Our recent travels took us back to a winery Madam and I had first visited in 2015, Baltic Mill Winery in Baltic, Ohio. We were looking forward to the return visit because our first one was so memorable.
The setting of the winery, in a century-old flour mill, is worth the visit. The owners have done a great job of preserving a piece of Baltic history and visitors can view the mill's machinery on the 2nd and 3rd floors. A large part of a winery's atmosphere comes from the people behind the counter and meeting the owner's son during our first visit left a great impression. Sadly, it did not appear that the owners were in the tasting room on the day of our visit so the warmth of our previous visit was missing.
Unfortunately, the winery also was not offering tastings (something their website did not mention) so we had to make do with a flight of 4 wines of our choosing. Another downside was having the wines served in small plastic cups but a glass was provided when we asked. On the plus side, oyster crackers came with the flight so we could cleanse our palate between wines.
We chose 3 dry reds and the memorable Just Peachy, a wine we fondly remembered. We started with Blend No. 111, a Bordeaux-style red made from cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and merlot grapes. The nose was very jammy with hints of oak and tobacco. The full-bodied nose did not come through in the taste and the bottle we had was still fermenting so it had a little sparkle to it.
Madam chose Rosso del Baltico, an Italian-style wine made from Montepulciano grapes, as she is a lover of most Italian reds. The wonderful grape nose also had hints of chocolate and raisin and delivered a fruity, tart red that will pair well with spicy food. The Noiret had a nice jammy nose with hints of pepper. It had a wonderful pepper taste on the front end but jam on the back, perfect for pairing with a nice steak.
The last wine in the flight was Just Peachy, a nice peach-flavored chardonnay that is one of my favorite Ohio wines. The great peach nose comes through in the dry, peach taste of this light chardonnay that also offers some citrus notes.
If you're in Ohio Amish Country, Baltic Mill Winery is one to include in your stops as it does offer great wines. Madam and I just wished they still offered the intimacy of our first visit.
Comments