Celebrating Autumn at the Chaumette Winery 


Jim, family and friends enjoy a warm, late fall day tasting wine.  

Saturday, October 25 was a great day for being outdoors, and we made the best of it. Stephen's sister, Janice, arrived late that morning, after spending the night in Chicago because of an unfortunate cancelled United Airlines flight out of Crescent City, Oregon. I thought for sure she wouldn't be up for a drive to St. Genevieve, but Janice has an amazing resilience. We were able to keep our date with Colleen and Grant for that afternoon.

Stephen and I have for years been driving to Augusta, Missouri and west of there for wine tasting in the fall. We have found over the years various wines at the Augusta Winery that we like, although quality varies from year to year. However, Grant has been telling us about the Missouri wineries south of St. Louis. Today our journey was to one of his favorite places, the Chaumette Winery. (Take the link to see their attractive website.) We had a lovely, sunny drive down I-55 for about an hour, took Highway B a few scenic miles, and found the winery on Route WW. For a late October day, especially in a year that has been so wet and cool, there was a surprising lack of vivid color in the trees. Nevertheless, the temperature had warmed up to the middle 60s.

We got there about 1:30, and arriving any later would have cost us a prize seat. Immediately out the back door of the winery, there are a couple of dirt ledges separated by a large herb garden of various thymes. I amazed myself by grabbing a huge round five-seater table and muscling it down through the herb garden to the LAST REMAINING SLOT on the ledge. Others were also vigorously jockeying for position. One of the young women at the table of 4 just setting up next to us joked, "We just joined your party," as I set the table down close to them. Grant, Stephen and Janice followed on my heels with the heavier metal seats. We secured our table with various personal belongings and scrambled back up the hill to the wine-tasting room. This, however, not before taking a deep breath of the fresh country air, and surveying the marvelous pastoral view that graced us. You can get a better idea of this by visiting my web gallery album on the Chaumette Winery.

The five of us squeezed into the last remaining stretch of the long bar, and a pleasant young lady brought us glasses and a wine list. I was absolutely delighted with both the selection and the quality of these wines! They have a good selection of dry whites, dry reds, and semi-sweet whites. All of these wines are made of grapes commonly found at Missouri Wineries; I have tasted chardonels, vidal blancs, Nortons and chambourcins in Augusta and points west. However, the folks in the back seat (me, Janice and Stephen) were impressed enough to buy six bottles and one more for our hosts. We especially enjoyed the 2004 Chardonel; in fact, I think we bought the last of the batch, because I don't see it on their website now. In addition to the dry whites, we bought the 2004 Norton, the 2005 Chambourcin, and their Traminette, a wine with an exotic and complex bouquet composed of apricot, honey and grapefruit overtones. By the way, I found that the descriptions that the Chaumette Winery provides for their wines are quite accurate. If they said cherry, you could taste the cherry!

Grant and Colleen had brought sausage, cheese and bread, and we provided some lemon cheesecake bars. The wine we tasted together with the bottle we shared helped to make a really memorable afternoon. Colleen reminisced that Grant took her to visit the Chaumette Winery last year on their second date, and that we should make this an annual event. I completely agree. Oh, and one last thing. There was some wonderful jazz playing by a really fine group of musicians known only by their names: Jan, Ann, & Bob. Jan Ammerman plays keyboard, Bob Stout is on bass, and Ann Dueren competently sings one familiar old standard right after the other. They obviously enjoy what they are doing, and we enjoyed hearing them; everyone said so.

We may not have California wines and weather here in Missouri, but we have our own brand of wine tasting that I wouldn't trade for all the wine in Napa Valley. We've known a few "California wine snobs"—who shall remain nameless on this blog—who never tasted a Missouri wine they didn't dislike. Well, I dare them to go tasting at the Chaumette Winery with me. Guys, you know who you are. C'mon, there's still some great weather coming up this weekend! 

Posted: Tue - October 28, 2008 at 02:11 PM          

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