Hi everyone! I wrote a few days ago about a MO winery, Mount Pleasant Winery. I ran across a business friend of mine a while back and lo and behold, the business card he gave me was not what I expected. The dirty dog gave me a card naming Bethlehem Valley, a winery in Marthasville, MO! “What is this all about?”, I asked both surprised and excited. Dan Burkhardt was a wine man. How cool is that?! I had forgotten about the meeting until I wrote about Mount Pleasant and had to dig furiously through archives to find Dan’s card again.

I tried a bottle of his Norton (I know…Norton? but had Pinot characteristics to me.) at a local restaurant before I knew Dan was involved. (Don’t you HATE paying restaurant prices for a bottle of wine….AAGGGH! Could the service possibly be THAT good?) Bethlehem’s Norton had a really full taste with no bitter aftertaste. Rolled on the tongue nicely without that “side of the tongue” tang that can hit me with some Pinots ( I don’t know about other Nortons). Again, remember that this is my bruised and damaged tongue I am talking about so no real expertise here but my dinner guests complimented the wine as well. Experiment yourself though with the Behlehem Valley offerings and I think you will find them pleasant.

I need to check out some Bethlehem wines after Lent is over. It’s more of a Whole Foods wine (or as my brother in law calls it “Whole Paycheck”) than it is a Trader Joe wine. No offense Trader Joe zealots.

Hope your wine tasting is going well during this cold February!

Cheers.

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Had the opportunity to run into a really fun and energetic wine person at a recent event. She has my dream job. Pixie Gerken is the , director of possibilities, for Mount Pleasant Winery based in Augusta , MO. How cool is that! This winery is near Branson, MO, a real tourist spot where Andy Williams will live forever and people have fun in a casual, relaxing environment. Lot’s of woods, lot’s of lakes and lot’s of entertainment all in one spot. (and now wine… let’s go!)

I looked up Mount Pleasant Winery and found out that they host large groups for weddings, tastings and corporate events. They are opening a new showplace in Branson and have a “Trophy Case” page that lists their awards.

Sidebar: I am not real sure what an award for a wine really means. Does anyone have any thoughts on which awards are “real”? Are they all like the Oscars? (Which I seldom agree with.) Doesn’t wine continue to grow, age and change over time? Do they taste these wines at their “peak” of flavor? Seems challenging. Also, I have tried some Best of Show kind of award winning wines and thought, “Man, if this is the gold winner, the bronze award level would have made me sick!”. I guess once again I need to trust those tongues that are better educated than mine. At least trust them for others, if a wine doesn’t please you personally then it just don’t do it!

I am thrilled to see local venues like Mount Pleasant do well. That’s awesome. It means that wine is continuing to grow in popularity even in Missouri. I guess I should try to track down a bottle of Mount Pleasant’s fare and check it out. Pixie didn’t offer me any.

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