A Celebration of Local Iowa Wines & Spirits

You can only live in Iowa for so long before you are drawn inexplicably to the surprisingly numerous and, rumor has it, not unpleasantly sweet local vineyards that dot the rolling hills of the prairie. We were called to one such place, Fireside Winery, in celebration(?) of my last day of work yesterday. The winery itself was a few miles down the road but the store and wine-drinking settings were quite pleasant, and the staff super helpful about what to sample next.

 They offered at least 15 wines, and while I managed to sample 'em all the clear winner in our crew was the "Night Cap," a port-style wine that was sweet in the best of ways - Iowa grapes mixed with Iowa brandy made a few towns over - that we found as snuggly as a slanket on a cold winter's eve. Even though it was way sunny and warm out.

We also took in the fantastic outdoor wine-ing area with a bottle of "off-dry" white and a view of some ground squirrels and hay fields - just an all-around excellent summer afternoon.

Not to be outdone, Iowa's prolific breweries and fabulous beer brewing tradition called to us from the Historic Amana Colonies, where Millstream Brewery had a knockout Hefeweissen on tap that we enjoyed on their lovely beer patio overlooking the actual mill stream and surrounded by old-school Amana Colony historic-ness. Then we took a horse and buggy home.