Last fall my husband and I headed east to visit some of his
family in Illinois. After a long weekend in Chicago being complete tourists, we
headed out of town to see the countryside. As we all know, I LOVE experiencing
other wine regions when I travel, so I was quick to do some research on
Illinois wine and find a few wineries to try in our travels around northern and
central Illinois. The Illinois Wine website has a great history page with a
timeline of the (very lengthy) history of Illinois Wine. Fun fact #1: Illinois
was one of the largest wine producers in the United States prior to
prohibition! Fun fact #2: Illinois had 27 wineries in 2001, which grew
to 105 wineries by 2011! It’s always so fun learning about different wine regions
around the country.
On a day trip we took from Sycamore to Galena, we were able
to visit three wineries. And how fitting on our timing, as September is
Illinois Wine Month! Our first stop was at Famous Fossil Vineyard & Winery,
a winery and vineyard across the street from a corn field located in Freeport,
IL. There I learned about their short growing season and how they generally
sell out of their wine a lot since they are relatively small batch, growing most
of the grapes right there on site. They do purchase some grapes, but all from growers
within 25 miles, and pride themselves on having truly locally sourced fruit for
their wines. It was at our first stop that I learned quite a bit about some
grape varietals I had never heard of. It
turns out that the University of Minnesota had created several varietals, including Marquette (a red), La Crescent (a white),
and Frontenac (a red), all of which are grown at Famous Fossil. The winery also
does some fun fruit wines as well.
After we arrived in Galena, our second stop of the day was
to Massbach Ridge, who has a winery located in Elizabeth, IL and a tasting room
in Galena. At their winery in Elizabeth they grow grapes on 20 acres, which
actually puts them at the 2nd largest acreage in Illinois for
grapes! At Massbach I was able to try Seyval, another new varietal to me which
I likened to a Sauvignon Blanc. It was tasty! A nice crisp wine, perfect for a
sunny day. St. Pepin was another one I liked, which is similar to a Pinot
Grigio. Their Marechal Foch was a bit like a dry rosé and a bit like a pinot
noir. We had such a great visit to the Massbach Ridge tasting room and really
enjoyed learning more about local varietals grown in the area.
Just down the street in historic Galena is the Galena Cellars tasting room, our third stop of the day.
Galena makes a TON of different wines, their tasting menu had 43 different
choices of white wines, red wines, rosés, sparkling wines, fruit wines, and dessert
& specialty wines. It was hard to narrow it down to just six for the
tasting! Galena Cellars grows about 28% of their own grapes, the rest are
sourced from around Illinois and around the country (even from WA I learned!).
One of the whites I enjoyed was Traminette, which is a hybrid grape of Gewürztraminer
and Seyval Blanc. I ended up picking up a bottle of this and experienced my first
ever “broken wine bottle in a suitcase” experience when my newly purchased Traminette
broke and spilled all over my belongings on the flight back from Chicago to
Seattle (devastating!). So, needless to say, I need to procure myself another bottle
of Traminette. I also really liked their Viognier, it was fun and peachy in
flavor. The Frontenac Gris was slightly like rosé, and was very tasty. Their
Bubblin Blanc is a sparkling made from a blend of Charonnay and Riesling
grapes. I also learned that the Riesling grapes they source for this sparkling
wine come from Washington! Washington wine is far reaching across the country
it seems! It’s so great to see our grapes being used in other wine regions
also.
The next day our travels took us south so we stopped by
Jonomac Orchard in Malta, IL. Jonamac has a
fantastic gift shop with apples, apple pies, and a wide variety of fall home décor
and gift items. After we stocked up on yummy treats and some new fall candles,
we were wandering around the property and stumbled upon their wine and cider
tasting room. This was a new addition to the property since the family we were
with had been to Jonomac so we were all pleasantly surprised and excited to try
some local wine and cider! Jonamac grows 32 varieties of apples (did you know there
were even that many?!) and uses many different ones for wines and ciders. Their
Honeycrisp Sweet Apple Wine is made from al locally sourced apples. It takes JUST
like a honeycrisp apple, which is my favorite apple variety. Their Autumn Harvest
Spiced Apple Wine can be enjoyed both warm or cold and tastes just like fall in
glass with wonderful spiced flavors. Their Orchard Blend is made from eight
different apples and is a semi-sweet apple wine. The Apple Blossom is a
sparkling apple wine and we learned a fun combination during our visit. Add the
Jonamac Apple Cider to the Apple Blossom and you get a “Jonamac Mimosa”! It..was..delicious!
It was a great time trying a new region of wine during our
Illinois visit. The grape varietals in Illinois are definitely a lot different
than those in Washington and getting to discover some new varietals I had never
tried before was such a fun experience. I look forward to future trips to other
wine regions!
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