Van Wijk Winery & Tassel Ridge Winery

My first winery adventure for 2013 started on March 9th. By this time in the year, the snow had melted enough that we felt safe driving a few hours away to the small town of Sully, IA. A couple of friends and I decided to head out on this Saturday afternoon to drink some wine and maybe some beer too. Our first stop took us to Van Wijk Winery. I was glad to see that this winery had re-opened because at one point in 2012, I had looked up this winery on the internet and found that they had closed to do some remodeling. On the day we had arrived, their facility was a whole new place. Check out their website for before and after pictures. The building is so unique that I got a picture of the outside of their building. When we entered their tasting room, we found a beautifully renovated room. We noticed that there were a still few small details that were being finished but we were still surprised at what they had done so far. From what we were told, the building was a former church and since they had taken it over, it had changed to be far from a church. One of my friends had made a funny comment about their tasting cups. They used these little clear ounce cups that were similar to what some churches had begun to use for communion. She asked if they were keeping with the church theme with their tasting cups, which we thought was funny. Anyway, they had broken their wines up into two categories, Old World and New World. They gave us a brief description of the difference between the two and my friends decided to try just one of the Old World selections but I was feeling a little more brave and tried a few. They did not have any sheets with their wine list available so I am having a hard time remembering all the names of the ones I tried. I know that their Always and Forever wine must have been one of my favorites or I wouldn't have bought a bottle. I remember it having nice tart fruit flavors and it was dry but smooth and easy to drink. We tried most of their semi-sweet to sweet New World selections and all were very good. Again I am having a hard time with the names of what we all tried but I liked most all of them and another one of my favorites was their Sweet Melody. They allowed us to sample as much as we wanted and we were grateful for their service. On the day we visited, they were going to host their first wedding in their facility since they had re-opened. We didn't want to get in the way of the people that were about to start coming in so we decided to head on to our next destination.

Our next stop on this rainy March day would take us to Tassel Ridge Winery in Leighton, IA. This winery was on a much bigger property, had a much bigger facility, and had obviously been in production for a lot longer than the first winery we had visited. When we entered this facility, they were just finishing up with one of their events were they we showing people how to pair food with different wines. It was still quite busy in there and the bar was pretty full. We decided to start by walking around and examining their facility. When you first entered their main entrance, you come in on the upper level and you can view the lower level where they make wine. In the back half of their building, there are these big open glass windows to highlight their expansive wine creation area. I remember these large silver vats used to store their wine. We were surprised at how big their facility was. We finally made it up to the bar and we reviewed their wine timeline. They have quite a large selection of different wines. They display their wine list on a sweetness scale that looks like a timeline of wine. I decided to try all of their dry whites, a few of their sweet whites, most of their rose's, and a couple of their reds. They had so many to choose from, it was hard to make a decision about what to try. The staff was very helpful in asking for descriptions of what we liked that helped us to make a decision. After finishing with our samples, we decided to grab a bottle to take home and keep on chugging along.

Our last stop of the day would take us to a brewery. What better way to even out the palate than switching from wine to beer. Good beer that is, not that watered down crap too many people in this country choose to drink. We moved along to Knoxville, IA to Peace Tree Brewing Co. We decided to get their flight of beer to try all they had to offer and although there were a few I liked better than others, it was a nice way to finish the day. I like beer, but I think I prefer to go to wineries because there is usually a wider array of options that are better suited to my liking. But overall, it was another great day making good use of a rainy spring afternoon.