Cheers!
There are many wineries in our area. Prior to the Civil War, Missouri produced the most wine of any US state. There are two winery regions in our area: Augusta and Hermann. We have visited Hermann several times…
The city of Hermann; kind of like visiting a little town in Germany!
A little Spy visiting Oak Glen winery in Hermann several years ago
Wine cellar at Stone Hill winery in Hermann
But I had never visited the Augusta region. So Spy Sister and I checked it out this past weekend and took Baby to a blustery fall lunch at…
Montelle Winery
The large deck…
…at Montelle…
…has beautiful sweeping views of the Missouri River valley.
We enjoyed our view, the lunch, live music and…
a little wine (not Baby! ;)
Mmm!
And the beautiful, crisp, blustery fall day.
Baby looking chic.
Tres chic
The Augusta region was nationally known for its wine during the 19th century, but Prohibition halted the state’s winemaking for decades. Then, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a few pioneering souls began to refurbish the old vineyards and winery buildings.
One of these pioneers was Clayton Byers, who founded Montelle Vineyards in 1970. The winery was later purchased in 1998 by present owner and wine maker Tony Kooyumjian.
The secret to our success in producing outstanding wines is our vineyards. The Augusta area was chosen as the first viticultural area in the United States because of our unique soils, microclimate, and history, and it is our mission to produce wines that exemplify the uniqueness of this eleven square mile area.
Our philosophy is to farm our vineyards with a respect for the land and the environment. As a result, our wines are fresh, fragrant, focused, and well balanced, but most of all, express the uniqueness of our vineyards. It is this attention to detail that has enabled us to produce wines that are continuously recognized for their uniqueness and superior quality…We also aspire to reveal the pleasures of pairing fine wine and food. Therefore, our Klondike Café offers fresh, high quality cuisine to complement our wines. Choose from a wide selection of gourmet wraps, salads, sandwiches and pizzas to be enjoyed on our vast deck, where it is easy to lose yourself in a magnificent view of the Missouri River Valley.
The next time you have a meeting, event or just a weekend outing to plan, please keep “Missouri’s most scenic winery” in mind. (text and picture below from Montelle’s website)
Photo from http://www.montelle.com
It is a great time of year to visit Missouri’s many wineries. If you can’t make it, how about just reading the Bible? Might sound like a stretch, but I just had to share these…
The covers of recent bulletins from our church depicting vineyards
Vineyards are mentioned throughout the old and new testament. Matthew chapter 20 (verses 1-16) is a parable (involving laborers in a vineyard) that invites a great discussion of notions of what is “fair” (temporally and spiritually). And in Genesis, the very first book of the Bible…
“Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.” Noah 9:20
And Noah lived to be 950 years old. Just saying! Soil, gardening, vineyards; these are good things. Spy Garden DEFINITELY needs its own little vineyard someday!
Wonderful shots of your lovely day out.
Thanks!
Hopefully the fact that we are surrounded by vineyards and I am just about to plant out 6 grape vines myself gives me Noah’s stamina. We have a few floods here at the moment. Perhaps I should build a Serendipity Farm Ark? ;) LOVE baby’s chic. She certainly rocks that beret/leopard print look like a pro.
Yummy and beautiful!!
;)
Did you really have to crop your head out of the picture? Why everyone else is shown and not you? I don’t get it! You must be really shy :-)
I so agree that Baby is tres chic, she is adorable! Looks like it was a fun outing. So who was the designated driver? ;-)
Hahah I like my secret identity! In our age of selfies and minute-by-minute updates on peoples lives, I guess its my attempt at doing something different/attempting to be humble? ;) Yes, baby is always stylin’! Very fun outing; I was the designated driver; only had 1 glass of wine and LOTS of water and crusty rosemary bread; mmm!
Ooh, I love the rosemary olive oil bread that a local bakery here makes – crunchy, crusty on the outside and chewy, soft on the inside. Great with garlic butter. :-)