5389. Hit all the wineries on the Door County Wine Trail -- Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery & Market

I have been to Lautenbach's many times. I may have even did wine tasting on my first trip there back in 2012. That was a whirl wind trip of fun and snacking I don't remember if we did the wine tasting or just sampled snacks. To properly ensure I have tasted their wines, I was bound and determined on our yearly cherries and apple run to do their wine tasting. 

Lautenbach's Orchard Country Winery and Market is located on Hwy 42 just south of Fish Creek. It is open daily during fall and summer and Thursday-Monday during the off season. It is wildly popular for cherries and apples. They even have a cherry pit spitting zone too. That is fun.

The wine tasting is in the back of the main barn. For $5 you can choose 5 samples for your flight or $10 for you can get 5 regular wines/ciders. The problem is there is at least 40-50 different wines and ciders to sample so to pick 5 is tough. I didn't realize there was a back side of the sheet, despite it saying more on the back, so I ended up doing two tastings.

The first tasting I went with

Cherry Riesling -- This was a semi dry wine. It definitely was on the drier side. Not a huge fan

Cherry Blossom -- This was a semi-sweet cherry wine. It wasn't bad but I have a favorite cherry so it is hard to find other cherry ones I like

Lingonberry -- This was my first adventure into Swedish lingonberries. I would have a glass but definitely not worth buying an entire bottle

Autumn Harvest -- This was an apple cranberry blend. It wasn't bad but I am on a mission to find a really good apple wine. This was not it.

Cranberry -- It is cranberry wine. It didn't wow me. I would have a glass but again nothing I would buy a bottle of.

The second tasting I went with

Bing Cherry -- This was good but Cherry Bounce was still better. I contemplating getting a bottle but I still had a bottle of Cherry Bounce.

Pear -- This was quite tasty. I might have bought a bottle if it was for the pear cider.

Honeycrisp Apple -- It's a decent apple. Still not the really good apple that I'm looking for. I would drink this again. 

Hard Core Apple -- This was a hard apple cider. It was okay. Not anything spectacular.

Pebble Beach Pear -- The hubby tried this one first and was like you will like it. This was my favorite of the day. We bought a bottle of this. I can't wait to bust it open. 

Overall it was a fun tasting. It would be more fun with a few friends and not the hubby. I would definitely recommend this tasting to a beginner wine drinker as well as a seasoned wine snob. They have something for everyone. 

I now have visited 6 of the 10 Door County Wine Trail Wineries. 4 to go.. The goal is to get them completed by my 46th birthday in November. I have Door 44, Lake Fire, Red Oak, and Stone Throw's Winery left. Might be a challenge. I may have to push it back to my 50th birthday. 

23 in 2023: Try at least one new recipe -- Cherry Crisp

 Every August, the hubby and some of his officiating buddies get together for a fish fry. It is potluck style and one of the guys brought homemade cherry crisp made with Door County cherries. It was so amazing the pan was licked clean. I ended up getting some cherries when I went to see the fall colors back in October and wanted to make the cherry crisp. 

The hubby texted his buddy and we got the recipe via screenshot. Guys. I don't even know where they got the recipe to give credit where credit is due.

Since my cherries were already pitted, I drained the juice and added them to the sauce pan with the water and sugar. 

I used just the amount of sugar it called for. Because my cherries were already soft, I didn't have to cook them much once they started to boil. I just added the cornstarch and water and let cook until thickened.

To make the crust, I used my Ninja. Best thing ever to mix in butter. It makes it all crumbly. I'm glad the oatmeal was added after butter so I didn't pulverize the oatmeal too bad.

I added about a 2/3 of the mix to the bottom of my pan, added the cherries (which were not completely cooled), and added the rest of the mix to the top. I could have used a tad less on the bottom to have a little bit more on top. Live and learn.

I baked about 48 minutes. It could have gone the 50 minutes but I didn't want to get it too crisp.

It was a bit of mess to get out of the pan. Maybe it needed to cool more. Not really sure. Hopefully it will be better once it is cooled completely.

It was just as good as I remember. We definitely need to make a fall trip to Door County to get more cherries. Definitely a recipe worth saving and sharing.