Snus Hill Winery & Prairie Moon Winery

It was a short time until my next winery trip. Seven days to be exact. Some girlfriends and I needed something to do with our Saturday afternoon. One of my friends had recently gotten really big in the the activity they call Letterboxing. It is basically a scavenger hunt where someone has hidden a stamp. They tell you which town it is in and then they give you clues to try and find the stamp. My friend had done several already all over the Midwest so we decided to use this day to find a couple of letterboxes and stop at a couple of wineries. It was October 20th, 2012 and it would be my last winery visit for the year. The four of us met up to head to Snus Hill Winery in Madrid, IA. We made it to our first stop for the day and headed in to try their wine. They had plenty to offer so we dove right in. We informed the lady working that we all preferred semi-sweet to sweet wines and she started us off with their Edelweiss. We told her that was a good starting point for us so next we tried their Sven Red, Raspberry, Kitten, Cat Nip, and finally, High Trestle Taille. I was feeling brave on this particular day and the hostess was telling us about her favorite wine. She said it was their most popular and had just been restocked. I told her I was willing to try it so I did. It was titled Boule de Poils which is similar to a Sauvignon Blanc and I was surprised to discover that it was amazing. They consider it a dry wine but it doesn't put cotton balls in your mouth. It is actually quite smooth and I will definitely say at this current time, it is at the top of my list. It is also safe to say that this might be the first wine that really opened my eyes, and my palate to the dry side of wine. It was my favorite for the day and I will state that this is one of few wines that I have had several times after leaving the winery. But anyway...moving on. We finished up with our samples and finished chatting with our server. She asked us what we had planned for the rest of the day and we filled her in. We told her all about letterboxing and she also told us about this new brewery that had just opened up in Boone, IA. We decided to check it out so we headed on our way with wine bottles in tow and moved along to our next destination.

We decided to try and find the letterbox that was in this town before stopping at the brewery. The letterbox was an easy one to find. Once we found the house, it was only a few short clues that quickly lead us to the hiding spot. We took their stamp mark and left ours and went on our way as if we had never been there. It was a quick drive to our next stop. We found Boone Valley Brewery in the middle of town. We stopped in and the place was empty. We introduced ourselves to the owner and sat ourselves at the bar and decided to try and couple of flights. I sampled all of their brews and they were quite good. I ended up purchasing a growler of beer that I knew my husband would enjoy. We had a few more stops to go so we decided to keep chugging along.

Our last winery visit for the day was to Prairie Moon Winery in Ames, IA. This was another winery that happened to be hosting a wedding on the day of our visit. It was just starting to get pretty busy when we arrived at our destination. We hurried in to the tasting room and thankfully, the wedding was in the back so most of the people were out of the way but the tasting area was still quite busy. We had to wait a short time but eventually got up to the bar and a gentleman started helping us with some samples. We tried their Prairie Sauterne, Moon Beam White, Blushing Moon, and their Glo. All of their wines were very good. The people just kept packing in so it took some time to get all of our samples. I would say it was worth the wait though. We enjoyed ourselves and we took off with a few bottles to take home.

 

 

Our day was almost done, we had one more letterbox to try and find and then we could start heading back. This letterbox took us down by the Iowa State campus and over to the veterinary center. The clues for this letterbox where much more elaborate so it took us quite a bit longer to find this hidden treasure. After awhile of scavenging through the brush, we finally found it. We got the stamp, brushed ourselves off and headed on our way back home. It had been another long day but quite successful and eventful for a Iowa autumn afternoon.



 

 

 

This will wrap up 2012. I made it to a total of 30 wineries by the end of the year and I've already continued into 2013 but I haven't gotten too far along yet. I've had one trip so far and I have another one coming up this weekend. So now that I can say I am all caught up...keep checking back...there is plenty more to come for 2013.

 





Penoach Winery & Jasper Winery

It was October 13th, 2012, only two weeks since my last trip that I would make it to the next set of wineries. My husband and I and another couple were on our way down to the Des Moines area for a friends housewarming party so we decided to use part of this day to check out a couple more wineries. We made it to our friends new house, he gave us the tour, and we worked on making this Saturday afternoon more enjoyable by watching the Iowa Hawkeyes kick some butt and try some of our friends first batch of home brew. As the people started piling in and the crowd got rowdier and rowdier, we found ourselves out on his back deck trying to plan our movements for the rest of the afternoon. After the game wrapped up, the boys decided to make a change in plans. The boys told us they wanted to stay at the house but they also said, "you girls go ahead." So I asked a couple of other girls that were at the party too to come along and check out some wineries with us. We were going to try and stop at Schade Creek Winery in Waukee, IA but we were disappointed to find out that the city of Waukee would not allow them to sell wine in their tasting room. Of course, we had a couple of other options so we took off for Adel, IA.
It was about a twenty minute drive to Penoach Winery. We pulled in and found a lovely yet rustic farmstead. It was a beautiful property and reminded me of something I would like to own if I lived on an acreage. They had a little building with a lovely covered patio where they had their tasting room. We walked in and found a couple of other people there for the same reasons we were. We wandered around their store for a few minutes before squeezing up to the bar. With four in our group and another group of four and another couple, that made it a tight fit to get some samples but we made it work. We chatted for a bit while examining their wine list. The lady who was working appeared to be a little overwhelmed with this many people to manage all on her own so we reassured her to take her time and to get to us when she had a second. We started with their Picket Fence White which is a semi-dry LaCrescent. It was quite good but I moved on to their Frontenac Rose' which was very good as well. I then had their Iowa Edelweiss which was a semi-sweet white with nice tropical flavors. Next was their Brianna which was my favorite of all they had to offer. I also had their St. Vincent, Girls Night Out, Dallas County Apple, and finally the Raspberry. All of their wines where very delicious. By now, more people had made their way to the winery and were waiting for a turn so we quickly finished up and picked out a few bottles to take with us. We would now be heading back to Des Moines to swing through Jasper Winery.
We made it back to town and went straight to our next stop. We made it to Jasper Winery right before they were finishing up with samples for the public. They were closing early this particular evening because they were hosting a wedding. They allowed us to try their wines and then asked that we finish in the wine room. Since we were a little rushed, we stuck to the side of their wine list that hosted their sweeter choices. We tried the Edelweiss, Bed Head Red, Lucy Lane and their All-Night White. All of their wines that we had were very good. They were all smooth and went down very easily. We decided to buy a bottle and head to the wine room where they made, bottled, and stored most of their product. They had several tables and chairs set up for plenty of people to sit at and we were quite surprised to see how many people were still there even though the wedding had already started. We chatted for a short time and then decided to grab a couple of bottles for the road. We also wanted to try and go to Vines to Wines in Des Moines, IA but we discovered that this was not your typical winery. At this place, you make an appointment, pay a small fee to visit, then you pick and stomp your own grapes. We decided that this type of winery sounded awesome but was better suited for a day with more time. We had used the day wisely so now it was time to get back to the party.
By the time we made it back, it had been several hours since we had last seen the boys. We were not surprised to see that the boys had made good with their afternoon and spent it as they usually do, drinking way too much beer than they should have. But we figured we had all had a long day so we filled ourselves with water and food to sober up and then headed back to home. We made it safely and soundly back to our residence but at the end of a long day, we were all thankful to have had a great time doing what we love most. Wine Wine Wine!!!