd be surprised at the number of small wineries producing all kinds of tasty, complex, and sometimes downright odd wines. We've visited a lot of the wineries in Northern Illinois and collected bottles from all over the state, but we'll be discussing wines from elsewhere in the Midwest, as well as wines from other regions of the U.S. and the world.

The other day we were looking at the several cases of wine in our kitchen and thought that we should do something with them besides just drink them, and the idea for this blog was born. Why not write down something about the wines we've tried? Are they good, or just mediocre? If we visited the winery, what was it like? If anything, we can always use this blog to store information so that we don't buy the same bottle twice--especially if we didn't like it the first time. So this blog will be all about What We've Drunk, be it from that local place we drove past last month to the bottle of cabernet from France we picked up at Trader Joe's. (Hey, wine doesn't have to be expensive to be good!) We'll try to include pictures and links, and hopefully there will be some interesting -- if not actually useful -- suggestions here.