I spotted this place while driving back from ziplining and decided to give it a try. The tastings were only $ 5 and you got to keep the glass, so I went that route. I usually like about 2(at most) wines during tastings, but I liked every single wine on the list. Even the sweet wine which usually isn’t my thing. This isn’t a super swanky vineyard but that’s fine. I prefer good wine to swank.
Andrew N.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Saint Louis, MO
We happened to stop in here on the way back from a hike. We did the wine sampling — $ 5 for 6 generous samples. The owner was the one leading the tasting, which was neat since he was the one doing the entire wine-making process, from growing the grapes to the making of the wine. We started with the dry wine. SBP was a dry red which was decent, but didn’t care much for the Loess Hills Blanc(dry white). We started moving into the semi-sweet and sweet wines, and mentioned that we didn’t care much for sweet wines – we were dry wine people. He immediately put his wine glass down, grabbed a small measuring cup/pitcher and went to the back room. He came back with a 6 month old Chambourcin for us to try. He repeated going to the back, getting us a dry red that he was aging, telling us the backstory, etc. two more times. It was a pretty neat experience and his passion for wine-making was evident. Worth a trip. Pros: Owner is very friendly, entertaining to listen talk about the wine Cons: the sweet wine wasn’t great
S A.
Rating des Ortes: 2 Omaha, NE
I had a friend in from out of town and we thought a picnic and winery trip might be fun. This place is only 20 minutes north of Omaha or so, so we decided to give it a try. It turned out to be a little bitty tasting room. The tasting deal: for $ 5, you get a souvenir glass, the tasting is free. What that really means is, it must be a way to get around the liquor license or something. You«pay» for the glass and not the wine. But what would you taste in if you didn’t buy the glass? Clever. ;-) Anyway, the tasting meant you could try 8 of their 10 wines — not bad for $ 5. Except that, well, it was. It was bad, I mean. There was only one we would have considered drinking. Most of the wines were terribly, terribly sweet. Bleh. But, we bought a bottle of the Pinot Grigio because how can you not buy a bottle when you are the only one in the tasting room and you’ve met the owner, his wife, and his son?(Bottles of wine range from $ 8-$ 14, maybe? They are definitely on the cheaper side.) The upside was that they had a great grassy area out back that is perfect for a picnic. Very, very sweet people. Unfortunately, it was also very, very sweet wine and I’m not a sweet wine fan. Maybe if you are though, this is your place!