Bucks County Wine Tour

Yesterday Ralyn and I participated in our favorite thing: trying new wines! And somehow Ralyn and her family managed to set up house in the so-called "Wine Country of Pennsylvania." So of course we had to partake in the wine tour which included 10 vineyards. Out of those 10, 6 of the vineyards make all of their own wines, with their own grapes! We only made it through 4 of them as we had little Alexa with us and it was getting late (they don't open until noon or 1pm, how is there enough time to see all 10 by the time they close at 6pm?? Yeah I don't know either). Each winery had something different to offer, so let's begin...

Our first stop was the Sandcastle Winery

This winery had the ENTIRE wine tasting experience, the gentleman that assisted us with our wine tasting had a charismatic personality and a real knowledge of what to pair with different types of wines. He had us try sips of our wines, eat the offered pairing (chocolate - white, dark, and milk - cashews, strawberries, and even wasabi). The winery itself looked like a sandcastle and had rows and rows of grapes against a beautiful and hilly backdrop. The perfect way to start a fabulous wine adventure...

 And here I am pretending that I work in the field picking grapes with an added ballerina kick for fun...

The Sandcastle was quite the experience, we had fun and enjoyed our host (we didn't catch his name).

Next up: The Wycombe Winery...

 This winery had the most luscious and clean looking grape rows...

 The winery also acted as a consignment shop for local artists and local shops. They had a sample platter of cheeses from a local deli called Andre's. It was so good, we are going to check Andre's out this week!

 The gentleman here was so nice and made us feel warmly welcomed. He had a lot of knowledge about the grapes and what grapes are effected by weather to make certain wines. It was very interesting. We also learned that in America we can grow and produce wine as we like, however in Europe they have many laws and restrictions on their wine making. For example, they can only have a certain amount of buds on each vine and they can only make certain wines certain years or times of year. That was probably the most surprising and most interesting thing we learned while on our wine tour.
The doors we are standing in front of here are the red doors leading to the wine basins and the production room. The doors are original from when the farm was built in the 1800s, but the winery has only been open since 2005.

Next on our list of wineries is the Rushland Ridge Winery...

The Rushland was a very family oriented winery. They have been in business for 40 years and the winery is literally their backyard. They had a very casual way to the wine tasting, they basically set out all their wines (dry to sweet) and you "pour your own". The two owners are a husband and wife team that decided to use their several acres to make something they love: WINE.

We didn't really learn a lot about wine while visiting this winery, but we did learn that the owner's son did a similar journey as me. He traveled the United States and moved to California where he fell in love with San Francisco and a California girl. Apparently he always comments how it was the best time of his life, and for me so far, I feel the same about my journey. When we left the woman gave me a semi-hug and wished me good luck on my journey.

The last stop of the day on our Tour de Wine Country was Crossing Vineyard.

This one wasn't originally on our list for the day, but it caught our eye on the way to the other vineyard (which we will check out this week). It is a huge estate built on the property of the David Barton Taylor House. The house was built in the 1700s, and the vineyard has been open and producing wine since 2000. 

 This vineyard was very beautiful and allowed us to see the production room and barrel aging room. We even got a little carried away and posed with all the barrels!

Alexa and me cheers-ing our wine glasses (note, no children were actually allowed to drink wine during the creation of these photos!!)

 A nice posing photo with the leader of this wine pack...

 This is just me cuddling me new friends...

 Here are a few more of the fun characteristics of this winery...

 This staircase was so cool, it leads upstairs where they can actually check the vats during the wine making process.

I would call yesterday very successful in tasting a lot of new wines and spending time with friends! Next adventure is unknown, but what I do know is that Wednesday will be my NYC day. I am driving to New Jersey, then hopping on a ferry to Staten Island, Ellis Island, and finally Manhattan. I was really nervous about doing NYC by myself, but I am told it is pretty easy and I don't have to worry about catching a bus at a certain time, the ferry runs constantly. So stay tuned for more details on that.

Now I am going to enjoy a glass of wine from one of the many bottles we bought today, so until next time...