Round Barn Winery

Many are the states that make wine - all of them, in fact. A week or so ago, Conrad and I decided to finally open a bottle of a Maui Syrah we purchased from a winery there last year. It was... interesting. Far better than the Carlos and Noble. More "interesting" than the Missouri wine. We thought it was kind of watery, and as we went on, the initial appealing funk became more than we cared for.

We've also had Michigan wine before, both at wineries and at restaurants and homes. We've been told the names of some good wineries, too, though we don't think we've stumbled upon them in our travels. Tabor Hill is a name that comes up, and we enjoyed generous pours of it at the rehearsal dinner I have yet to blog. But it's not our favourite, no. Instead, we turn to Round Barn Winery, a place we came upon while out with Darth and Heidi a few years back.

(Long story about ViJ's here, ask me another day.)

The day after the wedding we dropped by Tina's parents' home for the send-off brunch, and - with a little food in our bellies - we set out through gently rolling landscape clothed in cornfields and grape vines. Ah, the vines, heavy with ripe berries.
When will they pick them all.

Frankly, I'm not a fan of the grape wines from Michigan with rare exception, and the visit this time to Round Barn didn't dispel that notion much. The Chardonnay, for example, had a big, oaky nose, but was like water in our mouths. Conrad liked the regular Cab but thought the reserve Cab was lacking. We tried several grape wines, in fact, and at best they were ok.

Ah, but the fruit wines, the fruit wines. Oh, scorn fruit wine if you will, but it can be a lovely thing to sip alone, or with cheese or desert or even some savoury foods. We're huge fans of the black walnut, and were dismayed that they had none. Our spirits (ha! see what I did there?) lifted when they told us it was coming out later this year.

The fruit wines were as lovely as we recalled from years past, and we happily bought a handful of bottles. Declining the beer tasting, we headed outside, took some photos, and began the (happily not too long) trek back around the bend of the lake to Chicago.