Winery Visit: Canadian River Winery

 Canadian River Winery

On Saturday, September 21st, several classmates and I went to Canadian River Winery and got a tour of their facility. It was really cool. We arrived a little before the tour (which happened at 2 p.m., so we were allowed to taste the wines for a bit before. 

Me and Other Members of the Geography of Wine Class

The first wine that I tried was their Merlot. It was a big, jammy, tannic, sweeter wine with hints of blackberry that left a bitter finish in the mouth. 

The Merlot. Loved their glassware.

As I was sipping the wine, we got called to do the tour. We were given a short slideshow about the process of making the wines, complete with the song "Red, Red Wine". The man giving us a tour described the process that they use to make the wines. They prune in February, and they freeze the grapes overnight.  We were then shown into the facility where the grapes are crushed and stored to ferment. We learned that the white wines are stored typically in stainless steel, while the reds (such as Merlot), ferment in stainless steel and are then stored in oak barrels for two years. After we received a tour of the facility, we were shown the vines just outside. We were even allowed to eat a French-American hybrid grape, Seyval Blanc I believe, on the vine! It was sweet and juicy, and the grapes are smaller than table grapes.

Seyval Blanc Grape

Some of the vines at the winery.

They grow different kinds of grapes there, including Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Reisling, and Merlot. 

After we toured, we were allowed to continue our tasting. Knowing that I had to drive back, and that we were being given healthy measures of the wine, I decided to try one more wine, the Chocolate Drop. 

The Chocolate Drop immediately smelled of chocolate. It had notes of chocolate and was warm and buttery, with potential cherry and toffee/butterscotch-y notes. It was light and very smooth, with a silky finish. It's a dessert wine made from red wine and then flavored with chocolate! I enjoyed it the more that I drank it, and eventually decided to buy a bottle to bring home. Overall it was an amazing experience to learn more about the process of wine making in an actual winery. I'll cherish the memories forever and I hope to visit more wineries soon!

Chocolate Drop

Me with my new bottle of wine.