Good morning readers!
Saturday night Kent and I went downtown here in Rockford for the grand opening of the Rogue River Winery. It was a little awkward as we walked in because we'd never been to a wine tasting bar before and there was no one to seat us or tell us what to do. But then this sweetheart named Kyle showed up, who was the manager's friend and had only popped in to help out for the night. Turns out he goes to Michigan State and is planning to open his own winery and brewery someday, so he was super helpful and interesting to chat with, not to mention one of the best servers we've ever had. He was just the right combination of humble and knowledgeable.
We saw the Channel 13 cameraman show up but didn't think much of it until he started aiming the camera our way… Soon he came over to see if he could ask us some questions. I promptly agreed, as Kent kicked me under the table and gave me a dirty look, because he is the last guy to draw attention to himself. Then I explained that Kent is much better at talking about beer and wine than I am, so I just stood back to snap some pictures as they talked. 🙂 Here's a shot of our nice cameraman.
Kent was thrilled to find out he'd be on the eleven o'clock news. After I posted the link on my FB page, people were calling him “Cap”, so I had to watch it again to figure out why, lol.
We ended up hanging with some local friends who showed up, and we loved the live music from Rockford's favorite, Chris Corey. (Personally, I think they should book Chris for every weekend.) My favorite wines were the almond hard cider (sounds weird, huh?), and the cranberry fruit wine.
The only one I didn't like was a dry red that reminded me of the stuff my Dad used to use in a meat marinade for grilling, and it was good like that, but not in my glass for sure. Kent liked it, but he's got a more mature palate than I do.
It was only $6 to try 7 different wines. As Kyle brought out each new wine, he poured us a pretty generous taste into our glasses, which we got to keep. Have you been to a wine tasting room before? If so, I'm curious if that's how it's normally done? For some reason I always thought wine tasting was done with the samples all lined up in front of you in smaller glasses.
Next we're looking forward to the new Rockford Brewing Company to open, well, mostly Kent is looking forward to that one. I'm not a beer girl. Hopefully they'll have wine too… And good food is a must, of course. 🙂
More you might like:
- Want healthy wine?! Read about this keto/no sugar wine here. “ALL our wines are from abroad. We don’t have any wines from the states because of what your friends experience. Wines in the U.S. are industrially farmed and there isn’t a tradition of clean, organic, artisan farming in America. In Europe, vines are older and winemaking is cleaner.”
Karin says
My husband and I went up to Traverse City a few years ago and did the wine tasting at a few wineries. It can be done differently at each one. We did pay at one of them and got to keep the glass. Love your site and all the information!
KitchenKop says
We’re going up to TC in a few weeks to do that, any suggestions on which ones to visit??
Karin says
Our glasses came from Black Star Farms, but that was the last one we went to, I think. We went up the penninsula and started at the tip of it and worked our way down. The only other one that I remember the name of was Chantel Chateau (or something like that!). We went in September, so all the grapes were on the vines. I would recommend eating something before you start tasting!
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
Good advice, sounds like you’ve learned that one the hard way, too!!! LOL!
Kelly
Karin says
Yes! By the time we got to the third place, we knew we needed something to eat! It would probably be best to space out visits to the wineries over a couple days. We just didn’t have that amount of time. I also believe that biblically, we are not to get drunk, besides the fact that it is not safe to drive.
Soli @ I Believe in Butter says
I went to a wine tasting once several years ago and I want to say that yes the same glass was used. Or at least we all got a glass to keep. Plus it’s early in the morning so my rusty memory isn’t all that good. In any case, wine tastings=win. And I can imagine an almond hard cider quite well.