Chasing Joy

Friends + Castle + Wine = Joy

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About a week ago I had the privilege of visiting a castle.  I’d never been to a castle before and it was great.  The castle was impressive and too big for me to fit it all in one photo.  This was no ordinary castle though.  It was was located in Eriwanna, PA smack in the middle of a winery, Sand Castle Winery!
A copule of days before I visited the winery I received a tweet from my twitter friend Jese Gary.  (You may remember that Jese was one of the models dropping all kinds of knowledge at the Full Figured Fashionista Class where I learned to be my own biggest fan.) Jese’s tweet was inviting me to hang out with her at Sand Castle Winery for their annual Pig Roast.  After looking up the Winery and discovering it was only about an hour outside of Philly I tweeted back that I’d be there.

I’d never been to Erwinna so I recruited one of my girlfriends to come along and enjoy some wine.  We set out on a slightly raining afternoon that turned into a gorgeously sunny afternoon.  We had an absolutely fabulous time. 

I spotted Jese as soon as we got there.  We were then quickly invited to enjoy our glass of wine and have lunch. The $25 fee to attend the Pig Roast included a lunch of you guessed it, roasted pork, along with potato salad, baked beans, rolls, and fruit salad, along with one glass of wine and a tasting of 12 different Sand Castle Wines.  We also got to keep our wine tasting glasses as souvenirs.

Now as a rule I do not like wine.  On more than one occasion I have had to concentrate super hard on not grimacing at the taste of wine when drinking in public.  This is the main reason I was hype about the tasting.  What better way to find some that I might actually like?  Well I lucked out, or I should say Sand Castle lucked out because I liked 4 of the 12 wines we tasted and I purchased all four.

My favorite of the four was the one that I’d had with my lunch.  Since I do not know much about wine I asked the wine steward, the sommelier, to give me the sweetest thing they had.  He poured me a glass of the “mangria” they’d made with Claret.  It was so good.  To make the “mangria” (so named because it is so easy a man could make it) you pour the Claret over sliced oranges.  They don’t even have to be peeled, just wash and remove the little sticker.  I purchased 2 bottles of the Claret one for me and one for a co-worker/friend.

My 2nd favorite wine was the Alpine Spice.  When this wine was described to me I did not think I’d like it.  It is filled with autumn spices.  You can smell this wine in the Castle.  It reminds you of pumpkin or apple pie.  I did not think I’d like it because I’m not a big spice fan.  Boy was I wrong.  This wine was really good too.  The big plus with this wine is you can serve it chilled or warm.  The sommelier said that the Alpine Spice wine is also really great over vanilla ice cream.  I can’t wait to try this.

The other two wines I purchased were Cuvee Blush and Johannisberg Riesling Late Harvest 2008.  These two were tied for my 3rd choices.  They were also sweet as I only like sweet wines.  The Johannisberg Riesling comes in a smaller bottle.  It is a sipping wine that you drink from a little cordial glass. (those tiny wine glasses). The Cuvee Blush has a really unique hidden talent.  During the tasting we were given a few things to eat (cashews, chocolates, and dried wasabi peas) to see how the flavor of the wine changed with different foods. We were given the wasabi peas to try with the Cuvee.  We chewed the wasabi and before swallowing we sip the Cuvee Blush.  All of the heat from the wasabi disappeared.  Instead we could taste the flavor of popcorn.  Isn’t that neat.  Cuvee Blush’s hidden talent is that it kills the heat from spicy foods. 

We had such a good time at the winery. We were able to walk around the winery a bit and even checked out an artist who’s work was on display in one of the rooms up stairs.  I loved the work but it was out of my price range.  All of the people who worked there were so friendly.  I thought wow, this is what it’s like to work where everyone likes there job.  Then I though oh maybe this is what it’s like to work where everyone is drinking wine while they work LOL. 

What a great day that was.  I had great company going to and from the winery with my girlfriend.  I got to hang out with Jese and hear about what’s happening with her luxury charity events (follow Luxegiving to learn more).  Despite my normal dislike of wine I tried some new ones and found 4 that I liked.  Plus I got to go to a real life castle.
Find out more about Sand Castle Winery on http://www.sandcastlewinery.com/.  You can also follow them on twitter https://twitter.com/SandCastleWine and check out there facebook page.  Sand Castle did not sponsor or pay for this post in any way. 
If there is something you don’t like to eat or drink would you go to a tasting to explore a different variety or would you steer clear???
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Comments

  6. I would love to visit more castles. I had the good fortune of being able to see a few in Europe and was amazed at how well preserved they were. I'd love to see some in America.

  7. Alpine Spice sounds so tasty. How unique that the event was in a winery built as a castle and that you got to enjoy friendship, food, and fun on a sunny day after it started out rainy.

  15. I am not a big wine fan.. but I would still go for the girls day out, exploring and to see castle! Love to see new things!

  19. I have tasted tons of wines and didn't like any of them. However, I still attended a local event at a winery here and actually found a sweet one I liked!

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