Thursday January 25, 2007
Schnebly Redland's Winery
Oh, the mystery. Wine doesn’t grow in our climate, so how can there be a winery in Homestead? On the drive, the signs say “Winery” and even have a little picture of a bunch of grapes. But Schnebly Redland’s Winery in fact makes “wine” out of tropical fruits such as lychee, passion fruit, and guava. The winery itself is a bit of a tourist trap: housed in a pair of trailers (a new visitor facility is under construction), and charging $6 for a wine tasting and another $6 for a tour, wtf? We opted for the former and skipped the latter.
How’s it taste? Pretty good, actually. They all look like white wine (except the guava). And they taste much more like the juice of their respective plants with a little alcohol then actual wine. The closest to real wine was the oak-aged version of the carambola (starfruit) wine, but it wasn’t great. We agreed that the lychee one was the best, and ended up getting another bottle to drink outside, which was the best part of the whole thing. You can save yourself the trip and just order a bottle from their website if you’re curious.
The tour also gets you the privilege of doing a wine fruit-stomping contest. Like I said, tourist trap. There’s also a “Boo-Boo” wine, supposedly a heirloom blend of fruit to which the recipe has been lost, so “once it’s gone it’s gone.” It actually is delicious, but at $35 for a half-bottle . . . well, I guess you have to set your own priorities.
Tags: alcohol, eatlocal, homestead
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Grape Stomp
That’s a link to the funnies grape stomping video you will ever see. The reporter tries to cheat, and she pays for it. The sounds she makes don’t even sound human, but the real payoff is the reaction from her cohorts in the studio.
Ha, I was just there too…Great wine. I liked the Passion Fruit the most, but, I purchased the Mango…
Nothing resembling a deep red I take it?
They charged you $6? Damn, I only paid $1.50 for the tasting…I like the Carambola Oak also…
Oh come on, no comments on the grape stomping video?!
Right. The passion fruit looks sort of like a rose, but doesn’t really taste like one. It tastes like passion fruit. I don’t know why they don’t age more of their wines.
The video was sort of mean.
The best grape stomping EVAR was on I Love Lucy!
Save the money and do a free tour at a real winery next time you’re near Orlando. The wine tasting is free too! It’s located in Clermont right off of the FL Turnpike. There’s a few others in the state also.
Lakeridge Winery