Did you know June is Ohio Wine Month?

This blog post is in partnership with Ohio Wines. All thoughts, opinions and pictures
are my own.

Did you know June is Ohio Wine Month? Even better than an entire month dedicated to the celebration of Ohio Wines, did you know Ohio is home 330+ licensed wine manufacturers who make delicious wine all year round? A few of those are even located right here in Central Ohio.

Fun Fact: If you head over to the Ohio Wines website, they have a ton of fun resources you can get for free in the mail that will tell you all you need to know about Ohio Wines. My favorite is the The Ohio Wine Wheel. It teaches all about Ohio wines, their taste profiles, and recommended food pairings.

Each June, Ohio is filled with events that celebrate all the wonderful wineries and winemakers that call Ohio “home.” While we are still celebrating all month long, things do look a little different this year. A lot of events, festivals and more were cancelled due to COVID-19, but lucky for us (and just in time), a lot of wineries started opening back up safely beginning of June.

How did we celebrate? We visited a (new to us) local winery + brought our favorite wines home and put together an at-home, budget friendly tasting for our immediate family.

We had a trip planned to go to Ashtabula County, home to so many of our favorite Ohio Wineries, but with COVID-19 and the closing of restaraunts/bars – we weren’t able to do so. However, in perfect timing, a few of our local Ohio wineries started to open back up the first weekend in June.

Stephen and I wanted somewhere that was pretty low-key, offered outdoor seating and wasn’t too far from home. We chose Three Oaks Vineyards – a winery off of the Capital City Wine Trail – located in Granville, Ohio. Three Oaks Vineyards is a small, rural winery and vineyard that is owned by Pete and Diana Hooverman.  It is a beautiful vineyard, nestled in the woods of their property. Yes, you read that right. It is on their property, with the tasting room being in their basement and their tiered deck housing the tables. Can we say MAJOR HOUSE GOALS!

With that being said, their house wasn’t always home to a wonderful vineyard. Pete had a construction business in Akron. Diana was in IT. They weren’t making wine and didn’t become interested in starting a vineyard until 2006. Talk about following a dream and stepping into a new chapter in your life!

“We began with 9 vines the first year, and now they have around 800 vines and 10 varieties. In January of 2012, we were approved as an Ohio Winery. “Making wine is truly an art. There’s so much to learn and we continue to get more experience and skill at the craft.  In 2014, we were fortunate to travel with friends and family to the Bordeaux region of France. It was a very interesting and educational to tour the many vineyards and chateaux and compare their wine making to process to ours. Not to mention enjoying the wines!”

https://threeoaksvineyard.com

When we pulled into the parking lot, we knew we made the right decision. We saw a large green space, gorgeous outdoor patio, a beautiful house and the most serene woods. All necessary components for a relaxing afternoon. I will say, I got nervous at first because I didn’t know where to go. We hadn’t been there before and we saw a few people sitting out on the patio. Good thing there was a huge sign in front of me telling me where to go. Not sure how I missed that one! As soon as we walked up, we were kindly greeted and asked where we would like to sit.

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Features

• Tasting Room: Their tasting room is in the lower level of their home. It’s an intimate setting with a wine Abramses nd seating fro up to 12 people. It is currently closed due to COVID-19.
• Outdoor Patio
• Lower, Covered Patio: Adjacent to their outdoor patio is their ten covered patio nestled against the woods.
• Pavilion: When the weather is cooler, they see wine out by the vines in the pavilion. A beautiful space custom built by Pete with its of seating inside and out.
• Vineyard: Many of the grapes they use for their wines are grown right there at their vineyard. If you ask Pete and the time allows for it, you might just be able to get a vineyard tour.
• Short hiking path on the property directly beyond the vineyards. They suggest wearing some comfortable shoes, taking a glass of wine and enjoying the outdoors.   
• On Saturday, they usually have entertainment and food trucks or caterers, as well as live music!

Quick Note: They did a FABULOUS job with social distancing. I know it is a new territory for them and they nailed it. Our waitress had a mask on whenever she was outside with us and I am pretty sure they had them on inside while pouring the wine. They had the tables more than 6 feet apart and every time someone left, they fully sanitized each table.

We chose to sit down under the covered patio because this was our first time out and were (and still are) practicing pretty decent social distancing. While the tables up top were spaced out, we felt more comfortable at the lower patio. Plus, our table was right next to the forest and it is absolutely gorgeous. We aren’t use to silence (#toddlers), so it was a no brainer that we would choose the quieter spot.

