After hearing about a “new” winery located in Excelsior Spring, Michael and I made the trip up to visit Shamrock Hills Winery.
Shamrock Hills Winery began as a partnership with Four Houses and a Dog. However, in late March 2023, Four Horses and a Dog closed their doors and Shamrock Hills was open April 1, 2023, which is 12 years to the day from when Four Horses and a Dog first open their doors. Shamrock Hills will continue producing the same wines with Four Horses and a Dog labels, but will also begin growing their own grapes with new varieties that will be produced and labeled Shamrock Hills.
As Michael and I made our way into the new tasting room we were immediately recognized, which is saying something since the winery was “new.” The winery is staffed by Four Horses employees. Jill was excited to see that our little family had grown with the addition of Lizzy. Lizzy was very much amused by being at a new location. We sat outside on their large patio and had a tasting. For Christmas, Michael and I both gifted each other a Wine Tasting Journal to better record our experiences. While we are still learning to better understand things such as body, balance, and finish of a wine here are our findings.
Michael tasted the following:
Sweet Lizzie Lou
This is a white translucent wine made from Vignoles, Michael’s favorite grape. Michael and I placed them in the middle of the dry/sweet spectrum. Michael got the aroma of honey with notes of pear. While I got the aroma of petrol with notes of pear and ended with a note of honey.
Michael felt like the wine had a light body, while I thought it was light to medium. The body refers to the weight of the wine on the palate. Since this was a light body, these tend towards being refreshing and tingly.
Balance is one of the areas we are having difficulty with so take our opinion with a grain of salt, Michael put it as fairly balanced while I put it as leaning towards more unbalanced.
Michael said the finish was short, however I thought the aftertaste lingered a bit longer so said it was short to medium. The finish of a wine is the aftertaste it leaves once you have tasted the wine. If a wine has a lingering aftertaste it is said to have a long finish.
Overall, he felt like the wine was lacking compared to other Vignoles he has experienced in the past. While Michael was “eh,” this was my favorite wine from the tasting.
Gabby Abby
Sweet Roan Red
Red Blend No.1
My tasting notes as follows:
Tobylicious
This is a white translucent wine made from Chardonnel grape was in the middle of dry and sweet to me. The wine had an aroma of petrol with notes of honeydew melon.
The wine had a light to medium body.
I thought this wine was evenly balanced.
The finish was short to medium.
Collaboration Rosé
Almost Rosé
While analyzing our wines and enjoying the wonderful weather. We were greeted by Chloe, the winery dog, well more like puppy. She was very excited to meet everyone visiting the winery. She got pets from everyone. There was a young girl there that played with her and even Lizzy enjoyed spending time with Chloe.
Shamrock Hills Winery is a place we will visit in the future since they are still working on growing grapes and fixing up their landscaping. We left very happy and looking forward to their future.
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