Vino-Sphere: O-H-I-O Wines: Making the Rounds of Geneva Area Wineries

Friday, October 8, 2010

O-H-I-O Wines: Making the Rounds of Geneva Area Wineries

We love regional wine and we're helping to celebrate Regional Wine Week with this report on some of our favorites. The week-long celebration is sponsored by Drink Local Wines.

Sax Man and Wine Chick met up with some friends recently to introduce them to Ohio wineries. Although they have lived in the area for several years, they had not yet visited the wineries or experienced an “official” wine tasting. Because we were traveling on behalf of the TWAV Tasting Team, we had to give our friends nicknames: Pinot (who likes a good Pinot Grigio) and Scarlet (you may not find a bigger Buckeye fan – she was very nervous about missing the game).

The tour circled around the Grand River area. We began at Grand River Cellars, a great winery and restaurant. Some of our favorites included Austin’s Red, a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah; and Stonewood Red, a blend of Merlot, Red Zinfandel, and Shiraz. All were reasonably priced.

The next winery was St. Joseph’s Vineyards, a small winery with great wine. We spoke to the owner for a while who had just been out in the vineyards hand picking Pinot grapes for their award winning Pinot Noir. We tasted that as well as the Pinot Noir Reserve and St. Joseph’s Noir, a great blend. This winery was perhaps our favorite of the day.

Thirdly, we traveled to Debonne, which was hosting a wedding and was very busy. The wines were good, but we felt like we were intruding on the festivities, so we went on to Ferrante.

We had lunch at Ferrante and then a tasting at our table. There we found the Pinot Grigio of the day, which made Pinot happy. It is part of their Signature Series and won the White Best of Show.

We then traveled on to South River, the winery in the church. The place was packed and the wine was good. We particularly liked Karma and Trinity, both red blends.

We ended our tour at Harpersfield, a French style winery with two Jack Russell’s as greeters. This winery also had their vineyards close to the edge of the property, which displayed great ripe bunches of grapes. Very welcoming and cozy, the winery offers a variety of reds and whites. This is where Wine Chick found her buttery Chardonnay of the day.

Overall, it was a great tour, if a bit chilly and overcast. The Buckeyes crushed Eastern Michigan (Scarlet checked her phone for ESPN updates quite frequently) and we all sampled great Ohio wines. We recommend a tour to this area to anyone who is