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Cedar Creek Winery
Location: Cedarburg, WI
It had been awhile since I had visited a winery and actually gone on the tour. I usually just belly up to the tasting bar and get right to the goods, but we had the time and figured, why not!? So glad we did! Sure I heard a lot of the same stuff and saw a lot of the same stuff, but I also learned a lot of new stuff and partook in a lot of new stuff! For instance, I learned what "Estate" means when you see it on the bottle. All this time I thought it meant something like "reserve" - like it was a higher quality or something. Not necessarily... it really just means that the producer of the wine owns both the winery and the vineyard and everything was done in-house.
I also learned that "oak aged" can mean the wine maker put oak chips in the fermenting tank -- a much cheaper method. So you want to look for "aged in oak barrels" if you really care about such things.
The last highlight: trilling. This was tricky, I nearly drown. :) We were instructed to "slurp" the wine - so inhaling and aerating the wine to release flavor and aromas. Without exhaling we were swallow the wine, then exhale. I found it really hard to swallow without exhaling or exhaling while swallowing, hence the drowning. However, if you could manage it, it was an interesting to taste and taste the smell of the wine.
Right now I might be declaring Cedar Creek Winery my favorite upper mid-west winery!
Door Peninsula Winery
Location: Carlsville, WI (Door County)
Door County itself was a treat to visit. I hard heard so much so I am glad I got to see it for myself. I was glad to see the highway wasn't lined with tourist shops filled with tacky t-shirts. However, I can't say I thought it was anymore charming than parts of Upper MN (but I am bias).
Again I was fooled, the advertisement for the winery said: located in a historic schoolhouse. Just like the winery in Lake Lillian, MN - it was not a cute one room schoolhouse that I envisioned in my head. It was huge inside! And they have nearly 40 different wines. Free tastings of almost all of them, so you need to be careful!
They have some great novelty wine, for instance I got a mulled Christmas wine that I am excited to try in a few months!
