About Me

Wine can be made anywhere grapes are grown. Fortunately, grapes thrive on every continent but Antarctica. Wines from Australia and New Zealand are known for their economy, but many excellent wines come from the Region. South African wines are also up-and-coming, while some South American wines are known for their spiciness. Napa valley in California is renowned for its grapes and wines, even threatening France's dominance on occasion during the Judgment of Paris. In this contest, French and Californian wines went head to head in blind taste tests and a Californian wine won in each category.

Being a Midwesterner, I'm partial to the wines from the Midwest United States. Being local, their costs are cheaper, their wineries are easily accessible, and their tastes are complex and unique. Fruit wines, honey wines, and traditional wines are popular. Midwestern wine compete and win against wines from California and New York and can hold their own in many categories.

As for myself, I'm a geek and spend the day writing software and occasionally blog about it. Since I turned 21, I've enjoyed the casual glass of wine. For my 21st birthday, my grandparents bought me a bottle of wine from Stone Hill Winery in Bronson, Missouri. For Christmas that year, my parents bought me a wine rack. A few months later, my wife and I visited Oliver Winery in Bloomington, IN to sample some of their wines, especially enjoying an apple wine they warmed with mulling spices for a delicious warm apple cider. About a year later, my wife traveled to Sandusky Ohio for a family reunion and brought back a bottle of Red wine from The Firehouse Winery. Since then, I've sampled wines from California and Australia, but I keep coming back to the Midwestern wines for their economy, variety, and for me, their ease of access.

This blog is a journey further into the world of wine, focusing on the bottles made in the Midwest United States. At my best count, this includes over 400 wineries across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin, with the majority of these wineries in Ohio and Missouri. An each year, the regions wines gain more reputation in the wine world.