We decided to go on a road trip for the day to scope out possible wedding venues for Mama and my...uh, stepdad. It's complicated. ;)
We went to a tiny town called Altus, Arkansas (about 2 hours away from where we live in NW AR.)
It was a GORGEOUS drive down there. Got to go through a tunnel...that's always fun :D
When we got to Altus, our first stop was a winery called
Chateau Aux Arc The adorable (but definitely not small, atleast by Arkansas standards) winery is run by Audrey House, who started making wine at the age of 13 and founded Chateau Aux Arc. Still a senior in high school, she bought the land in 1998 (the same year I was born!) and began working the land. The vineyard officially opened 3 years later in 2001.
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"Chateau" is the French word for "A house near a vinyard," and "Aux Arc" is the French word for "Ozark" and is pronounced the same.
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The tasting room is very pretty and rustic, with a combined gift shop that features handcrafted recycled glass rings, unique aprons, plantable greeting cards just like
these that I've been DYING to make, wine glasses, and of course, wine!
Mom and John got to sample wine while we wandered the gift shop.
Quite possibly the highlight of the entire trip, we met an adorable, friendly yellow lab while we were there, that
I
guess belongs to Audrey, or one of the employees...
That wasn't the funny part though. We looked around at the cute picnic benches with trellises above, admired the view of the vinyards, and took lots of pictures. We said good-bye to the sweet puppy and tried to get in the car to leave, but apparently, he had no intention of staying in Altus. He hopped right in the passenger seat of the car. It took about 10 minutes of coaxing, pushing, and scolding to get the dog out of the car. Instead of helping to get the dog out, I was taking pictures of the whole incident and laughing at the others attempts. :)
After that it was on to the next vineyard,
Post Familie.
I liked this place best because it had non-alchoholic grape juices that my sister, Victoria, and I could taste. We tried a Red and White Muskadine juices, Altus Grape Juice, and Concord Grape Juice. I liked the red juices best (much sweeter). The white Muskadine was a tad too bitter for my taste. I ended up buying the Concord...But I meant to buy the Red Muskadine, it has a much more unique taste. The Concord tastes like a fancy jug of Welches juice. Bit disappointing, but I get to use the pretty glass bottle for some crafty thing!
*excited* :)
We also got to go on a tour of the entire wine-making process, which was VERY cool. There were alot of machines involved, and the tour guide was so friendly. Southern hospitality for ya ;)
What's cool about this place is that it's the oldest winery in Arkansas, and was the 8th winery in the nation to be legally allowed to sell alchohol. It's run today by the 5th generation of the family. Pretty cool eh?
For lunch we stopped at
Rivertowne BBQ on the Altus town square.
Their pulled pork sandwich is to DIE for!! It
is rather large though.....
I swear! It's much bigger in real life.
On the way home we stopped at and up-and-coming winery called
The Tontitown Winery just to check it out. If you ever are in the area, you should stop by. The people who run it are pretty cool, genuinely nice people. They offer free wine (and grape juice) tasting!! Every other Friday they have live musicon the back patio.
P.s....Don't try the white grape juice. Just don't. ;)
Fun day!!
Bonus: Chicken Gnocchi for dinner (italian dumplings)
<3
