I'm not a wine snob... er, oenophile... I've never liked wine, except maybe the kind that comes in four-packs, is carbonated, and is labeled Bartles & Jaymes or Seagrams, and even those I could take or leave. On the rare occasions I have a drink, I prefer it to include good vodka in the recipe. On special occasions I'll have a margarita but my tastes are pretty constant otherwise.
When I was a kid in California, my parents would occasionally go to wineries for tasting. Usually these places had special tastefully-decorated rooms, with nice bars and correct glassware for whatever wine they were pushing. The visit often included a tour of the winery. I think I went along to maybe two of these wineries, and I recall hating the smell and how it lingered in my nostrils for days afterward.
Early this year I thought it would be "fun" to see if my tastes had matured. I decided the hubby and I should check out some Pennsylvania winemakers' offerings. A glass of red wine a day is supposed to be good for you, right? This was triggered, by the way, when a customer of his gave him a bottle of local red wine in lieu of a tip. It was drinkable, therefore a step in the right direction. That began our assault on PA/NY wines. We've tried maybe half a dozen now, possibly eight, and I find I still don't care for the smell or taste of reds.
I bring all this up to segue into our trip a couple of weeks ago. We were off on a foliage drive (after the elk country one) and happened to pass a sign for the winery that made that first bottle he brought home. They were open for tasting so we decided to check it out.
The drive to said winery was down a long back road. The place itself was a farm, with barns and animals and pickups. The "tasting room" was a garden shed, updated with a small bar and various assorted mounted critters and/or skins, as well as an electronic keyboard. Apparently their band used to practice there until most of their equipment was stolen. This wasn't the kind of tasting room I was expecting, but hey, this ain't Napa, so we went in with three other couples and a dog. The owner was a goofy fellow about our age who told dirty jokes and appeared to have been doing much more than tasting that day. As for the wine... he had three available; red, blush, and white. We'd had the red and I enjoyed it more than most since it had a decidedly pomegranate aftertaste (I love pomegranate). We were served in child-sized paper Dixie cups complete with cartoon animals on them. The cups were refilled with each kind of wine, so by the time we were on the white I had no idea if it was good or if I was just tasting a blend of all three plus soaked paper. Mr. Host continued with the jokes, the dog continued looking bored, and the deceased bear continued being deceased, so we bought two bottles (red and white) and left. Thus endeth our foray into redneck winetasting.
The red will be someone's hostess gift or Christmas present. I just finished the white, after my sister, husband and I cracked it a couple nights ago. For cheap redneck hooch... er, inexpensive small-batch wine... it's pretty good. However I've decided I much prefer Clover Hill wines, also inexpensive but with more variety, and I've realized I wouldn't know the difference between a "good" cabernet and a bad one. Odds are I'd like the cheap one better.
Especially if there was a dead bear nearby.
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