Thursday, February 14, 2008

Got Grapes?


Today we toured a winery and it was such a fascinating experience! My husband loves wine, my daughter loves grapes, my son loves watching whatever we do, and I love all three of them. So, it was a perfect thing for us to do in a snowstorm. Yes, that's right, we are not in the Sonoma valley. We are in the middle of the Midwest and they make wine here! Sure, I was thinking, they make wine but they surely don't grow the grapes here. They import them, right? Nope! There in the middle of the snowy hills are grapevines! Yes, they grow grapes for wine in the Midwest. Surely this is a known fact but I did not know it.
We loved the tour! It was really interesting. My daughter liked it the best. She was fascinated in learning about the process that grapes go through to turn into wine. She thought the bottling tanks were huge. And she loved going into the cellar filled with barrels. She even got to be a part of the wine tasting. They had a kid-sized bench for her to sit on, She got her own plastic wine glass filled with sparkling grape juice and a vineyard coloring sheet with a crate of crayons and colored pencils. She had a blast. Her favorite part was taking home a squeeze toy of a bunch of grapes.
So we had fun. I learned about wine making. I learned that there are real live winery's in the Midwest. But, I learned something else that shocked me. Cream of Tartar is a bi product of wine! Didn't know that! After the wine is taken out of the barrels, there is a residue that remains. This is Cream of Tartar. Now, I guess I better learn what Cream of Tartar is!

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