Local produce of a different sort

This afternoon, V picked me up from work and we drove about 20 miles North of us to visit Cedar Ridge Vineyards (and distillery!). We have had their wine before (quite tasty!) and some of their first venture into distilled spirits, dark rum. The rum was excellent and they have now sold out! But yesterday was a big day for them. They released the first Iowa produced Bourbon since prohibition days. We stopped at our local store (two of them, in fact) yesterday and they had ALREADY sold out of what they had. So, we decided to make a trip, since it is so close and we had never been there. Unfortunately, V didn't bring my camera, but the vineyards are beautiful and they have a lovely terrace where you can sit out and drink wine and enjoy the scenery. But, we got to have samples of what they had. We ended up getting some wine, as well as the bourbon we went to get.

Local produce!

It is wonderful, smooth and flavorful. V is a bourbon drinker and I like it on occasion. It is made from locally produced corn and rye. I'm thinking some mint juleps for the 4th!

I also selected a bottle of apple brandy made from local apples. Mmmm... It will be good in small doses. What I love about their products is that every bottle is hand labeled with the barrel and bottle number. Our bourbon is from barrel #4, bottle 30. The apple brandy is from barrel #2! If they keep up the quality they are producing now, they will be a formidable product on the market- if they can keep up with demand. They currently have a very small production facility. I'm contemplating getting another bottle of bourbon and hiding it until Christmas for V since it's a good bet that it will be unavailable by them. Hmmm, nothing like thinking ahead.