Sep
Three Lakes Winery’s Pumpkin Wine
Posted in Beverages | 1 Comment »
Name: Three Lakes Winery’s Pumpkin Wine
Purchased At: It was a gift
Price: $9.95
Availability: Seasonal
I’ve always considered September 1st to be the official kick-off to Pumpkin Eatin’ Season. To celebrate the arrival of another pumpkin season, I would like to propose a toast with Three Lakes Winery’s Pumpkin Wine. WTF, did I say pumpkin wine? Yup, I did.
This was given to me by a friend from work who also deserves a toast because he was married over Labor Day weekend. Congratulations Andrew! I wish you nothing but happiness. He got it for me on a trip to Chicago but if I’m not mistaken it was purchased on a drive to Milwaukee at a location I can’t remember.
The Three Lakes Winery is located in Three Lakes Wisconsin and specializes in fruity dessert-like wine. They have other interesting flavors like blueberry, cranberry, and apricot. The website says that the pumpkin wine was originally made only for the Three Lakes’ PumpkinFest. They currently offer it in limited quantities during the fall season.
The winery describes the pumpkin wine as “It IS actually made only from pie pumpkins, and the smooth, pleasant flavor surprises all who try it at our Tasting Counter because it DOESN’T taste like pumpkin pie. It has been described as having qualities of a semi-sweet Chardonnay, and we have yet to find another Pumpkin Wine made by anyone.” Well, they weren’t kidding about the “DOESN’T taste like pumpkin pie.” Unless you saw the bottle, you would never know it was made from pumpkins but I can’t really begrudge them. Pumpkins don’t have a particularly strong taste. However, I wouldn’t have described it as a semi-sweet wine. It’s really sweet but I like sweet wines.
I shared it with three other people. One person hated it and described it as GROSS (she’s super picky) but everyone else, including myself, gave it was a lukewarm good. It tastes different than what you’d expect. There’s an indescribable aftertaste that isn’t bad but not great either. It only took one glass to get my cheeks red and to make me a tad bit tipsy.
I think the novelty factor of serving a pumpkin wine at Thanksgiving or at a fall dinner party is this wine’s best asset. I would purchase and drink this wine again but it’s not something I’ll hope becomes available all year round.
Rating: 3 out of 5