Thursday, December 8, 2011

Wild Colleens

Aug 10th
Stop #12: Deer Springs Winery

Back in May, when we first began our wine tour, Katherine and I had tried to make Deer Springs one of our first stops, because it is located right outside of Lincoln. We were disappointed to discover that they were closed, and resolved to try again another time.

On our second visit, Deer Springs Winery was not only open, it was packed. In a side building, several people were hard at work bottling wine. In the tasting room, there were several small groups of people enjoying wine and picnic baskets. A few groups took their picnics outside - it was a beautiful day out. I, however, didn't quite feel like becoming a picnic for the mosquitoes, so we enjoyed our tasting inside. We didn't get much time to talk to Jennifer, one of the owners, because she was busy pouring for her guests.

Deer Springs had attended the Wine Under the Pines event at Kimmel Orchard the day before, and I tried their Traminette because it was a wine I hadn't crossed before. The Traminette became an instant favorite, as well as several other wines including their Bianca, Wild Colleen, and Brianna. We loved the name Wild Colleen, which means "wild Irish girl" - although I'm a bit more Irish than Katherine, we're both wild about wine.

Katherine and I followed our usual routine, each picking different wines from the list and then sampling each other's. This is the best way to sample all the wines, instead of limiting ourselves to choosing only five or six.

This is also the best way to catch mono, according to my mom. But her advice never deterred my habit of sharing drinks in high school, and some things just don't change.

Wine is meant to be shared.

As we were doing our tastings, we debated whether or not we wanted to share a picnic basket. Our inner Yogi Bear won out, so we each bought a glass of wine after we'd finished our tastings and shared a basket. The basket included cheese from the UNL Dairy Store, locally made summer sausage, a baguette, and a few pieces of Baker's chocolate. The picnic basket was the perfect snack, and Deer Springs was the perfect end to our weekend.

Favorites: Traminette & Wild Colleen

Deer Springs Winery's Website

3 comments:

  1. Wine is meant to be shared. Great line. I'm consistently amazed at the amount of vineyards you guys have in NE. I never would have guessed it. No offense there, either (half my family lives in Lincoln).

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  2. “Wine is meant to be shared.” - I agree. But sometimes, when a bottle of wine is just too good, it's better to just keep it for yourself. Just kidding! LOL! I remember going on wine-tasting tours. I learned a lot about wine tasting techniques just by accompanying my parents on these. One thing I've learned is to spit and not swallow, if you want to get a taste of all the wines being introduced in the vineyard. How many types of wine were you able to taste that day?

    Corey Glenn

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  3. We loved the Wild Colleen as well. Excellent choice! And we loved Sam, their Golden Retriever, who has quite a following of his own.

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