River Valley Winery, Old Bank Winery & Train Wreck Winery

After my big trip to the Amanas, I took a couple of months off to finish out the summer and start the fall with a bang. It was September 29th, 2012 and my husband and I decided to head west. We started the day with River Valley Orchards and Winery. As we pulled into this beautiful orchard, we stopped and looked around at the gorgeous view. Eventually we made our way into the winery and as we entered, another couple was just leaving. We had the place all to ourselves except of course, for the owners who were working on making another batch of wine. We sat at the bar and the Mrs. decided to help us. She was a very nice woman and surprisingly young. She gave us a list of their wines and explained to us what they had to offer. We ended up trying all of their wines but some of our favorites were Fall Gold, Big Leaf, Bees Yak, Red Crapp, and White Crapp. Their Fall Gold is a yellow raspberry wine. Yes, you read correctly, I said yellow raspberry wine. Neither of us had heard of yellow raspberries before but we like black and red raspberries so we tried it and it was surprisingly delicious. Their Big Leaf is a rhubarb wine and is light and had a perfect balance between tartness and sweetness. The Bees Yak is made with what else but honey. It is a sweet wine and goes exceptionally well with chocolate. The Red Crapp and White Crapp are two completely different wines but both excellent. The White Crapp is like a Moscato and has subtle tones of lemon, tea, and peaches. The Red Crapp is made with pinot noir grapes and blackberries. All of their wines were excellent and we were so thankful that they would let us try them all. The best part about this winery was that they grew all of their products used to make their wine or else bought them from their local neighbors. Swing through Humboldt, IA sometime and try their wines.
After finishing up with our first winery for the day, we tried going to Mt. Valley Vineyard and Winery in Forest City, IA but when I called them to make sure they were opened, they informed me that they no longer had their tasting room open. They said that they still make wine but you can only buy it in stores around the area. I thanked her for the information and we decided to move on to our other stops.
Our next stop would take us to Kanawha, IA to Old Bank Winery. As we pulled into this small farm town, do you think we were surprised to find that this winery was a converted old bank. We walked into this old building where we found an older woman cleaning up. She was the owner and as we entered, she greeted us and gave us a history of the old building and how her and her husband started making wine. After a short chat, we then decided to try their wines. They had several different fruit wines as well as many others. We tried their Strawberry, Raspberry, Rhubarb, Strawberry Rhubarb and many more. Some of our favorites were Banker's Holiday and Edelweiss. All of their wines were very good. We were having a nice time just chatting and sipping wine but we had another winery to get to and their winery was close to closing time. We decided to move on and head to our next stop.
Our next visit was to Train Wreck Winery in Algona, IA. As we pulled into their parking lot, they looked pretty busy. By this time in the day, we were starving and needed something other than wine to fill our stomach. They were right next to a Pizza Hut so we decided to stop there for a pizza. By the time we finished our supper, the winery had pretty much cleared out. We went into the building which was a converted train stop and there were a couple of other people just finishing up so we wandered around and examined the facility first. We discovered that this winery had been started by a professional football player who was originally from this area of Iowa. His name is Dallas Clark and he did some amazing things with this old building. The concept was unique and a great success. They had converted this old building into a modern and sleek venue while still maintaining the old charm and classic history. After the other people left, we made our way to the bar and the friendly woman served us with a few of their wines. I tried Gandy Dancer, Caboose, Kate, and Cranberry. Their Gandy Dancer is a semi-sweet white wine that was well balanced and very good. Their Caboose wine was a sweeter white wine and probably my favorite. Their Kate wine was a sweet red but high acidity. The last wine I tried was their Cranberry which was a new addition to their selection and had a nice balance of tartness. Overall, I enjoyed all of their wines and we decided to finish our day with a couple of glasses out on the patio which of course, was right next to the railroad tracks. We finished the day while the sun was going down relaxing and having nice conversation between husband and wife. The day was done but my wine tour of Iowa was far from over. We had surely enjoyed ourselves on this lovely fall afternoon.