The Best of Missouri Market was held October 5-7, 2012 at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri. The event draws 25,000 people annually to one of the best botanical gardens in the U.S.
The event featured over 120 Missouri crafters and food producers, including five Missouri wineries who offered samples and bottles of wine for sale. The wineries included Chaumette Vineyards & Winery, Westphalia Winery, Stone Hill Winery, Mount Pleasant Estates and St. James Winery.
According to the Missouri Botanical Garden website, the “Garden” was founded in 1859 by Henry Shaw. Today, 153 years after opening, the Garden is a National Historic Landmark and a center for science, conservation, education and horticultural display — widely considered one of the top three botanical gardens in the world.”
Above: Mount Pleasant Estates, the largest purveyor of Augusta Appellation wine was in attendance.
Above: Westphalia Vineyards, located in Westphalia, Missouri, advertises itself as America’s Premier Sulfite-Free Winery.
Above: Stone Hill Winery, located in Hermann, Missouri showed off their wide range of wines. While the Botanical Gardens is 153 years old, Stone Hill Winery is more than a 160! So, if you are from the Missouri area, your ancestors could have both drank a Norton at Stone Hill and visited the Gardens. Cool!
Above: Chaumette Winery and Vineyards, a boutique winery, is located in Sainte Genevieve, Missouri also had a booth. Chaumette Winery has more than a dozen wines from varieties such as Norton, Missouri’s state grape, Chardonel, Traminette, Chambourcin and Vignoles – all French-American hybrids.
Above: St. James Winery, Missouri’s largest winery, attended the Best of Missouri Market at the Missouri Botanical Garden. St. James Winery focuses on promoting its fruit wines, but also had an interesting sparkling chambourcin. This reminded me of an excellent wine dinner I went to at the now defunct Juniper Grill that paired various chocolate truffles with a sparkling Shiraz – delicious!
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