Saturday was such a gorgeous day, we decided we should go for a drive somewhere. I was in the mood for a wine tasting so we researched which direction we should head. We could go north to Winehaven, Dancing Dragonfly, Chateau, Wild Mountain Winery. We could head west to Parley, Sovereign, Woodland Hills. We could head southwest to Chankaska and Crofut. Or we could head down the river valley to Maiden Rock Winery and Cidery, Falconer, and Alexis Bailly. We decided to head down the river valley. We went straight to Wisconsin because we were most excited to try hard cider, wine, and apples all at the same place. We thoroughly enjoyed the scenery, fall colors, and windy roads on the way down.
Maiden Rock is also an orchard so we were able to get some apple products. They actually sell wines from numerous wineries, but you get a free tasting of Maiden Rock products. We tasted the cider and wine and decided to get a raspberry mead for Thanksgiving with my husband's family. Everything was fairly good, but didn't knock our socks off.
Then we went back to Minnesota and did a tasting at Falconer Vineyards in Red Wing. We had been here like 3 years ago and liked it then so we were excited to go back. For $6, you can sample six of their wines. Again, they were okay, but not amazing. I am just going to attribute that to my changing tastes in wine. Before, I preferred the super sweet moscato types, but now I'm more in the mood for dry reds. Unfortunately, Minnesota grapes lend themselves more toward the moscato types of wines.
I think if I'm in the mood for a wine tasting, the best vineyards in close proximity to the metro are the Stillwater wineries - St. Croix Vineyards and Northern Vineyards and then Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls. Each of these wineries does have a dry red to sample. If you like sweet wine, you can pretty much head in any direction out of the Metro and not be too far away from a vineyard.
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