FORT SILL, Okla. Sept. 3, 2015 -- The Department of the Army and the Fort Sill Cannoneer do not condone the glorification of alcohol. The content of this column is strictly an opinion and designed to be satirical in nature. While we support the Oklahoma Agriculture Department, people should take precaution while drinking and always use a designated driver to ensure everyone gets home safely.
We hit the road early Saturday morning to get to the first vineyard. Wait, you didn't know there were vineyards around here?
Me either! That is until a few weeks ago when my coworker dropped off a brochure about the Oklahoma Wine Trail with a list of wineries. You can pick up a copy of the Oklahoma Wine Trails passports at any of the participating wineries and as you visit the wineries, ask for their code. When you get all the codes for a region you can go online, submit the codes and get a wine charm (The Cannoneer office has 12 passports so come an' get 'um!) There are two wineries on the trail that are less than an hour away (in Anadarko) and I hopped in my car (with my mom and husband) and off we went to the Range Winery.
Let me say this, before we get any further, if you're going to have a drink, you better have someone driving too. Don't be THAT guy or girl.
The vineyards looked lovely and Dave Roberts, the owner, is growing an apple orchard ( there are baby apple trees there!) and as we toured the facility and breathed in the scent of future wine, I found myself very happy.
He took us into the tasting room and allowed us to sample all the wines he had available for us to try. I fell in love with the second sample, Cattle Baron 2011. Apparently there were some really terrible fires that year and the whole flavor of that bottle was drastically different than that of the same grape a year later (the Cattle Baron 2012).
As Roberts poured us a sample of Cowbell (a delicious white) he told us about the history of wineries in Oklahoma and about the rise and fall of area wineries (apparently 10 wineries will close each year only to be replaced by 10 more). It's a sad story he said, pouring us another sample, this time one named "Silly Girl" (isn't that a silly name? Silly Girl? But you know what would have been scrumptious with it? Cheese!). Sorry, the wine is making ME silly!
The labels have to be approved before use -- who knew? I didn't. Roberts explained it while pouring us a sample of a Cynthiana Norton grape wine called Sassy Girl. If I had a wine named after me it would be "Army Cute" because I was in the Army and I think it would be cute! The best named sample we had was one called "Jackwagon." I laughed to myself as I thought of me trying to grab a rolling bottle saying, 'come here you jackwagon!' Maybe it's more funny to myself. Did you know the Cynthiana Norton grape is the Missouri state grame? I mean, "grape" the Missouri-state grate. It's very good. Oh AND wines only have to have 75 percent Oklahoma grapes to be considered Oklahoma wine. Roberts said his is 100 percent Oklahoma. So booya.
Anyway! The Range was really fun fun and low key. Not very big but really great wine. Like, REALLY great wine. But have someone else drive. Those samples can add up!
Next stop: The Woods and Waters Winery and Vineyard.
I was excited about coming here because they have a café and I love food. The entrance is really pretty. They have vineyards on either side of you as you drive in and you can see the grapes hanging there (my mom tried to pick some, I told her I was pretty sure that wasn't allowed). The building is pretty too with an elevated bar tasting area to the right and the entrance to the café to the left.
We moseyed (I had to Google how to spell that moseyed so weird) into the building along with a bunch of other people and we had to scooch (didn't Google that one, tell me if I spelled it right) over to make room for them at the bar. We could have five samples so we had to make our decisions carefully. We were supposed to go from dry to sweet but I kinda went all over the place. I really wanted to try the malbec because it's my favorite type of wine and I wanted to try the jalapeño "Fire Wine" because well why not?
So I started with the sweet gat wurst mine guh wurts miner? hold on Guwurztraminer (haha say that three times fast or just once really fast, or really slow even). Dale Pound, the owner, said that guwburburbur was the type of grape and that it meant spice. Coool. Then Pound poored me a sample of the malbec. I was feeling pretty grood and asked Pound why he decided to open up a vineyard. "A temporary moment of insanity" was the answer. Grood answer. I mean good answer, and good wine. Sorry, trying to write and sample wine is tricky! Anyway, I think he made a grood career move. Heh heh grood.
I had some other wine and wrote some things down, but I can't read them now Did I tell you the wine was good? Really I just wanted 2 try dis jaalapino wine. The description said "HOT" but it just had this leeeetle kick at the back of yor throat not like a tough kick, more like a tap dance buuuuuut, I am Korean and we eat LOTS of spicy things (not spicy wine though hahaha! Someone should make Kimchi wine! That's crazi! Haha -- where's my next sample of wine?
Pound was SUPER nice and gave us some chocolate wine to try aftr. It was derlicious. I mean, FOUR REALs, who doesn't like chocolates? And add chcolates with wines and it's practically golds. Only edible! EDIbLE GOLDs!
Oh and less chewy which is grood becuz I don't like to chew wine. NASTY! Sometimes it hapns when the cork gets in the bottle and u cant get it out and you get cork in your glass. It's not good. Bad. Very bad. But seriously guys it was good. Not th e cork, the vine yard. Oh and we ate at the café. I had a samich. There was salad. Itwasgroodtoo. I'm sleepy.
Time to home and nap. wait wait See website and learn wine. Wait. Lemme copy and paste! www.OklahomaWineTrails.com Go now! Bye! :-)
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