We decided to start with their most famous winery, Ackerman Winery. They have a lot of different fruit wines as well as some cranberry blends and finally a few more traditional wines. I decided to try a bunch of their fruit wines. I tried some nontraditional ones like rhubarb and mango. They were good but very acidic. The wines were okay but the small samples they give you to taste was plenty. The best part of their visit was examining their building and searching through all the items they had for sale as well as exploring their history. But we had many other places to go so we moved on after a short visit.
The next winery we visited was only a block away but tucked away behind another business. It was Sandstone Winery. This winery was pretty good but far from great. It was a little odd at first because it was very dark inside and the woman behind the bar was very rude upon our arrival. After we tasted a few, they were very similar to the last winery. We then asked for bottles to buy and then she started to be a little nicer to us. We think she thought that we were just there for the free samples and not to actually buy anything.
We then walked down a few blocks stopping in a few different shops as we passed. Next we found White Cross Winery. There was no one else waiting so we got right up to the bar and tasted what they had. They had European style wines but not like the German style that we had already tried. This wine was much lighter, not so thick and syrupy, and did not have that strong acidic finish. We tried eight of their ten wines and all were much better than the last two wineries we had just visited. The woman working there was also very sweet to us and treated us very well. If you go to the Amanas, this is the winery to visit.
The last winery we found that was right in town was Village Winery. This winery again, was just like the first two. High acidity, thick and syrupy, and lots of fruit wines. By this time in the day, I was pretty burnt out on the German style wine so I only tried a couple of different flavors. They have a large store with lots of knick knacks for sale so I rummaged through that section for awhile.
We tried looking for a couple of other wineries that I had on my lists but we couldn't find them. We started the morning expecting to find at least eight different wineries but we ended up finishing with just five. The three that we couldn't find are Vines & Wines, Grapevine Winery, and Little Amana Winery. We found all of the addresses that they had listed for these three places but when we got there, it was a different business. After exploring the central area of the Amanas, we only had one more to check on that was a little outside of town.
We almost missed it but we saw the sign and made a quick turn to Ehrle Brothers Winery. This was an old farm house where a retired man decided to make wine and sell a few items. We tried a few of his wines but by now, we were all pretty burnt out on wine and his wines were the same as all the others. By this point, we had sensed a pattern for the style of wines that the Amanas had to offer. So if you like highly acidic wines with many different fruit options, the Amanas are your place to go. My friends and I didn't fare so well after finishing our Amanas tour but it was a good experience and we were all glad we at least tried it.
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