Daly Creek Winery, Deja Vine Winery, Tabor Home Winery & Crimson Sunset Winery

As the title of this post illustrates, the girls and I had a big weekend. It was May 4th, 2013 and three friends and I were off to eastern Iowa. I had designed our trip to try and get to as many wineries as possible. I had a list of all the wineries in a sixty mile radius but we started our adventure with Daly Creek Winery in Anamosa, IA. We arrived just shortly after noon and started with tasting some of their dry wines. They have a good dry red wine called Penitentiary Red. They named that one because of the state prison in town. We then moved on to the dry whites which were good as well. Next was the semi-sweets and then the sweets. Some of my favorites were Gothic White and Moonbeam Blush. I ended up buying the the Gothic White and the Penitentiary Red not only because they were very good wines but they also had really cool labels. So after tasting several of their wines, we figured we better get a quick bite to eat before we moved on to the next. It was perfectly planned of course, we had lunch at the first winery, they are a bistro as well. They had an extensive menu and our waitress was very helpful and gave us some great tips of what to try. After enjoying a great meal and some good wine, it was time to move on.
Our next stop was to Deja Vine Winery in Martelle, IA. We pulled up to a small downtown area and found the little shop. We were the only ones there, other than the owner, so we got to take our time and enjoy what we were trying. Again we started with the dry wines and worked our way down to the sweeter wines. My favorites were their semi-sweet Radiance, their semi-dry Midwest Blush, and their sweet Chatouille Pink. We got to try as many samples as we wanted and the owner was a very nice man. He gave us an explanation of how they came up with the name and how they got started. It was a great little winery that had some great wines.
As a little side note, we kept seeing signs that said Grant Wood Highway. With our first winery having a wine titled Gothic White and the label had a picture of Grant Wood's American Gothic image on it, we thought we might be close to the actual house from that piece of art. We were driving through this little town, that I can't remember the name of, and we saw this old white house that looked similar to the house from the painting, so we stopped. We didn't see any signs telling us if it was the right house so we ran up and I took a quick picture of my friends on the porch. After the picture, we found the info about the house. Unfortunately, we were at the wrong house, in fact, we weren't even close to the original house. We thought it made for a funny story though.

Our third stop for the day was to Tabor Home Winery in Baldwin, IA. This winery was a little tough to get to, at least by the way we took to get there. It was out in the country and the roads were very curvy and we ran into a lot of dead ends and T- intersections. We eventually found it and made our way up to the neat little building they had designated as their tasting room. There was a cute little area with art work and wine themed knick knacks. We all had to go to the bathroom before we started tasting again so we took our turn and made our way around the shop while we waited for each other. After we took our short break, it was back to the grind. We had a very nice young gal who helped us with our samples. I tried one of their dryer reds, all of their whites, both of their semi-sweets and a few of their sweet wines. I had quite a few favorites. First Bloom, Catawba Rose, Electric Raspberry, and Heritage Red. By the time we finished our samples, it was obvious that we had been drinking wine all day. It was still early though so we wanted to get to one more winery before heading to the hotel.
Our last winery for the day was to Crimson Sunset Winery in Cascade, IA. We were on the highway, almost to the destination, according to the GPS, and all the sudden, there it was. Well not the building itself but the sign and the driveway. It comes up quick so make sure your driver is paying attention. After pulling into the drive, you go down the curvy and secluded road and eventually come up to the house. You can tell they are working on remodeling but what they have completed, looked really good so far. As we walked up to the door, we were greeted by a lovely young woman. She took us over to the tasting bar and asked what brought us there on that day. We gave her our story and then she shared their story. She gave us their wine list and she explained what they had to offer. They charge for their samples but you can sample one wine or three or all of their reds or all of their whites or everything they have to offer. We all decided to try all the whites. We started off with their driest and it was like an explosion in my mouth. By this point in the day, I had had a lot of wine but I was stunned when I tasted their first wine. It was so amazing! We then moved down their list and all the rest were just as amazing as the first. We all discussed the quality and how amazing we thought their wine was. Their wine list states that their grapes are certified organic and that they do not add water or cane sugar to their wines. The love and care they put into their vineyard shines through when you taste their wines. I do have to mention that their wine is quite a bit more expensive than other wineries I've been to but it is totally worth it. I only purchased one bottle but I knew I would be back so one bottle, to save for a special occasion, was all I needed. They had gotten busy by the time we finished and we were all getting tired and ready for another meal so we headed on our way. We didn't get to talk with Kevin but we had a lot of conversation with Lisa. She is a very lovely woman and made our visit to Crimson Sunset winery all the better, if that was even possible.
Our day had been full of good wine, fun adventures, and great memories. We made our long drive to the hotel and finished the night with some food at a local brewery. It had been a long day and we were all exhausted so we didn't get to enjoy their brews but their food was good. We made our way back to the hotel and called it a day.
Overall, it was a great little trip. We got to see many new places, had tons of laughs, and best of all, we made more memories.