A Visit to the Hermann Wineries

Last weekend we went to Hermann, Missouri for a friend’s wedding. We stayed at a super cute B&B and we had a great time at the wedding, but it isn’t a trip to Hermann without visiting a few wineries!

First up: Stone Hill. It was established in 1847 and at one time it was the second biggest winery in the United States. Now of course there are a lot of wineries bigger than Stone Hill but it’s still the second biggest winery in Missouri. It has a great location on top of a hill overlooking the town. They have a ton of wines available to sample for free, and after you’re done with the tasting you can buy a bottle and break out a picnic basket (or buy snacks there) and have yourself a perfect afternoon. 

Hermann has a group of adorable trolleys that will take you around town to all the wineries so you can indulge in some wine without worrying about getting back to your B&B safely.

How cute is this little vineyard! They grow their Norton grapes here, but they’re also practical: the grapes prevent drunk people from hanging out on and then falling down the hill during Oktoberfest.

They served wine slushies when we there on Saturday afternoon! The slushy on the left is the Jacquesse Kick’n Kolada and the one on the right is the Jaquesse Kick’n Berry. I’m normally not a fan of super sweet wines but they were delicious in slushy form!

Sunday we came back to do the tour. We got a closer look at the vineyards…

And toured the cellars, which were pretty cool. Stone Hill actually has the largest vaulted underground cellars in the country.

The pictures below show an old 600-gallon barrel (it was huge!), and the racks they use to store their champagne-style Blanc de Blancs until it’s ready to sell.

After taking the tour of Stone Hill we headed to Adam Puchta winery. It is much smaller than Stone Hill but it was really cute and their wines were delicious. It was founded in 1855 and it is the oldest continuously owned family winery in the country; pretty impressive don’t you think?!

This winery was located a couple miles outside of town so it had a really pretty country setting.

My favorite wine there was the Dry Vignoles: it was light and fruity without being particularly sweet, a perfect wine for the summer.

Have any of you been to Hermann before? Which was your favorite winery there?

Hermann Getaway Weekend

I mentioned on Friday that we were headed to Hermann, Missouri for a friends wedding. We had a wonderful time! We stayed at a cute little B&B called Meyer’s Hilltop Farm. It was just outside of town but it felt like it was nestled away in the middle of the country. The owners, Maggie and Eldon, are super sweet and chatty and Maggie made everyone a delicious breakfast both mornings.

The house was decorated with antiques and country collectables, which wasn’t really my style but I guess that’s what you get with a B&B. I loved the outside of the home and the property though. It had a huge front porch from where we could watch the hummingbirds, an old-fashioned hammock, lots of flowers and huge trees, an old barn, and even an old hollowed-out tree on the road up to the house.

It was super affordable too: the attached suite is $120 a night and the two bedrooms inside the house are only $80. What a great deal!

We had a little time Saturday to sample some wines at Stone Hill before the wedding on Saturday, and Sunday we went back to tour the property before visiting Adam Puchta winery. I’ll be back later this week with photos from that part of the trip, stay tuned!

Palm Beach Trip Recap

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend! I know I’ve been quiet this week, but I was out of town until late Monday night and then I had to take care of a few things at home. We took a four day trip to West Palm Beach, Florida with my parents to visit my brother and sister-in-law. They were wonderful hosts and they took us around to all the best areas on and around Palm Beach: the Intercoastal via a boat cruise, the Breakers Hotel (my favorite!), Worth Avenue, and some excellent bars and restaurants. It was such a great time, I can’t wait to go back!

Add This to the Bucket List

Did you know you can rent chateaus (castles) in France?! Like big, fairytale looking ones. I stumbled across the site simplychateau.com yesterday and I am hooked. The prices aren’t unreasonable either. For example, the Chateau de Marie in the Champagne region sleeps 32 people and only costs about $30 per person per night!! Who wants to join me in pretending to be French royalty for a week?!

Chateau de Bajac

Chateau Bessones

Chateau de Marie

Domaine Du Pont

Chateau De Cardou

My Perfect Fall Weekend

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a terrific weekend and that you got a chance to enjoy the fabulous fall weather. Ben and I certainly had a wonderful time!

Friday we went to the West Bottoms for First Friday. There are always a million interesting pieces in those vintage shops; I could have taken pictures of just about everything.

Brass eagle champagne flutes. They were pretty amazing.

I kind of really loved this little retro lamp.

I’ve been on a major brass kick lately if you couldn’t tell, so of course I wanted this awesome brass tray table. It was a much better price than the one I found in Illinois.

This super colorful patchwork sofa is not my style, but it is definitely a showstopper.

Some of the shops had amazing one-of-a-kind antique furniture. Case in point: this massive hardwood cabinet that came from a castle in Germany. I think it was $8500.

Besides the shopping, what I love about First Friday weekends in the West Bottoms is how they become this big event. This week they had fire baton twirlers, performers dressed in Day of the Dead garb, and lots and lots of food trucks!

Since Ben tagged along with me he kept me on a strict budget. I saw a lot of things I loved but didn’t really need, so all I came home with was this cute little brass tray (I told you I’m loving brass!) for $5.

It needs to be cleaned up but I think it is pretty great.

After we were done shopping we drove a few blocks over to Amigoni Winery. We did a wine tasting and then grabbed a glass of their Cab Franc (for me) and Boulevard’s limited edition Foeder beer (for Ben).

The wine was fantastic, as was their building; I was kind of obsessed with this chandelier:

Saturday we headed to Columbia for the Missouri-Tennessee football game! This was our first time at a Mizzou football game and we both really enjoyed it. Tailgating was a lot of fun, and the game was really great until the cold started getting to us. Luckily the game was a blowout from the beginning so we didn’t feel bad leaving after halftime.

 

 

We stayed the night in Columbia and Sunday morning we stopped at Sophia’s for brunch before we left town. They had so many amazing options on the menu that it was hard to choose just one meal. Ben had the bacon and walnut pancakes and I had the tiramisu french toast. It was incredible, although I think I did go into a little sugar coma on the way home.

By the way, the drive through Mid Missouri is really gorgeous right now.

All in all it was a really fantastic weekend!