A Vineyard Tour!

We rolled along a gently rising road, music played softly in the background, the soundtrack to Under the Tuscan Sun. This music was fitting as we drove up toward Firestone Vineyard with rows of grape vines stretching out in both directions.

The day had been perfect and we were finally doing something I'd wanted to do for a long time. Visit and tour an honest-to-goodness vineyard. It was gorgeous! We made our way into the parking lot, mom, who has been my companion on many of my journeys was in the passenger seat of her car snapping pictures as quickly as she could.

 The main building which housed the tasting room, a small gift area, and where you purchased tour tickets was huge! Inside was beautiful, large glass windows filled one wall giving way to an amazing view of the hills surrounding the area. The bar tops and walls were beautiful with rich wood polished to gleam. Two words could describe the place, elegant and beautiful!

On the tour we were able to see where the grapes were crushed, learned about the differences in wines, and saw where the fermenting process took place. We saw the vineyards up close, standing right next to a row where the tour guide showed how the vines were protected and harvested. The entire experience was like stepping out of reality and onto the set of a Hollywood movie, it was all so perfect. The beautiful buildings, the breathtaking vineyards, the well-kept but more rustic rooms where the grapes were harvested and turned into wine. As the tour drew to a close, we stopped at an odd looking tree, we learned this tree was a cork tree. The bark of this tree is harvested to make corks for wine bottles (which doesn't hurt the tree). It was interesting to feel this tree and the spongy texture one might expect from a natural cork.

I was sorry to leave the beauty of the vineyard but loved the experience. The elegance, the beauty, and yet the knowledge that hours of hard work went into making the place what it was at that moment.