Midwest Wine Tasting Trips

A few weeks back, my wife and I took a one-day trip to Door County and Green Bay for a whirlwind wine tasting tour.  I wrote about that in an earlier posting on this blog (Wisconsin Wine Tasting).  But Wisconsin is not the only nearby state with great wineries that are worth exploring.  Our neighbors to the south, Illinois and Missouri both have many wonderful wineries with locally-grown grapes that beg you to try them.  Missouri's wine region lies mainly to the west of St. Louis, and is about a 7 1/2 hour drive from Milwaukee.  A great article appeared in the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel this summer on this area, and I have a link to the online version here Missouri on the vine.

 Not to be outdone by it's neighbor Missouri, Southern Illinois offers many excellent wineries and their own wine tasting trails.  A seven hour drive from Milwaukee to Murphysboro, Illinois puts you near the start of the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, boasting 12 wineries with many using their own locally-grown grapes.  A nice article describing this wonderful road trip was written by the Orlando  Florida Vacation Examiner's Rochelle Paul, and a link to the article is here (Southern Illinois wine).

 You don't have to go to California to experience great wines where they are grown, you can do it right here in the midwest, all within a day's drive of home!