John Christ Winery
Along with going to grocery stores, checking out wineries is
one of my favorite ways of getting to know a new place. You get to meet local people, find out things
about the area, and drink wine. Since
my July trip to Ohio was my third, I thought it would be fun to check one out,
and the Sandusky, Huron, Avon Lake, and Lakewood area have quite a few. After some scouting on Catch Wine, I found a place, John Christ Winery, which would be on the Route 6 drive from
Sandusky to Lakewood, Ohio.
The winery is a pleasant space with a large tasting room and both an indoor and outdoor seating area. The reviews on Catch Wine had talked about the great atmosphere and it would be a good place to come, have a snack, and hang out with a glass of wine.
The winery is a pleasant space with a large tasting room and both an indoor and outdoor seating area. The reviews on Catch Wine had talked about the great atmosphere and it would be a good place to come, have a snack, and hang out with a glass of wine.
The tasting is $.50 per taste for all the wines except the ice
wine, which is $1.00. This could be a
great set-up for people who like to only get whites or reds, but I prefer doing
the guided flight for one lump sum. This
is mainly because there have been times that I have liked the wines I would
never have thought to choose and hated the wine that I thought I would
like.
For whites, I tried the Pinot Grigio, Vignoles, and Vidal Blanc Ice Wine. The whites were a one-note flop and just a little sweet, overall. The Pinot Grigio, in particular, had an unpleasant aftertaste of grass instead of the pleasant “lingering spicy finish” as the description boasted. I knew the Ice Wine would be sweet, but found it more syrupy and honey-like. In short, the sweet was too overpowering. The Vignoles, marked as medium sweet, was again too saccharine: the bright nose and citrus notes simply couldn’t balance it out. I did appreciate the tasting notes’ suggestion that the Vignoles is a great breakfast wine: I’m guessing it pairs well with Trix.
For whites, I tried the Pinot Grigio, Vignoles, and Vidal Blanc Ice Wine. The whites were a one-note flop and just a little sweet, overall. The Pinot Grigio, in particular, had an unpleasant aftertaste of grass instead of the pleasant “lingering spicy finish” as the description boasted. I knew the Ice Wine would be sweet, but found it more syrupy and honey-like. In short, the sweet was too overpowering. The Vignoles, marked as medium sweet, was again too saccharine: the bright nose and citrus notes simply couldn’t balance it out. I did appreciate the tasting notes’ suggestion that the Vignoles is a great breakfast wine: I’m guessing it pairs well with Trix.
The reds were only a
little better. The Special Blend, a gold
medal winner and the #1 seller, is a blend of concord and Niagara grapes and is
marked as a sweet wine. It is a
beautiful red; but, it reminded me of wine coolers. The Claret had potential, except that it has
a lot of smoke and not enough fruit. The
Merlot, which also had a smoky nose, was a little sour. The best of the bunch was the Cabernet
Sauvignon. Dennis and I each had a glass
to enjoy the outdoor seating area. The
Cabernet starts sweet but gets spicy with each sip. Unfortunately, I found drinking a whole glass
weakened my initial judgment. The main
reason is the more I drank of it, the more I realized that it was one note and
that one note was clove.With only doing one winery tasting in Ohio and having only sampled bottles from two other vineyards, I can’t speak with any conviction or authority about Ohio wines. However, I am going to make the statement that at this point, Ohio wine is not for me. Most of my encounters have been flat and too sweet. Nevertheless, I am sure there are other Ohio trips in my future, and I am more than ready to keep testing my impressions.
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