Hermann Missouri Trip
We left St. Louis early on Saturday morning and headed out to wine country in Hermann, Missouri. Our first stop was Adam Puchta Winery which is just a couple miles outside of town. This winery may be one of the best in the state and is definitely the oldest continually family operated place. There is a twist to the tasting there that will open your mind to wines that you might otherwise ignore. They do a food pairing by proving little snack nuggets that enhance or balance or challenge each of the varieties that you taste. I usually grow weary of the process and stop before getting too deep into the sweet offerings. But here, I held on and tasted every wine on the list.
They even offer a tasting of their more expensive port. As a result the case that we brought home was quite varied. The tasting also included some interesting commentary from Adam Puchta’s nephew as he was the tasting director.
Next, we moved on to Stone Hill Winery. It is a beautiful old stone building on top of a hill with a gorgeous view of the town and valley. It isn’t quite German like because the white shingle roofs are simply not seen in Europe. But it does look like wine country.
Stone Hill, like Mt. Pleasant in Augusta is one of the major players in the Missouri wine industry and the winner of numerous awards. Though the tasting was nice and the ladies in the tasting room, quite knowledgeable, it didn’t prompt me to buy the variety. Instead, we chose a case of the fairly decent dry red that was 25 % off. We ate a nice German style lunch in their cafeteria. I enjoyed the liverwurst, crackers, and rye bread.
We took the winery tour and it was interesting to see the oak barrels that were holding that next vintage as well as the stainless steel tanks that are part of the aging process for their non—oak varieties. No trip to a Missouri winery would be complete without a couple drunk college students and they added a certain ambience that is so typical, even on a cold Saturday afternoon in March.
It was now time to head our B&B, Le….., near the very small town of Rhineland and in the even smaller town of Starkenburg, both just a few miles from downtown Hermann.
http://www.leslavandesbandb.com/
The bed and breakfast was lovely. We were greeted by Myrta in her kitchen and the baked goods that we would enjoy during high tea were already set. After getting settled, we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon snack including traditional Swiss teas. Myrta is originally from Lucerne, Switzerland and spent her working career as a flight attendant for Swiss Air and then TWA. She was laid off when TWA was acquired by American Airlines and decided that a bed and breakfast was the right fit. She served us chocolates and home made Swiss pastries.
We tried to eat light as we had a big dinner ahead.
Dinner was a four course meal that culminated with a traditional Swiss Fondue. The combination of cheese made the dinner spectacular.
Dessert was a decadent mix of chocolate and raspberries. In true B&B fashion, we lingered over dinner with our host, talking, telling stories and joining them in a shot of kirsch, a Swiss drink. It is a drink that reminded me of schnaaps but more fruity as it is made form cherries and formed the base of the cheese fondue.
The next morning, we enjoyed a breakfast of ham, cheese egg omelet and bread. To go with the bread, we had lavendar honey and two home made jams. I had to try all three and then I had to try them all again to just be sure they were all as good as I thought.
As we left, we knew that there would be a return visit. We headed back into Hermann for one more winery stop at the downtown center piece, Hermanoff. There we tasted just a bit and bought a few bottles but nothing was really impressive. We took a quick look in their cellar and decided it was time to head home.
We went back on Hwy 19 and 50 for a route that took us through the small town of Swiss. On 50, we came upon a horrible accident right as the first ambulance and police vehicles arrived. We heard on the news later, that it was a tragic accident and both people died as their vehicle was passing another. Hwy 50 is not a great place. I remember years ago, seeing someone driving the wrong way in one of the lanes, thinking it was a two-lane road. Scary.
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