Saturday, July 11, 2009

Wine Tasting in Hermann

We had a fabulous day in Hermann, MO with the Shooks. We did a great job of planning out this trip so that we could enjoy the day and not stress about any details. This was our first winery tour, and we loved it more than we expected. Well, I knew I would love it but Nate was less than optimistic but totally came around. Promising a brewery tour helped give him the push he needed.

We loaded up their Jetta with lots of snacks, water, good stories, and before we knew it we were all sea sick from the rolling hills leading up to Hermann. We arrived at Stone Hill Winery and did the VIP (cough cough) tour of the cellars and enjoyed the tasting a lot. Everyone was so nice and offered to let us sample anything we wanted!

The Shooks professionally posing. (Does that mean I just called them professional posers? Posers as in 12 year old punks who pretend to be skateboarders?)


An overcast, hot, and humid day in Hermann. Makes for lovely photos, no? Thanks to Nate for really, um, helping me with my leg there. I don't think he quite got the whimsical pose I was going for.



My tasty German lunch at Stone Hill included Schnitzel, potato salad, and a potato pancake. Our table also enjoyed varieties of Wurst, Brauten, and some spicy mustard. It was very heavy, but delicious!


Next up was Tin Mill Brewery. It was a very small place and we enjoyed the self-guided brewery tour which was actually a walk down a short hallway. I'm sure we all learned a lot? This is our cheap sampler we enjoyed. Since the air small air conditioned tasting room was full, we headed outside to the Biergarden. As Lucas so aptly put it, "This is just a parking lot!" It totally was - a gravel lot with lots of old rusty picnic tables and even rustier folding chairs. Soon enough we snagged an open table inside and sipped on Hefeweizen.



Our next stop was at Hermannhof Winery. It was not busy at all and we stepped right up to enjoy several tastings. They were also very nice and allowed us to taste anything that looked good. After a fierce round of fist-to-five, we decided to stay and enjoy a snack and bottle of wine. The baguette was still warm and the applewood smoked cheddar cheese was fabulous. We even sneaked in a few samples of salami and Nate enjoyed the braunschweiger.



All of the UFC talk inspired the guys to arm wrestle. They look pretty intense!



Well, sort of intense..........



Then the girls.......


Insert artsy shot here:



After Hermannhof we made our way to Time for Pie. It was the cutest and dare I say it, quaintest, little shop. The pie was just what we needed after all that bread and cheese, I'm sure. Our strawberry rhubarb pie a la mode tasted like a sweet summertime memory. On the way home we took a detour to Robller Winery but after seeing the empty parking lot we chickened out and turned around and went home.

I think our post-Hermann nap was one of the best ever. We had a great day and I think that there are many more winery tours in our future :-)

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