A dear friend of mine bought Andrew and I a Groupon for a private wine tasting as an engagement gift. The winery was 2 hours away, so we dropped the dogs off at doggie daycare, packed up some cheese, crackers and meats, and made it a day trip. Our trusty iPhone GPS soon prompted us to roll up to a hidden little neighborhood of extremely wealthy people's homes. Not just "we vacation twice a year and have a boat" wealthy. No, each one of these homes had it's own airplane hangar (garage), and in the center of all the homes is an air field. Yeah....seriously. As we were realizing that this "winery" was in someone's home, Andrew says "it seems like some rich guy just said I like planes, and I like wine, soooooo I'll start a winery in my hangar!" My dear fianse was right, that's exactly what it was.
As we entered into the hangar, the owner/vintner/pilot named Lorenzo greeted us and escorted us to the private wine tasting room (his basement bar). We tasted 10 wines along with cheese and fresh bread. Our favorite was a 2009 "vintner's reserve" a semi-sweet red, which we are suckers for. I was really impressed with this guy's wine making abilities, especially since he has a day job as a pilot and wine making is just a "hobby". The wines had a very organic quality to them and weren't sweet/fruity or cheap tasting like (unfortunately) a lot of Michigan wines.
After our private tasting, we were welcomed to sit and enjoy some acoustic tunes there in the hangar with our picnic snacks. We purchased a bottle of our vintner's reserve pick and spent some quality engagement time together the rest of the afternoon. Thanks, Lorenzo (rich guy who likes planes and wine)!!
