For this article My goal is to take you all on a little trip down to Saint. Augustine Florida and the San Sebastian Winery. This became a very special trip for myself as it was my first ever trip to a winery in Florida (and another trip to a great winery with my Dad) and I need to say that we was quite impressed with it all. Situated just a few blocks from the historic section of Saint. Augustine, this winery produces an array of good quality wines (and a totally amazing port). But this winery is more than a totally fabulous wines, it is also an extremely good and enjoyable experience inside of it. The people of the winery and shop were very friendly and helpful. The tour was quite informative and original with a nice twist I have yet to see myself at another winery. And of course, the mouth watering itself was amazing with great wines and just as good and amusing stories. So, enough of simply summarizing my experience how about we elaborate on it all so maybe you can see precisely why it was so enjoyable and hopefully decide to go yourself (it's worth it).
As mentioned above the site of this winery is near the main historic region of saint. Augustine, so if you are a lover of American history than this will truly be a treat for you. And as an extra bonus for the history lovers, San Sebastian itself is actually situated in a beautiful historic building that really adds a lot to atmosphere. The building I bring is one of he Henry Flagler's Old East Shoreline Railway buildings and is a great part of American buildings in my opinion (and I am certainly not a expert on the subject). Inside this structure is were they have build a nice little urban winery, which gets its grapes from their sibling vineyard Lakridge. Along with the functioning winery they have also built a nice little wine shop, with a variety of interesting finds, and a nice mouth watering room with two horseshoe formed mouth watering bars. And if your looking for something else next to your skin built a nice wine and jazz bar on the third floor called The Underground room Upstairs (which I unfortunately was not able to go to around my visit).
After you make it inside and into the shop and mouth watering area you are met with by a very friendly and helpful staff. Now, since how i had never gone to this winery before I was not entirely sure how things worked there (like if you had to pay for the mouth watering or not). But following a few quick words with the staff behind the counter I was promptly informed that it was all free, you just had to go through the tour first. This of course was not an issue at all for me, Which i love taking tours of vineyards and wineries and seeing how they all work Winery. I was told were the tours met and that the helpful man I was talking too, whoever name was Gerald, would be the guide for the next tour.
The tour started out simply enough with a small gathering of men and women and a few questions occasionally, but soon became something quite interesting. After we had all gathered we made our way to the second floor were we went into a small room of what seemed like old church pews. Once situated we where told that we would be watching a short movie which will take care of most of the learning area of the tour. Now, I need to say that this is something I haven't come across yet on a tour but was something that I need to say was quite interesting. The short film was basically a 10 minute ADVERTISING campaign but did give a lot of great information on who, what, when, why and how of the making of the San Sebastian Winery (and its sibling vineyard of Lakeridge). My favourite part of it was definitely the bit about the Muscadine grape, which a good area of their wines are made from. Now from my previous article on Virginian wines you know I love the American varietals, especially Norton, so i was quite interested learning a bit more about this varietal.
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