Let's Go Wine Tasting -- Wild Hills Winery

 Besides Taliesin, my cousins wanted to go wine tasting. I am always up for wine tasting. I gave them a list of wineries near Taliesin and let them decide which one we would visit. They tossed around the idea of heading down towards New Glarus but decided it wasn't really worth it. They opted to visit Wild Hills Winery.

Wild Hills Winery is in Muscoda, which is literally in the middle of nowhere. Even it has a Muscoda address, it is in the boonsticks. Wild Hills is a fitting name as you need to take hilly, curvy roads to get there. I think we were in Richland County not Iowa or Grant Counties. It is all very rural and hard to determine which county you are actually in. The winery is open Thursday-Sunday starting at noon. 

Since they tout on being an Agri-Tourism business, the winery is in an old barn. They have 17 different wines to taste. You can taste 6 wines for $7 or get a flight for $14. We opted for the tasting. We were the only people in the small winery. 

I choose

Driftless Sunset -- A Semi-Sweet Orange wine. It definitely had orange under tones. I wasn't overly impressed.

La Crosse -- A semi-Sweet White with notes of pear. This one wasn't bad. It was probably one of my favorites of the day.

Wild Meadow White -- A sweet tropical white. It was definitely too tropical for me

Apple Cranberry -- This one wasn't too bad either. Cranberry was the bigger flavor.

Apple Blackcurrant -- This wasn't bad. If I had to pick, I would go with the apple cranberry.

Wild Irish Girl -- I think this is the one we all tried which we saved to the end. It was bad but it was definitely too sweet for my cousins.

None of the wines wowed us enough to bring home. Our wine cabinets are overflowing with wine so we need to be selective on what we buy until we start knocking off some of what we each have. 

Even though it is it the boonsticks and the roads are an adventure, this is probably one of the few wineries in the area. If you find yourself at Taliesin or the House on the Rock, take a detour and check out Wild Hills Winery if you have the time. It is worth a stop for some good wine and chocolates. 

5280. Go to Cold Country Winery in Kewaunee

 When meeting up with the girls, I wanted to make sure we hit at least two wineries before we had to go our separate ways. I gave them the choice of Duck Creek Winery in Denmark, Trout Springs in Greenleaf (which was really out of the way), or Cold Country Vines and Wines in Kewaunee. Surprisingly they picked Cold Country Winery. It was a winery I didn't know about until I was playing on Googlemaps.

Cold Country Vines and Wines is located about 13 miles southwest of downtown Kewaunee almost in Tisch Mills. It is almost in the middle of nowhere.  It is open daily 10-5 except Sundays which is 12-5. 

Their tastings are a little different. You can taste as many wines as you would like. It's $1 per 1 oz pour except for ice wines which s $4 for a 1 oz pour. They give you your first pour and then filled the rest of your pours on a tasting flight. We opted to sit outside and enjoy our wine. There was some seating at the wine bar or in a separate room.

I'll be honest not many of the wines caught my eye. There were a lot of red wines (11 reds plus 2 ports) which I am not a huge fan of. This is compared to 6 white wines and 2 rose wines.  There were also 4 ice wines.

I sampled: 

Briauna -- a semi-sweet white with hints of peach and pineapple. It was not overly sweet. It was a nice summer wine but did not wow me. 

Pink Snowflake -- a semi-sweet rose that said it was sweet yet tart. I was not a fan. The fruit flavors of strawberry and pineapple was not a combination that I found pleasing. 

Northern Lights -- Again I picked a wine based on the name. This time it was a sweet red. It was just okay. Nothing special and I probably should have tried the Red Sunset that had more hints of fruit to it.

Frontenac Gris -- a fruity, sweet ice wine. This was probably my favorite of the four and it was one of the better ice wines I had. It was not overly sweet and had the right hint of fruit.

My cousin also let me try Itasca, a semi-dry fruity white, and Petite Pearl, a medium dry rose. I did enjoy the Itasca which was surprising since it was a semi-dry. I tend to stick to sweeter wines. Maybe my palate is evolving.

We enjoyed each other's company and the nice weather but none of the wowed us enough to buy. I liked to be able sit outside and talk while we tasted wine but I'm not sure I'd visit again. 

I would still check it out if you are looking for a winery while in the area. It is cute and there is a vineyard you can check out. Maybe we just picked the wrong wines or our burgers from lunch at Millie's distorted our taste buds. It is definitely a cute winery off the beaten path.

5274. Go to Von Stiehl winery in Algoma

 When my cousins initially said they were coming to Door County, I realized the only day that worked to meet up would be on their way back to Missouri. I suggested we meet in Algoma at Von Stiehl and go wine tasting. When my vacation plans changed, they still wanted to meet in Algoma and go wine tasting.

Von Stiehl Winery is located just off of downtown in Algoma. They are open daily from 10-5. There is a small parking lot or you can park on the street. I choose the street afraid I would hit something trying to back out. It is not a very wide parking lot either. 

I had an advantage over the girls as Menasha Library had a wine tasting earlier this year and the general manager from Von Stiehl was the presenter which meant of course we had Von Stiehl wines to try. It let me know that I did not like their Cabernet Sauvignon. It was too dry for me.

Von Stiehl's tasting menu has 3 price points. The Favorite menu is 6 samples for $6 but contains only 8 wines to pick from. The Select menu is the most expansive with about 30 wines to choose 6 from. That one is $9. The Premier menu is $12 and includes a dozen wines to choose from. You can include mix and match from other menus but your pricing will the most expensive menu with at least one wine. I split my 6 between the Select and Favorites menu so I paid $9. 

Oktoberfest -- A semi-sweet white that was a perfect fall wine. The bottle was gorgeous too. I picked up a bottle of this for our wine tasting next month.

Cherry Moscato -- Moscatos are very hit or miss in my book. This one was definitely a hit. It was a sweet but not too sweet cherry wine. This one also came home with me.

Apple Icing -- An apple ice wine. It was definitely on the sweet side. almost sickly sweet like ice wine can get. I was not a huge fan.

Riesling -- I sampled this one at the library and wanted to try it again. It was still good. With hints of apple. 

Naughty Girl -- This one I picked based on the name. I should have known better. It smelled like feet. It wasn't too bad but it was drier than I liked.

Moscato -- Like the cherry Moscato this one was also very tasty. Von Stiehl can definitely do Moscato well. Again it was sweet but not overly sweet with the right hints of citrus and apricots. 

The girls tended to go with more drier reds which I am not a fan of so we did not do a lot of swapping of samples. They each bought a couple of bottles to bring back.

I would love to have tried the cider bar but I knew after 6 samples and no food that would not have been a wise move. The cider bar will just have to go on the bucket list for another day.

It was definitely a good stop first thing in the morning. We still had lunch and another winery to go for the day. Good thing Von Stiehl wines are available in some stores around here otherwise Algoma is just about an hour away so it wouldn't be too difficult to make another wine run if need be. It is definitely worth making the detour to on the way to (or home from) Door County.