Wine, Wine and More Wine

These past few days have seen a ton of drinking between Hubs and I. We've been good and stuck to wine, but unfortunately the headache after a wine drunk is the worst!

Yesterday we drive about half an hour from where my mother-in-law lives to do a tour of the Lakeridge Winery in Clermont,FL. I've been to wineries and vineyards before, but this was my absolute favorite, because of the amazing tour. The free wine at the end of the tour didn't hurt either.

The tour started with a short video detailing the history and the family behind the winery. I poked Hubs and told him that we needed to invest in five acres for grapes of our own. If not for business purposes, then definitely to keep up with our habit. From there we got to view the giant metal cylinders where the wine sits. We then headed outside where we were shown the vineyards as well as some of the machinery used for the grapes. For the last part of the tour we went back inside to see the machine where the wine is bottled and labeled. Unfortunately the tour we took was too late, so the line wasn't running.

Following the tour we got to do a complimentary tasting. I think I may have learned the most during this part. There was a sheet provided with each glass with information about each wine that we were tasting. We drank the wines from driest to sweetest. Our group of three all agreed that the first red wine was our favorite. Hubs and I ended up buying three bottles of that plus a fourth bottle of pink champagne to take on the cruise. Lakeridge offers a variety of discounts when you buy four or more bottles and there's an additional 10% military discount. The cashier recognized Hubster's USAA card and asked for the mil id.

The night before that we did some wining as well. I was really excited to go to Eola Wine Company.

Our group was sorely disappointed by the service at Eola. The waitresses were slow and not very friendly. Three of us did a flight, which was made up of two-ounce servings of four different wine. Three of my four were delicious. There was one from South Africa that was awful though!

We ended the night at an Italian restaurant called Prato. Although it was just a regular restaurant with a good wine menu, we had a great time. The menu was all in Italian, but the waitress did a fantastic job of translating and suggesting the perfect wines for us. Hubs and I tried beef carpaccio for the first time, which was amazing!! We stayed there until they closed and then headed home.