Stone Hill Winery

Gasconade county (where we live) is a very long, skinny county that runs through East Central Missouri.  We live at the very southern part of the county, and the northern edge of the county is the Missouri River.  The area near the river is very hilly, picturesque and settled many years ago by many immigrants from Germany.  They started many wineries in the area and some are still in existence.  Stone Hill Winery is one of the better known ones.  I had a day off of school, so Mark took the day off as well, and we headed towards the Stone Hill.  We toured the wine cellar, which was built in 1847.  They were once the second largest winery in the country, until Prohibition.  During Prohibition, they had to switch to raising mushrooms for profit, but were able to stay in business.  During the mid 1960s, the winery was renovated and began producing wine again.  We enjoyed our tour, and the tasting, and bought plenty of wine to bring back home.  Our friends, Mark Haskins and Becky Craik, have named their "country" home Stone Hill, so we had to buy wine and glasses to mail to them!

This is the view of the county seat of Hermann, Missouri, from the front of Stone Hill Winery.

These are some of the newer fermentation tanks in the cellar.  Check out the mold on the ceilings! 

 These are some of the oak casks that are used for aging some of the red wines.

After the wineries, we headed to a restaurant called The River's Edge.  We have been there before and they have great fish.  We weren't sure of directions, but were able to find our way to the end of the pavement, then further down the dirt road to the Gasconade River, where the restaurant was sitting on the opposite shore.  However, the ferry wasn't running that day, so we drove away hungry!

This is an historic farm house that was close to the Gasconade River.    

 Across the river was our destination, but with no ferry running, there was no way to get there.  We will have to try again another day.