The weather was gorgeous and it seemed like a bad idea to waste a Saturday inside, so I pulled my husband away from his projects to take a trip to a couple local wineries.

Our first stop was Whitewater Wines. I found this place via a google search and was surprised to find that there was a winery near Plainview, Minnesota. Getting there was a little tough. The winery had precise directions on their web page, but road construction between us and there made us throw those instructions out the window (figuratively, we didn’t really litter). The GPS in the car got us close, but also gave us some excitement with telling us to turn with no warning and taking us down a lot more gravel roads than what would have been necessary. But, once we decided that we were on an adventure and not in a hurry, it was okay and we eventually reached our destination. The winery was nice with both outdoor and indoor seating. The sunshine meant that no one was inside. They charged $1 per sample, so we had our choice on how many wines to try. We decided that five a piece sounded reasonable, so we started down the list from dry to semi-sweet. So, in all, we each had a sip (and a little more) of ten different wines.

Here were our favorites:

• Marechel Foch – Dry – Red: This is a dry, heavy, red that even I can drink. Maybe their description that it pairs well with “anything chocolate” helped sell me on it?
• Red Root – Semi Dry – Red – Frontenac grapes: A very drinkable semi-dry red. Minnesota seems to really be improving in its ability to produce good red wines over the years.
• Lupin – Semi-sweet – White: We were a little embarrassed to like a wine that contained pear in addition to grapes, but this was really good. In addition to a little bit of pear, it is made with Louise Swenson grapes developed by the famous grape breeder, Elmer Swenson.
• The Ninth Course – Sweet – Red – King of the North/other MN variety grapes: An indulgent dessert wine…high alcohol content.
• 233 Kelvin – Sweet – Red – Frontenac grapes: This one was a little too smoky for me, but it is about the only port style wine that my other half has ever liked.

By the way, the ladies pouring the wine were fantastic. Service was great and they were very knowledgeable.

After packing up our purchases and grabbing free complimentary water bottles (nice touch), we made our way over the hills and through the woods to Winona, Minnesota and then up, up, up the hill to Garvin Heights Vineyards.

At Garvin Heights Vineyards, we stood at the bar inside and enjoyed their basic “$5 for 5 wine” tasting. Quite honestly, we were not very impressed with their wines. But, our favorites were:

• Bluff Country White: a sweet white table wine made with La Crescent and St. Pepin grapes grown in the drift-less bluff-lands of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
• Choco Peche: a sweet dessert wine made with chocolate. Yes, can’t resist chocolate.

We each had a glass of wine and enjoyed the deck overlooking the hillside of grave vines.

Definitely was a nice day for wine tasting!