FerGedAboudIt Vineyard & Winery

Over Memorial Day weekend 2006, my wife, Amy, and I had one of the most incredible wine tasting experiences of our lives. We accidentally stumbled across a budding boutique winery and were invited in by the owner for a private tasting.

The whole story began with us visiting Amy's parent's farm near Galena, Illinois for a work weekend. Work weekends happen about once per year and everyone who visits the farm regularly during the year for mini-vacations is invited to come out on work weekend and help maintain the farm.

During our work weekend, the work hit a lull and some of the family was going to take a siesta. Amy's dad, Bill, suggested that rather than hanging around doing nothing for a couple hours that Amy and I check out a new winery they found just up the road near one of the small towns in the area. Since, we're always up for a wine tasting, we jumped on the idea.

Bill relayed some quick directions on how to get there and I committed them to memory. But, just before we left, he asked us to pick up some food for dinner from town while we were away. Amy decided rather than go grocery shopping after the tasting that we'd hit town first and then enjoy the tasting. So, we took a direct route to town and then followed the directions to the winery in reverse.

We drove along and didn't find any signs for the winery. Amy was getting worried that we were almost back to the farm and hadn't found the place yet. But, we finally drove around another bend and then saw grape vines in the fields. We followed the vines to an entrance at the roadside that said "Welcome to the FerGedAboudIt Vineyard" and proceeded up the drive.

We were greeted by a strange site... no winery... no tasting room... nothing... except some people working around a large metal barn. We stopped the car near the barn and asked a woman for directions to the tasting room. She just laughed out loud and gestured back toward the barn. Well, the barn didn't look like much and the drive ended just before the barn. So we stayed put and tried again to talk with the laughing woman.

Finally, she got up from her chair and walked around back to the barn. The next thing we know, an older gray haired gentleman emerges from the barn and walks toward our car. He stops at the window and tells us we must mean the vineyard down the road and over the hill. We ask for directions and he points across the fields where we look and have no idea what he is talking about. Anyway, he thinks for second and then says to us, "do you want a wine tasting? I'll tell you what... I'll let you taste my wine."

Amy and I were a little apprehensive at first but followed the gentleman back to his barn anyway. The barn turned out to be a small startup boutique winery that hasn't gone public yet.

The gentleman introduces himself to us as "Ron" and then he tells us about his winemaking. Amy and I soak in all the stories and information that he has to tell us. He then proceeds to check his wine stock and pull out a couple bottles of wine. He uncorked one, found some glasses, and offered us a taste of wine from this boutique's emerging wine selection. We are amazed by his generosity and willingness to share his wine with two total strangers. Over the next two hours, we fast become friends with this gentleman and fellow wine lover.

Ron, we later find out, is short for his real name, Rosario Bruno. He told us a fun story about why his mother called him Ron as a way to get back at her father-in-law for some incident.

Anyway, Amy and I have been to many wine tastings and handle our glasses as a connoisseur would...or, we like to think we do. But, Rosario notes the fact that we taste wine like we know wine and asks us what we think of his wine. Together, we share our honest opinions with Rosario and he pulls out a few more bottles of wine for us to try. We tried several interesting wines that haven't quite matured fully yet but were still very good.

The entire day was sort of surrealistic as we stood around the barn drinking wine with Rosario, touring his winemaking operation, sharing our thoughts on his wine, and just learning about the life of Rosario Bruno and the future of the FerGedAboutIt Vineyard & soon-to-be official winery.

Rosario has been making his new Galena wines for the last 5 years and is in the process of getting his license to sell wine to the public. He plans on taking one of his wines to a competition in 2007. He has an amazing story and a true passion for wine.

When we finally had to leave, we left wanting more but we knew we had to go and we now have a new friend to visit again on another occasion. Rosario's wine's are all made from Illinois grapes and he truly had some small batch boutique offerings that he showed us. His wines were young and good but will only become better and great with age. (I look forward to the day when I can taste them.)

Together, Amy and I look forward to the day when we can walk into a store and see the FerGedAboudIt wines on the shelf and think back to the day when we met the winemaker, Rosario Bruno, and shared wine with him in a one-on-one private tasting at his winery before it was released to the general public. We will always have these great memories and look forward to seeing Rosario again on our next trip up to the farm.

Of course, this time, we'll be sure to bring wine to share with Rosario.

(Rosario, if you ever read this post, my offer still stands to help you build a website for your FerGedAboudIt Vineyard & Winery. It would be an honor for me to do this for you. Just drop me a line. Thank you.)

Basic Red Wine Descriptions

I was browsing through some files on my computer and came across this document that described several Red wines which my wife and I used on our Wedding Reception placecards. The content is good so, I figured I'd post it here to share with you.

Thanks,
Woj

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Pinot Noir, the great grape of Burgundy, is a touchy variety. Pinot Noir is a lighter colored and flavored red wine. The best examples offer the classic black cherry, spice, raspberry and currant flavors, and an aroma that can resemble wilted roses, along with earth, tar, herb and cola notes.


Cabernet Sauvignon is the premier red wine grape in the world. The Cabernet Sauvignon grape produces distinctive wines that are tannic and can have long aging potential. It displays characteristics of dark cherry, cedar, tobacco, or black currant. It is commonly aged in small oak barrels before bottling to achieve more complexity.


Merlot has long been considered the junior partner in the great Bordeaux duo of grape varieties. Merlot is a subtle, savory wine with dominant flavors of plums, cherries, blueberries and blackberries mixed with blackpepper tones. With its soft texture, deliciously plumy fruit flavor and mellow tannins, Merlot is more approachable than Cabernet Sauvignon.


Sangiovese (san-joh-VAY-zeh) is one of those wines that people tend to overlook on wine lists. The grape is believed to have its roots in Tuscany, but is grown extensively throughout Italy, where it is the dominant member of the Chianti family. The wine's high acidity makes it a perfect partner for tomato-based pastas and pizzas. Sangiovese is generally an earthy wine and is best paired with food.


Syrah (Sah-ra), also known as Shiraz, is used to produce some of the world’s finest, deepest, and darkest reds with intense flavors and excellent longevity. Syrah wines display firm tannins (although they are typically ripe and smooth, not abrasive like younger reds can be), a fuller body, and the rich round flavors of black cherry, blackberry, plum, bell pepper, black pepper, clove, licorice, dark chocolate and smoked meat.


Zinfandel (Zin-fan-dell) has been a cornerstone of the California wine scene since the mid-1800s and is perhaps the world's most versatile wine grape. It is known for its rich, dark color scheme, medium to high tannin levels and a higher alcohol content. It features flavors including raspberry, blackberry, cherry, plums, raisins, spice and black pepper all wrapped around various intensities of oak. The Zinfandel grape is also used to make the blush wine, White Zinfandel.