Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, part two

After our friend left, we hit the wine trail again, this time starting at the eastern end of the trail. As we'd visited Blue Sky the day before, we headed south of there to Orlandini Vineyard in Makanda. This is a newer winery to the trail, and the owners are currently rehabbing their facilities. The tasting room was sparse (most likely due to the construction upgrades), but with pretty tapestries and frescos on the walls that are reminiscent of Italy. Orlandini offers only a small variety of wines, eight total, so you know they're focusing on their quality and not quantity. Sadly, the wine we enjoyed the most was their Concord, the only wine made from non-local grapes. Oops. E enjoyed their Rosso Gustoso as well, though it's surely their Saluki Red that keeps the locals coming back again and again—the Salukis are the mascot of Southern Illinois University in nearby Carbondale. Smart marketing on Orlandini's part.

Orlandini Vineyard

We traveled on to StarView Vineyards in rural Cobden. A wedding was taking place at StarView that afternoon and so the place was packed, with wedding guests in a private room and outside on the grounds while regular patrons stayed in the tasting room. The winery has a cafe of sandwiches and salads (in which we did not partake), as well as a gallery featuring local artists. The wines themselves are named with a star motif, such as Supernova and Red Giant. We enjoyed the wines here, though due to the sheer number of people we tore through the tasting rather quickly. We also didn't explore the winery at all, simply because we didn't want to wander in to someone's wedding celebrations.

StarView's tasting room

Next we drove to the exact opposite side of rural Cobden, this time to Inheritance Valley Vineyards. This winery is the smallest on the entire trail, with their entire facility the size of a small barn. While the decor is sparse, the wines are good. The Ruvanesque was a particular favorite, and the Big Deisel Whine and Blackberry Boogie were both tasty. We were hoping to try their Cobden Cream, as this is the only winery on the trail to feature sherry. However, they were sold out at the time with a waitlist of 30+ people hoping to get bottles of the next batch. It must be good!

The addition to the barn is the Inheritance Valley tasting room

Hedman Vineyard was next on our list, nearby in Alto Pass. Hedman has a large amount of property for its vineyards, with a large gray barn acting as tasting room and restaurant, and a farmhouse for a B&B. Everything here has a Swedish motif, from the gift shop to the restaurant menu. The actual bar in the tasting room is tiny, though the staff on hand was friendly enough to make up for the close quarters. E particularly liked the chandelier over the bar, made up of wine glasses featuring the logos from every winery on the Shawnee Hills trail. Hedman's wine list consists of just over a dozen wines. The ones we liked the most were their Tucker Hill Red and their Peach wine.

Hedman Vineyards knows how to advertise

At this point the day was wrapping up, and we had to go back to Carbondale to grab food for dinner. We decided to stop by Rustle Hill once again in the hopes that we'd get to try their wines this time. The winery was still crowded, though not as bad as the evening before. When we did make our way to the bar, we were told that they'd sold out of nearly half of their wine selection. Of the five of eight wines available to taste, one was a "premium" tasting which cost extra money. What we did try was, to put it bluntly, a disappointment. E bought one bottle just to have at least one from each winery, but we left Rustle Hill with a bad taste in our mouths once again.

We spent the rest of the evening back at our cabin, grilling steaks in celebration of M's birthday. Later there was scary movie watching and s'mores over the fire, followed by another dip in the hot tub with glasses of wine in hand.

The next morning we packed up the cabin and headed into Carbondale to kill some time before the wineries opened. We had one last winery to visit: Owl Creek Vineyard in Cobden.  We arrived to find the place almost completely empty, which wasn't a surprise on a Sunday morning. The tasting room is upstairs in their facility (so it's a no-go for people unable to climb stairs, unless there's an elevator hiding somewhere). The large bar offers plenty of room for guests, and a large deck on the back of the building offers lots of outdoor seating under the trees. The wines here were flavorful and tasty across the board. We left with a bottle of ChardonOwl and one of their dessert wines, ZenGeist. Also in hand were "complimentary" glasses with the winery's logo, which come free once you pay for a tasting. However, these have come in handy plenty of times since we came home, so we won't complain.

Owl Creek had each row of vines labeled by grape type

Overall, it was a great trip touring the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. Almost all of the wineries were a hit.  We visited 15 wineries in less than three days and almost all of them were a good experience, so those are good odds. Also, the scenery in the area is gorgeous, all rolling—and sometimes steep—hills, lots of lakes, and thousands upon thousands of trees, thanks in part to the national forests. We'd definitely recommend visiting the trail for a long weekend getaway.