Good day, winos! Well, I’m a little behind. I have two adventures to post about, and I promise to do a better job in the new year getting them up more quickly! We’d also love to hear from you on how to make our post ‘more better’ as we get used to doing them. We have an absolute blast as we explore Ohio, wine, and, of course, Ohio wine!
On Saturday, December 9th, all six of us set out to (mostly) polish off the 2023 Grand River Valley Tannenbaum Trail. Jody & Brian, Sara & Mike, Cindi & Jesse, and Jen & I (Scott), started our day off at Buccia Vineyard & B&B.
Located at 518 Gore Rd, Conneaut, OH 44030, Buccia has a fantastic slate of sweet and dry wines, but also features four suites, each with a hot tub!
We have yet to pull the trigger on staying here, but the suites look fantastic! And, the “drive” home after enjoying some wine is only steps!! As I said, the wines are top notch. I went home with a bottle of their Baco Nior, and it’s already gone!
Stop #2 for the day is a winery we’ve had some mixed experiences with. The people at Markko Vineyard are always fantastic, but the wines have not always quite been our cup of tea. On this day, though, they really hit the spot!
Located at 4500 S Ridge Rd W, Conneaut, OH 44030, Markko has a unique old world vibe to it, almost a Dracula meets cozy country inn mash-up. On this day, though, we were greeted by the best assistant manager, Sam.
Sam was a very good boy who helped us out with our snacks 😉 Among the dry fans (Cindi, Jody, Brian, & I), the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon was the clear winner. Cindi and I also enjoyed the 2019 Pinot.
Stop #3 for the day is another truly unique place, the Goddess Wine House. Goddess is a little far out from the rest of the Grand River Valley stops, but right in Ashtabula.
Located at 3054 W Prospect Rd, Ashtabula, OH 44004, Goddess is a down to earth hang out with none of the pretense common is some other places. It’s obvious the owners try very hard to make it a fun, relaxing place to stop and enjoy good wines and food.
On this day, I tried their Pinot called Medusa, and a Merlot called Zeus. Both went very well with the tomato soup they provided as the pairing on the trail. The Merlot was so good it has made me seriously rethink my anti-merlot stance. Lately, offerings like their Zeus has totally flipped my tastes!
Goddess also has a lot of craft events, for those who like to pair their wines with some creativity. Me, I like to pair my wines with wines 😉
Stop #4 was technically a repeat, but Cindi & Jesse has missed Virant Family Winery when we went a couple weeks earlier. As you can see, Santa Sara very much enjoyed her return visit!
Stop #5 for the day was new to Jen & I, Maple Ridge Vineyard. Located at 6326 Dewey Rd, Madison, OH 44057, Maple Ridge is a relatively new and evolving family winery. Their tasting room is a very cool, but warm, outdoor pavilion.
Seriously, we were cozy and warm, and being out among nature really was neat.
The Meritage continue my day of questioning my own biases! All of us dry fans thought it was outstanding! I want to come back in the summer, but wouldn’t hesitate to come back during the long Ohio winter!
Our 5th and final stop for the day is one of the places that just made us fall in love with the sheer variety of Ohio wines, Grand River Cellars. GRC was having their very cool Grinchmas party, and the place looked simply incredible. It was also jammed packed, but they were good enough to seat us in what is my favorite area, the cellar.
Not only was the Grand River Cask blend probably the best wine of the day, but they graciously allowed us to order food while in the cellar. The wait up in the main room was an hour, but we were happy hanging in the very cool spot. If you have never eaten at GRC, you are really missing out! The food is fantastic!
I don’t want to end on a down point, but we did witness something at GRC that upset us. There was another group on the Tannenbaum Trail who were behaving less then awesomely. They were obnoxious, made a mess, ordered nothing beyond the tastings, and then left no tip. I wrote about in on our Facebook page on December 10th. Suffice to say here, if you enjoy these little trail events like we do, please, be respectful and tip the wait staff.
Look out for our next post on our awesome Steubenville Nutcracker adventure!
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