My boyfriend and I were staying in a cabin overlooking a sauvignon blanc vineyard, visiting wineries, eating and drinking decadently.
In recent years, as wine drinking trickled down from the elite to a broader public around the world, successful wineries like Southcorp of Australia, now the world's largest, and E.& J. Gallo of the United States reacted by promoting brand names and redesigning labels to stress the grapes in the wines, like chardonnay, merlot or pinot noir.
Since Mount Felix, which offers at least eight varieties of wine, doesn't have frills like live music, we thought we had found our first wine-only winery, but after we finished drinking -- we'd given up spitting by now -- Mr. Ianniello gave us a tour of their home, which retains many of its original touches.
Phil Gregory, an Englishman who has a hotel and winery there, told me, "It's a drinking festival to celebrate all the drinking we've done in the previous year and all the drinking we're going to do in the coming year".
Most groups have individuals at all levels – from those that want to buy their own winery to those who just like drinking wine.
If you care more about hosting a wedding than drinking wine, you could check out Laurita Winery in New Egypt, which was described to me as the prettiest winery in the state.
Related article: Drinking in the views from Vienna's wineries.
Gallo Winery in Modesto, Calif., and built an empire by shaping American drinking tastes with inexpensive nonvintage wines.
I hadn't been drinking, but it was well-nigh impossible not to drink at this event: all kinds of wineries and distillers were offering samples of their product: free wine and booze of every sort was at every turn.
He instructed Liu to take the tape off the top a little while before drinking the wine, having observed the way people at the winery uncorked bottles and then let them sit.
