Rita Hartman
for The Beacon
I don’t know a great deal about wine and wine lingo mostly goes over my head. But by trying different wines, I have learned what I like. And that’s a simple place to start for anyone interested in learning about wine. I’ve visited wineries in my travels and discovered some very good wines by doing a wine tasting.
Recently, I heard about Press House winery in Nauvoo and decided to check it out. It’s located a couple miles southeast of Nauvoo on North Country Road 800.
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and aside from another couple sitting outside on the patio overlooking the vineyard, we were the only customers. Two staff members greeted us as we came in and asked if this was our first visit and if we’d like to do a wine tasting for $5 per person.
They were friendly and explained that the vineyard has been in the family for over one hundred years, but had only sold grapes to other wineries until 2017 when they began making and selling wine. I was impressed with their knowledge and enthusiasm for wine and their history.
The wine tasting included ten samples and began with dry white wine and concluded with sweet red wine and wine slush. And although I prefer dry red, I found all the selections to be quite good, which I’ve only experienced once before when visiting a few Willamette Valley wineries in Oregon, which is known for great wine.
The Press House wines were very reasonably priced with many under $15. I highly recommend the Razz raspberry wine. It’s crisp, sweet, and loaded with raspberry flavor. If you’re not a wine lover, you might like the slushes instead. They are a blend of wine and fruit juices and are perfect for a warm summer day.
Press House winery is a fun destination stop for girlfriends or couples outings and bachelorette parties and is close enough to Nauvoo to include other stops like the Fudge Factory shop, Hotel Nauvoo restaurant, and other sight seeing in Nauvoo.