Wine Touring in Sandusky

Came back to Cleveland today, though on the way the girls and I enjoyed one of our favorite past times - wine tasting in Sandusky.

Now, Sandusky is really only known in Ohio - let alone anywhere else - for it's monstrous roller-coaster centric theme park, Cedar Point. And to a lesser extent a lot of people go there to boat and do things on Lake Erie. Put-n-Bay is a popular location, as well as Port Clinton and the few islands around the coast.

For me and my friends however, Sandusky means wine. There are a number of wineries in this area of Ohio, located almost dead in the center of the state's north line. Our favorites include Mon Ami, Firelands, and Matus Winery. We visited the former two today, and had some excellent samples along the way.

A lot of people are surprised when they find out there are grape growing and wine making regions in Ohio. The two major ones to my knowledge are the areas along Lake Erie, including Sandusky, and Ashtabula and Lake counties farther east - home to an excellent winery/restaurant called Ferrante - and then the region of southern Ohio closer to Cincinnanti, where their warm weather provides a pretty good crop. Here in the north it gets colder, but because of the lake the grape growing areas are provided with a type of buffer that other places in the state don't get.

The grapes and wines in northern Ohio are very similar to those found in New York. Common varietals include Concord, Catawba, and Niagra. Most of the wines are on the sweeter side, however you will find some Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay here as well. The wineries also make wine from imported juice from California, or other regions that are more suitable to growing varietals such as Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio for example.

Ferrante, mentioned earlier, has an amazing Cabernet Franc Icewine, and even at $35 for a bottle half the size of a standard wine bottle, it is worth every penny. L&D and I are planning to go back there sometime in the next couple months to have a nice dinner once I've got an income again.

Other going ons: We had a nice lunch at Ruby Tuesday's, and then my mom picked me up from Sandusky and we drove back to Medina. I received my first book, This Book Will Change Your Life Again, from SwapTree, and need tog et to the post office in the morning to send out the one I'm trading for it. The book I received is filled with daily tasks and projects, mostly humorous though some are downright intelligent, that the authors claim if completed will change your life. I certainly think so - for example, Day 2 is "Claim you are Jesus Day." That might get someone's attention.