Lake Ridge Winery - Clermont, Florida

The Lake Ridge Winery was not my first winery, but it was the first I’ve visited at an old enough age to appreciate.  Not quite 2 hours from my home-town, I certainly didn’t have very high expectations of the general area, but I went with no preconceived notions of the winery itself. I must say, even before I arrived at the actual location I could see that the area far exceeded the sub-par scenery that I had expected. Florida’s winters tend to bring more brown and gray than any other color, but on the drive to the winery I saw some hints of the yellows and reds you’d expect to find in the brilliant foliage of a New England fall. We passed orange groves and open fields, even the occasional bare land with absolutely no development. It was a nice way to precede my winery experience.

Due to the unusual cold snap, the winery employees and guests made every effort to stay inside whenever possible. We started our visit in the toasty gift shop, which was home to a number of amusing odds and ends. Among the many gadgets was a 6-piece wine care set. Now, who needs 6 pieces of equipment to care for a bottle of wine? I asked around and found that, in fact, many people do. A label cutter, a cork screw, a reusable cork…and 3 other extremely important pieces that I can’t remember. I entertained myself by reading birthday cards which were arranged by the year, highlighted a specific wine, and gave trivia about the year of birth on the card. During the year my grandmother was born, IBM entered the typewriter business (here’s to you, Grandma).

We began our tour with a short video of the history of the winery and its owner. I was surprised to learn that the first US-made wine came out of Jacksonville, Florida, more than 100 years ahead of California. Yet another thing a Floridian can be proud of, right alongside NASA, the Keys, Disney (if you count that as a source of pride), and I’m sure some record for hurricanes.  I learned about the muscadine grape, which is the only grape in the US south that can produce wine. It naturally only makes sweet wines, but thanks to the University of Florida, it has been genetically crossed with other grapes and can now produce the entire spectrum of wines, including reds, whites, sweet wines, dry wines, and even sparkling wines.

After the video we took a short trip to the cold and unwelcoming outdoors. The view was magnificent to my Floridian eyes because there wasn’t a building in sight. Nature, in all its winter colors, stretched on as far as I could see. The grape vines probably look nicer in the summer, considering that they were dead, gray and crispy during this trip, but it was a pleasant sight nonetheless.

The last and best part of our winery tour was the wine tasting. We started with the driest wine and worked our way down to the sweetest. One quarter-glass at a time, I tried all kinds of red and white wines while I read the descriptions. I can say for a fact that I did not taste blueberry in any of the glasses I tried, but the descriptions said that I should have in at least 2 or 3. I guess I still have a long way to go before I can say that I’m a wine connoisseur. Continuing my education, I learned that I love dry wines and really have no taste at all for sweet wines, which to me taste like some terrible concoction of a once-good wine mixed with some sugary sin to please a child’s palate. I hear that some people really love sweet wines, but I’m certainly not one of them.

All in all, my trip to the Lake Ridge Winery was a very enjoyable experience. It was a nice and unexpected destination that I think every local should at least try to visit, especially since it’s winter and the mosquitoes are on a hiatus.