The Wine Trail – Hillside Winery

Dammit.  I was tricked again.  I hate it when it happens.  I stumble across a local winery and have to stop and sample the goods.  It’s a personal quest, really, to find domestic wines outside of the West Coast that are worth drinking.  I have found a good many on my adventures but at times I stumble across a winery that focuses more on the sweat tea and Mountain Dew crowd than those of us with refined palettes.

The tasting room staff must see me coming.  It’s a challenge to them.  How many bottle of sweet wine can I pawn off on this wine snob?  They continue to fill my glass with any sweet wine they can lay their hands on until I am half buzzed and buying more of their product than even Willy Wonka should own.  They laugh as I leave with a sugar headache, heaved down with bottles of wine I know I will never drink and will have to pass off on distant relatives and acquaintances at dinner parties I don’t want to attend.

That’s what Hillside Winery in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee did to me.  We started with a tour of the winery in which the guide pretty much touted Hillside as more professional, sophisticated, and knowledgeable than any other winery in the world.  I think he even claimed they invented wine, but my memory is blurry.  He said this as he was leaning against the tankards of juice they just received from California, similar to what my Dad uses in his home winemaking operation.  You draw the comparison…  The wines I buy and enjoy from North Carolina all come from the area if not specifically from the winery’s vineyard.  Sure, some import juice and grapes, but we don’t normally consume those.

The only dry wines on the tasting sheet were a Pinot Grigio (which was sweet) and a Sangiovese (which tasted like petrol).  They had a Zinfandel but we were told it didn’t turn out quite right.  After the Sangiovese, I could only imagine.  The rest were sweet, sweet, and more sweet.  I will have to give them credit on their fruit wines though – 100% fruit with no added grapes.  Many fruit wines I stumble across are part Chardonnay or some other white wine.  I almost bought their Black and Blue (blackberries and blueberries) but decided it could palette it only for a sip or two.  A few sparkling wines were also worth mentioning, I think, but my tasting buds were clogged with sugar by that point.  The pours kept coming faster and larger in their quest to get me drunk and my wallet open.  We came home with an Asti style I enjoyed and a raspberry wifey enjoyed.  We will probably regret this decision.

I don’t want to knock the winery completely.  I am sure those who enjoy sweet wines will enjoy what Hillside Winery has to offer.  There was Muscadine, Muscat, Niagra, and Concord grapes in the mix.  My brother and sister-in-law sure enjoyed the product.  It just wasn’t a place for me.  But will that keep me from dropping in at future wineries I encounter on the road of life?  Hell no.  Keep ‘em coming!