In the year 2000, my job moved us to Fort Myers Beach, Florida and for once in our life the closest McDonald’s was not a 30 mile trip to the nearest “big town”. Shopping was amazing and even the basic necessities were at our fingertips. The grocery stores are huge and have everything you need and a lot that you don’t! Among the completely stocked shelves we found a complete isle, 200’ long, full of wine! Holy Crap! We not only couldn’t figure out what it all was, but we couldn’t begin to pronounce most of the names.

I don’t completely remember when the Iowa Liquor Control Commission (ILCC) actually allowed humans to not only “see” the bottles at the state stores before they made a selection on what type of alcohol to buy, but at some point in time they actually allowed the public to walk in and pick up (touch) the individual bottles, put them into a cart and just pay for them without filling out the liquor book. They had finally moved out of prohibition forever!

On a recent trip to Northwest Iowa I stopped in a truckstop/convenience store that had a selection of Iowa wines. Not being one to pass up a chance to try a new wine I selected a couple different bottles. The first one I tried was “Lucy Lane” from Jasper Wineries. Their website [...]