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We never miss a beat taking pictures of our girls, but getting picture of ourselves – this is what ya get. More importantly, how peaceful does this look? Nice breeze, beautiful view and delicious wines! Possibly my perfect afternoon.

The Wine

They offer a number of delicious wines made from grapes that are either native to Ohio or picked from vines that have been deemed cold hardy. Many people think of Ohio wines as sweet because years ago, most ohio growers only made sweet wines. Today, both dry and sweet wines from locally grown grapes are now being created at many wineries across the state.

I really enjoyed their wine selection. There weren’t too many choices to make it overwhelming, yet there was a choice for all wine lovers. Whether you’re into sweet wine or maybe something a bit more dry, they have created a wine for you. I appreciate that they put a description next to their wines, including what it might be more similar too. It made the wine more approachable and familiar.

There tasting room is closed due to COVID-19, but we were each able to taste up to 3 different wines out on the patio. However, we could order by the glass.

Stephen chose three sweet style wines and I, of course, chose three dry styles. They do say opposites attract, right? Fun Story: It wasn’t always this way. He was much more of a Merlot type of guy, while I couldn’t find something sweet enough. At a wine tasting, I once described a dry wine as knives in my throat and have not lived that one down. Now, we’ve swapped places on the wine scale. I prefer a bold, deep, lightly spicy wine and he would grab a sweet, Concord (grape juice flavored) wine over anything, any day!

From these three, I am sure you can guess which was Stephen’s favorite? If you guessed Concord, you would be right! He said this was actually the best Concord wine he has had. He mentioned it not being as sweet as the typical Concord wine, but still had that grape soda pop aroma.

My favorite was the Cabernet Franc – similar to a Cabernet Sauvigon. You can read some fun history on Cabernet Sauvigon here. To me, it was a bit spicy, a bit savory, not super bold, but definitely not lacking in flavor. Something I would enjoy drinking with dinner as much as possible. Ha.

We each chose our favorite and ordered a full glass. My, oh, my – we were pleasantly surprised with the pour.

To go along with our full glass, we ordered a few snacks. You are able to bring your own food, if they’re not serving food/have a food truck on site. However, now that things are opening back up, it looks like they are having more trucks on site – starting at 5pm on Saturdays. Bonus: They also have live music! You can find the schedule here.

While we were there, they had pre-made sandwiches and cheese plates from Kirwin’s Sandwiches. The cheese plate was from Mary, who’ve I’ve never met, but really want to because she’s made the best deviled eggs I’ve ever tasted! She charges $8 a plate and you either pay in a cash box or call her over the phone to pay. My pro-tip for you is to order two plates. You will not want to share.

We were decently hungry, but planned to grab food in downtown Granville – so, we decided to share a sandwich. We ordered the salami sandwich, not realizing it came with the most beautiful fruit on the side. This sandwich was quite simple, but truly hit the spot. You could taste the quality. Yum!

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We spent about an hour and a half at the winery and that was the perfect amount of time for our first adventure out in a few months. It truly felt like we were sitting on a good friends back patio. It was relaxing, inviting and laid-back. The only thing I would change is being able to chat more with the owners and get a tour of the vineyard. I hear this is something they welcome, but with everything going on – it just didn’t make sense! We had such a wonderful time and of course, had to pick a few of our favorite bottles to take home with us.

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Address: 1591 Crosley Road
Granville, Ohio 43023
Hours: Open every Friday  from 2 PM to 8 PM
& Saturday from 1 PM to 8 PM
Phone: 740-535-6257 
Email: info@threeoaksvineyard.com
Website | Facebook

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Remember when I said, we also did an at-home wine tasting with the wines we took home? Here a few sneak peek pics! I paired all of the wines with snacks from Aldi – very budget friendly. I really had no idea what I was doing, but the Ohio Wines website was very helpful. I will be sharing more on our DIY at-home tasting later this week on the blog. Until then, check out Bryanna, from the Cincy Blog Coming in Clutch, IG as she did an awesome at-home tasting.

Looking for a weekend trip that involves wine and relaxing, I suggest heading up to Vineyard Woods. We went back in 2018 and I’ve been thinking about when we can get back ever since. Check out my blog post here, but also visit their website because they’ve done a ton of updates!