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Included a shot looking up at the tasting room from the start of the driveway, several taken from inside the tasting room, and one downstairs in the winery.
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Anyone who has traveled out to Hauser Estate Winery has told me the view is worth whatever the price of admission winds up being. Now I can vouch for that. Rode out during the middle of a chilly Saturday after a workshop at Gettysburg College; it's the same direction you'd head to visit the Adams County Winery. Make a right at the blinking light and you drive less than a mile before you look up on the left and there's the tasting room. It sits at the top of at least a half-mile drive up an unpaved road that snakes into the parking lot adjacent to the building.
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Included a few snapshots I took of the spectacular view and the tasting room; you can enjoy that view either out on a large patio that's built off the tasting room in several directions or through one of the room's enormous windows. There was a crowd in the room Saturday, and another group underground where the winery is located. Those visiting as part of Uncork York's Tour de Tanks had a chance to taste two whites and two reds, grab a bowl of soup, and then move over to where winemaker Michelle Oakes was holding court to sample some reds (a couple of Cab Francs, Chambourcin, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon) out of the Hungarian-oaked barrels.
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Business, said GM Jon Patrono, has been great. The recently revamped Web site now includes, among other things, a blog. The Candlelight Friday events on the last Friday of every month have been packing people into the winery; those tight quarters will ease considerably once the music, goodies and wine all head outdoors this spring and summer.
There are certain obstacles to surmount with a first-year winery; one being supply. Four wines were for sale upstairs: two whites, a Chambourcin and a peach. More cases were stacked in the winery downstairs, awaiting labels. And the reserve wines need another year to age under the guidance of Oakes, a West Coast native who learned her craft at several wineries in the Finger Lakes region. What was particularly good both in color and taste were several of the Cab Francs; the winery brings grapes in from a local vineyard and from a supplier closer to Philly. Indeed, that might wind up being Hauser Estate's signature wine among the reserves that it eventually bottles and markets. Time obviously will tell.
But it's definitely worth the trip this month if you have a Tour de Tanks passport. And, if you're heading over from York, you might want to delay that trip at least one weekend. One, for the weather to warm up so you can somewhat comfortably stand around outside on one of the patios and savor the view and, two, because by then Reid's Orchard & Winery will unlock the doors on his new winery. The owner has been away in Italy and expects to open if not this weekend, then next. That would allow those driving over from eastern and central York County, or from point farther east, to hit Hauser Estate, Adams County and Reid's in one jaunt through Gettysburg and out among the hundreds of acres of orchards that dot the hills to the west of the battlefield. And when you're trying to stop at all 12 wineries in only five weekends, you definitely need a plan.
