Winery tour of Kansas
Written: Oct 28 '01 (Updated Nov 02 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fun fall afternoon, Davenport winery
Cons: Fields of Fair
The Bottom Line: A great way to spend an afternoon with friends.
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| starstraf's Full Review: Kansas |
Three of us spent Saturday afternoon on a winery tour of Kansas. I’ll start by telling you of our trip and then I will make suggestions on how I would change it next time.
Three of us started from Lawrence on a crisp autumn day we had a pot luck to goto that evening and decided to bring a bottle from each winery as our contribution. We took Hwy 40 west to Topeka for a scenic drive through the changing fall colors. We then joined up with I-70 and traveled west to exit 333 Paxico for our first stop.
Fields of Fair Winery www.fieldsoffairwinery.com was established in 1988 as the first licensed winery in Kansas. We were a bit taken back when we saw the large slanted roof sign from the highway. A combination deli, gas station and winery makes a unique stop on a road trip but probably not worth going out of our way for on the wine tour. The tasting bar was nice and they have lots of wine kitch (Wineberry candles, wine bottle holders, and various gift items). Overall the wines were on the sweet wine and the server did not have any more information then the listing that you got, that was also a “convenient” order form.
We came out of there with seven bottles… Kansas Cabernet is a dry red table wine. Prairie Dew is a semi-dry rose, a nice change for White Zinfandel drinkers, this was our potluck choice from Fields of Fair. Vintage One is a sweet dry white similar to a Riesling. Concord is a sweet red that tastes just like a thin jelly, dangerous because I was not able to detect any taste of alcohol in it. Blackberry jamboree is a sweet berry wine that is too sweet by itself but great as a spritzer and probably wonderful over vanilla ice cream. We also got a bottle of the Niagra sparking grape juice to use as the spritzer mix for the Concord and Blackberry.
We also tried Flinthills Red is their answer to Chianti, Golden Delicious is a VERY sweet apple wine, Sweet William is a blush that tasted like cherry to me. We did not even try the Kansas Chablis, Golden harvest (crisp dry white), or Cherry Jubilee (sweet cherry).
Filled up the car and headed back east, came around the south side of Lawrence and headed out K-10 we were supposed to take county road 1057 exit but it was closed for repairs so we had to overshoot and come back on 442.
Davenport winery was our favorite stop, and being only 15 minutes from home and open MWF till 7pm one we plan to visit from time to time. If you only want to go to one winery this is the one to hit. A wonderful wood tasting bar with the wine served by one of the owners. They have 25 rows of grapes and opened commercially in 1997 as Douglas County's first licensed winery. They also have a pick your own apple orchard.
Five bottles left with us. Our potluck selection from here was their Chat in the Dark, a smooth dry red. We also picked up both their apple (looking forward to having that with cheeses) and peach (very sweet desert) fruit wine. Overall the wines were good but young, very little nose but wonderful taste. They have a Pear wine due out near thanksgiving and I plan on stopping back by to get a bottle of that. They had two sweet reds, Charlemagne (Berry like) and Charlotte's Red (tasted like Welche's) and three sweet whites, Aurore (mead sweet, sugar/water), Niagara (Berry taste), Steuben (Germanish). In Drys they had three reds, Chat in the Dark, Norton, and Russ (sweetie liked this one but to dry for me), and one dry white, Chardonel (Tart, very good). The owner was a wealth of information on each wine and this was the most “fun” place on our trip.
We headed back through Eudora, stopping at Sonic for a quick burger then took K-10 east to K-7 north towards Bonner Springs. Turned west on 24/40 for 3miles to 158 street the last winery on our tour where we were greeted by a huge white dog.
Holy-Field Vineyard
The best quality wine on our tour. Started in 1994 the owner is a wonderful character that seemed to walk out of the pages of a book about Appalachia moon shiners. He sized us up and started pouring wines that we would like. The shop has a wonderful selection of wineglasses and some beautiful black iron wine bars.
Six was the magic number this time. Our potluck selection was the Vignoles, a golden wine with a lingering of honey. This was my favorite wine of the day and I took home two bottles of this from different years. We also brought home two bottles of the St. Vincent. A low tannin red wine that my partner and I both liked (Considering I like sweeter wines and sweetie likes drier it is great when we fine one we both like)
A wonderful range of wines, Sweetie tried some of the dryer reds, Chambourcin and Cynthiana, and enjoyed them but knew that I would not. The Tailgate Red was the standard dry red. From the blush wines Racy Red is a yummy berry rose, and Sunset Blush is a nice smooth mellow blend. Over the Rainbow Raspberry is a nice dessert wine but I prefered the fruit wines from Davenport. And St. Francis Dessert Wine made me want some rich dark chocolate to go with it.
After this we headed back to Lawrence and the potluck, with a wonderful conversation starter.
Next Time
I think there are two trips. The eastern trip is Davenport, Holy-Field and Heimhof up in Leavenworth that we did not make it to this time. I think we are going to try to make a late fall trip of these three. Next Spring we are going to hit Ludwigshof Winery west of Topeka, Smoky Hill in Salina, and then Wyldewood Cellars and Dozier both near Wichita. No need to go back to Fields of Fair. You can find hours, directions, and details at either of these web pages skyways.lib.ks.us/wineries/ or www.wines-across-america.com/AAWMain/ResultsKS.htm
Enjoy!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Friends
Best Time to Travel Here: Sep - Nov
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Epinions.com ID:
starstraf
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Member: Star Straf
Location: Lawrence, KS
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
I live in Lawrence, Kansas and enjoy folk music and good food.
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