The state of Minnesota holds many surprises for me even after living here for 15+ years now. One of the most recent was my visit to Red Wing, Minnesota to stop in at a winery. Because as you know if you are trying to be a writer in your late 30's you must develop a successful drinking habit. That is just a fact. Especially since you need something to drown your sorrowful explanations to your snobby reader/writer friends (who only think writers such as Bukowski and David Foster Wallace are worth reading)as to why it is you love writing science-fiction. For young adults. Or forthcoming cat storybooks or that you really want to write a comic. They will most assuredly frown upon your choices and thus you will be able to bravely walk away without crying provided you know your friendly wine bottle awaits you at home. As such the choices one makes when choosing a wine are quite important. And as someone who ascribes to Dylan Moran's wine drinking school, I am quite educated in the drinkable factor of wine.
The last winery visit took place at Falconer Vineyards in lovely, green and lush Red Wing. We didn't plan to go here as we were on our way back from other stops and decided that in order to maintain our good cheer and good health we had to have our daily allowance of fruit. Or whatever.
This is a beautiful place with a small tasting room but huge grounds and a deck filled with seating. They also have a pizza oven and that seemed quite popular. They had a tasting sheet and flight but as is always the case, the hostess was quite generous and let us try everything we wanted in addition to the tasting. It always works on me. I am absolutely a sucker and generally leave with no less than half a case. And often with the pricey ports. I also watched an old guy mansplain some convoluted way of opening wine bottles to our young, pretty hostess. Do I have to say that he did it wrong and got cork in the bottle and demonstrated mostly idiocy to the experienced server? She was a champ. Smiled and thanked him, had a secret laugh to herself. We left her a big tip.
My favorite from this visit was a white table wine made with Catawba grapes. Not one I had heard of before but enjoyed a great deal. I took home the last bottles they had for the season.
Reflections:
