Illinois Wineries: The Winery At Shale Lake

 So our final stop in our winery tours was The Winery at Shale Lake.  This was originally our first destination, but due to the hours we saved it for last.  It was a bit hard to find, due to the fact that the sign was extremely small.

I really enjoyed the John Wayne quote in the tasting area.  The staff was very friendly, which is always a plus.

Our server's name was Jaime, and she was loads of fun.  If she didn't know the answer to the question, she would try and find it out.  I really appreciated that.

I love that they put their wine corks in the landscaping to use as mulch. What a fun and quirky idea!

Okay on to the wines!

First wine, Eleventh Hour.  This is a 2011 with the varietal Cayuga and was done in a mild oak.  I'm not familiar with this grape.  It was a dry white and not totally offensive.

Second wine, Snake Eyes.  This is a 2011 White Traminette.  It was slightly sweet and smooth.  My brother liked it enough to get a glass of it for later in the evening.

Third wine, Seventh Heaven.  This is a Vignoles.  My brother normally loves this one, but this time it didn't tickle his fancy.  I liked it enough to get a glass for later in the evening.  It's a semi-sweet.  I got peach on the nose and grapefruit on the end.  I think that's what turned my brother off and made me like it.

Fourth wine, Triple Vine.  This is a 2011 blush.  It was a semi-sweet medium bodied wine.  But I'm so not a fan of blushes.

Fifth wine, Sixth Sense.  This is a sweet white that was made with the Cayuga grape.

Sixth wine, Spider Legs.  This was a 2010 blueberry fruit wine.  It is semi-sweet with a distinct blueberry aroma.

Eighth wine, Cloud Nine.  This was a white Chambourcin.  I got flavors of strawberry on this one.  A red, but not to my liking.  A bit too sweet.

Ninth wine, Decade.  Another 2010, this one is a dry blended red with oak highlights.

Tenth wine, Quarter Turn.  A 2011 Norton dry red.  It's a medium body and quite nice.  I could see having this with spaghetti or pizza.

Eleventh wine, Beginner's Luck.  This is a 2011 Chambourcin.  It's a semi-dry and was quite nice.

Twelfth wine, Fifth Dimension.  This was made with the Marechal Foch grape.  It's a sweet wine with an interesting smell to it.  It tastes very different when paired to chocolate.

Thirteenth wine, Apostle.  This is a 2011 Norton.  It's a sweet red and quite nice.


So after our tasting  we decided to have something to eat, a glass of wine and sit and chat.  We decided to order appetizers, but they also serve pizzas, sandwiches, desserts and cheese and bread.

The first picture is a photo of my glass of Vignoles and the appetizer they call 'Green Stamps'.  It's bruschetta with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes.  The tomatoes were a bit dry and burnt, but other than that it was very good.

The next appetizer was 'Arts of Fire'.

This was something my brother was not very interested, but after trying this he really enjoyed it.

It's a spicy bacon wrapped artichoke heart with a butter/garlic sauce.  YUM!  This was by far my favorite!  I got to figure out this one.  It shouldn't be too hard.

And the last one we had was garlic bread.  Not much else to describe this.  It was your basic garlic bread.

If you're in the area I could see this as a great place to meet up or have a relaxing evening with your someone special.

It's a relaxing atmosphere.