Monday, April 12, 2010

Making a Wine Run to Eudora, Kansas



It was a gorgeous day for a drive, and I got to take a long one today. Everything is starting to bloom, and for those of us who are not allergy sufferers, it's lovely.

I drove to Eudora, Kansas, near Kansas City, to Davenport Winery to pick up wine for the Cosmosphere's Apollo 13 event this coming weekend.



The back of the van was full of wine. It's ironic that I don't drink wine, but I volunteered for the wine-run.



This is Greg, from the winery, with some of the vines. These vines are 20 years old and being phased out.



The grapes are picked in August and September, so they're just starting to bud now.



The newer method for growing grapes is to keep them more vertical to cut down on the heat and humidity. Greg says they pick them when they're very ripe and sweet, so they couldn't travel at that point.



All in all it was a lovely day. I enjoyed meeting Greg at the winery and getting the tiniest lesson in wine making. It would be really cool to be there when they actually make the wine.

I was struck today by how many fields had been burned off. This is the season for controlled burns in Kansas. Although I've lived here a long time, I'm still not used to seeing this. It still smells burned, but amazingly enough in a short time it will be green again. The prairie is an interesting thing.





It's becoming rare to see cows grazing in fields, so I always take note when I see it. Today had the added bonus of the blooming trees.