Local Girl Eats: Lakeridge Winery & Vineyards

Located in Clermont, Florida, Lakeridge Winery & Vineyards is a neat place. They have several different wines and offer complimentary tours and tastings all week long.

I recently went to Lakeridge for my first time last month with a couple friends. I have had their wine before, but never had been to visit the winery. They were having their 23rd Annual Harvest Festival to benefit Cornerstone Hospice of Lake and Sumter. There was live music, wine, tours, food, ice cream, arts & crafts booths, and stomping of grapes. I was excited!

When my friends and I drove up, it was a really neat sight! There were vines everywhere. It was

really cool. We parked on the grass and got out ready to have fun! They had golf carts to drive us to the winery since it was about a mile walk and really hot outside. The first thing we did when we got off the golf cart was of course, take a picture of the winery and use the bathroom. They had really nice porta potties...they were luxurious for a porta potty. Then we moved onto looking at the different booths. After about 15-20 minutes of walking around in the heat and humidity (good ole' Florida weather), we decided we needed a drink. So we went to get a glass of wine. Delicious! I got their Southern Red because it is my favorite. It was nice and refreshing (it's a chilled red wine)! From there we decided to enjoy the music and scenery for a little, so we walked around a little more.

After being at the festival for about an hour, we decided it was time to stomp some grapes! It looked like so much fun there was no way I wasn't going to try it. One of my friends and I decided we would compete against each other. We got in line and when our turns came, we took off our shoes and stepped into the bucket of grapes. It looked so gross! It was squishy and a little cold. When the timer started, we started stomping. At first you are grossed out by the inside of the bucket, but once you start stomping you forget, and just have a blast! I seriously had so much fun stomping the grapes; I got so into it. My friend and I laughed the whole 2 minutes we stomped. Our competition was fun, but the funny thing is we both lost to a young girl. Oh well, it is something we will never forget; a great memory! After we cleaned up our feet, we watched a few more people (and our other friend) stomp and then decided to get another drink. This time I went with the Southern White. It was good!

While at the festival we also went on a tour. We got to try all their different wines. It was really neat and the workers were extremely friendly and nice. We had a great time talking to them on the tour. After the tour, we decided to get our t-shirts that we earned from stomping the grapes and get some chocolate we heard was upstairs. Yum! We stayed at the winery for about 4 hours. It was so much fun! The wine, grape stomping, and music was great. Everyone was very friendly! We definitely made some great memories that we can always look back on and laugh about.

If you have never been to Lakeridge Winery, then you should definitely visit. It is a local. The history behind it is really interesting to read about. They also have some good wine and really neat events every month. To learn more about the winery and/or events you can visit their website...and don't forget to mention you read about them on here!

http://www.lakeridgewinery.com/index.php

Here are a few interesting pictures of our day!