Midwest Wine & Brew Festival

If you're like me you love more than just wine and events like the Midwest Wine and Brew Festival are the perfect spot to get your winery AND hoppy!

Saturday, August 10, 2013

2 - 6pm

The Country Club Hotel & Spa

301 Carol Road, Lake Ozarks, MO 65049

The Lake Area Chamber of Commerce is holding its annual Midwest Wine and Brew Festival.  This event brings together a wide variety of wineries, breweries, vendors, and area restaurants that are sure to please even the most picky of pallets.  $15 in advance or $20 at the door, gets you all the wine, beer, and food you can handle, as well as a keepsake wine glass.

Wineries include:

Adam Puchta Winery - Visited Adam Puchta recently and enjoyed every single one of their wines (the Vingoles still dances on my tongue).

Les Bourgeois - Les Bourgeois is one of those wineries that you can't go wrong with and their table will be one that'll be hard to leave.  Please oh please bring the Brut!

Peaceful Bend Vineyard - We don't know too many people that have met the pleasant winery owners, but we've been there numerous times and their play on the Missouri varietals is one worth enjoying.

Seven Springs Winery - Seven Springs is a beautiful place and their wine matches it splendidly.  Did I mention their Chardonel is rediculously good?

Serenity Valley Winery - The winery is absolutely gorgeous and their wines match the place beautifully.  Looking forward to another go around with their line-up.

Summit Lake - We are extremely excited about the prospects of enjoying Summit Lake again.  We were under the impression it had gone extinct.  Good news for us!

Wenwood Farm Winery - Wenwood is still on our places of need to visit, but perhaps this tasting event will compel us to make haste!

Westphalia Vineyard - Sulfite free and complex; Westphalia never fails to impress

Breweries

Horseshoe Bend Brewing Co - Excellent, small brewery near Osage Beach, swing in for a chat with the brewer and a pint of his delicious beer.

Missouri Eagle LLC

Ozark Distillery - Never been to this place, but cannot wait to try some delicious spirits!

Piney River Brew Co - We have had the chance to sample Piney's beer (try the Missouri Mule IPA) 

Springfield Brewing Co - Enjoyed some of Springfield Brewing Co's beer at a taste back in the spring and are eager to enjoy it again!

There will also be live entertainment by Shawn C so get your friends and family together for a fun evening on the lake.

For more information, check out www.lakeareachamber.com or call 573-964-1008.  Hope to see you there!

Missouri Wine Festival

If you are looking for something to do this weekend, look no further than the Missouri Wine Festival happening in Excelsior Springs, MO on June 21-22.

This annual festival is held in Excelsior Springs during the summer time and celebrates over 50 Missouri wines, live music, over 30 art and craft vendors, hosts wine and cheese classes, and cooking demonstrations.    The cost is $5 for the festival or $20 in advance for 10 wine samples ($25 at the gate).  You can buy your tickets online

Here is a list of the wineries that will be participating:

Baltimore Bend Vineyard
Cooper's Oak 
Fence Stile Vineyard and Winery
Jowler Creek 
Ladoga Ridge Winery
Les Bourgeois Vineyard
St James Winery 
Serenity Valley Winery
Stone Hill Winery
Wenwood Farm Winery
Westphalia Vineyard
Windy Wine Co.

For accommodations  check out the map of local hotels.  Note that you are not far from Kansas City, but staying local would be the best route for safety reasons (wouldn't want that wine getting the best of you).

For more information and for registration, check out the event home page: Missouri Wine Festival

MO Wine Madness

With all this bracket madness in the air, we wanted to get in on the fun too this March. And of course, our minds went straight to wine! We love the idea of doing a full blow bracket including wines from all the regions of Missouri, but sadly we didn't have the time to or alcohol tolerances to make that happen. We decided to do a mini bracket, just 4 wines, and focus on a specific varietal, Vignoles. We went with Vignoles because it’s a classic Missouri white wine that makes us think of spring, flowers, and winery hopping. We chose 4 wineries completely randomly (well, if they were on Friar Tuck’s shelves, they were in the running.) Our contestants in the first ever MOWinePlease.org Best Vignoles March Madness Bracket Challenge are….. (We’re going to work on that name!) Adam Puchta Vignoles, Stone Hill Vignoles, Westphalia Osage Innocence (Vignoles), and Robller Vignoles. 

These wines will face each other in a double elimination bracket. Michael and I will both have our brackets guessing the outcome. (There may or may not be money on this!) We will blind taste sample the 2 dueling wines in each round and won’t know how the bracket went or who the winner is until the end. Don’t worry; we won’t have all the fun. We want to know what you think too. We’ll post the dueling wines on Facebook, and you can see how your bracket comes out too! Let the madness begin! Follow all the fun HERE!