St. Michaels Winery: 30 Before 30

I took the last week of July off. It has been a while since I had a vacation of more than a long weekend, so it was overdue.

I did some fun stuff- painted the front door, started work on an end table, and bummed around town.

And on Friday, Carol had the day off too, and we headed down the road to St. Michaels, MD.

There's a lot of stuff in St. Michaels- some cute shops, a delicious ice cream parlor, a maritime museum and a marina. But the reason we went is because there's a winery in town.

Carol and I are wine lovers, though we drink it in spurts. We'll have a month we go through a bottle or two per week, and then a month will go by without hardly drinking any.

Mostly, I buy the ten dollar bottles, because my palette is just not that refined. Sure, I can taste the difference if you give me two glasses and ask me to compare. And there are wines I've had a couple times and know to avoid.

So we thought a wine tasting would be fun.

Carol and I shared two flights. First, we had the dry whites (neither of us likes sweet wine), of which, I thought the Pinot Gris was the standout. The first couple whites we had were too mild for me.

The dry reds are our favorite kind, and St. Michaels' were all as good as what I'll normally buy. The MD Cabernet Sauvignon was delicious, but the hostess kept talking about how good it's going to be which just left me feeling like I had to agree for the sake of moving the conversation along- I'm just not that sophisticated that I could identify the "gonna be good" flavor she was talking about.

The Chambourcin was fantastic. I'd not even heard of a Chambourcin before, but it fit nicely with the Malbecs and Riojas I normally prefer. Very flavorful, without leaving a strong aftertaste.