mama_needs_merlot's Wine Journal Entries
Shady Creek Winery (written Nov 28, 2011)
Wine: 
Winery: Ambiance:
Lovely tasting room, helpful and amicable staff, and good wines. I was finally able to take both my Mother and my Grandmother on one of my wine tasting excursions, and have a great memory of the day to make it better. I was hoping for more wines to be from local grape varieties, being right on Lake Michigan and benefitting from the lake effect winters. It was a split between local grapes and imported grapes from California. I bought a bottle of Beach Glass - to support the local effort!
Oregon Hill Winery (written Nov 28, 2011)
Wine: 
Winery: Ambiance:
No pomp and circumstance here, Oregon Hill Winery is a great example of a fully functioning vinyard/winery with a tasting room. Gorgeous views, rustic tasting room in a beautiful specimen of a traditional Pennsylvania barn, great assortment of vinifera, hybrid, and craft fruit wines (strawberry rhubarb was delightful!)and a vintner with a wonderfully dry sense of humor. I stopped in briefly, with 8 year old in tow, not intending on taking up too much of his time. Well, I was pleasantly surprised when my 8 year old (who is well versed in farming and the science of fermentation for his age) was included in our wine discussion by the winemaker. Wow. That gets extra brownie points! Great wines, great place, excellent people. German style wines are certainly their forte'.
Tularosa Vineyards (written Nov 27, 2011)
Wine: Winery: Ambiance:
The proprietors make the difference, and the wine is great too! We were warmly welcomed by the father and son team to taste not only what was for sale, but also share in a sampling from the barrels! We visited in off season (Feb.) so we were the only ones to fill the tasting room. A typo in local tourism brochure also had us arriving an hour before they opened - but Chris chased us down in the parking lot to invite us in early! I recommend everything. It is all well crafted. They enjoy what they do, and they do it well.
Shade Mountain Winery (written Nov 27, 2011)
Wine: 
Winery: Ambiance: 
On a busy New Year's weekend a few years ago, perhaps they added extra staff in preparation for the added holiday business... the young girls behind the bar not only looked thouroughly bored to be there, but bothered to assist the patrons. When asked a question about the wine, they would answer "I don't know." and walk away. Aside from the apathetic servers, the wines were not bad, but not stellar either. I sure hope things have changed for the better since then... it has been a while. But enough to keep me from coming back as well.
Vineyards at Windham, The (written Nov 27, 2011)
Wine: Winery: Ambiance:
At $1 a taste, which can be refunded $1 for each bottle purchased, I figured it reasonable. The wine was good, the woodwork inside the tasting room was warm and inviting, but outside, it looked like a pre-fab modular room rolled up onto a huge gravel lot overlooking a corner of the sloping vinyard. Perhaps this was during renovation? Customer service was slightly lacking, the lady helping me mentioned she was the winemaker's wife. She was too busy to spend any time with any one person, and while talking about how the wines were made - did not know what purpose using Hungarian oak served them. A little homework goes a long way, and she should have done a little.
