Normally, I like to experiment with the far-flung oddities of the wine world. France and Italy? Oh sure, they're great, but sometimes you need to strike out and find something a little more unusual. So I've taken upon myself to drink wine from every state in the US of A. There are some surprisingly good discoveries waiting out there.

And there are also occasional missteps.

Over the holiday weekend, I flew down to visit family in Kentucky, and as we often do, we made the drive over the river (using a bridge) to Indiana for fried chicken and fried biscuits at Joe Huber's Orchard and Family Restaurant.

Huber's also has a vineyard, and they've managed to win a fair number of awards for their wines. Last year, I bought a bottle of Starlight White and was quite pleased with it. If you visit the vineyard, however, you get six tastes for free -- and we're talking basically six free glasses of wine, because they're pretty liberal with the amount the pour.

Unfortunately, a wicked combination of cold house and sick cousins conspired to hit me with a sore throat, so I was doped on Day Quil and menthol lozenges, which did a number on my appetite (oh, so little chicken did I eat...what a waste) and taste buds (everything tastes like lozenge). But I am nothing if not a hero, so I battled on.

Although Huber's Cabernet Savignon was just about enough to take me out of the game again.

Man, what a shockingly awful wine. The only thing I've had that could rival it was a bottle of Georgian (from the country of Georgia, not the Georgia country) wine. Both shared an affinity for tasting like vinegar and cat spit. i though tit was just my medicine reeking havoc, but other wines I tasted were fine, and my sister, no unaccomplished drinker herself, was quick to back me up in my initial impression. I am not a sophisticated wine drinker, and something has to be phenomenally bad before I'll stop drinking it. Well, congrats Huber Cab Sav. You made the grade.

So as not to leave on a bad note, the Starlight white and Harvest Blush are exceptionally tasty, as is the raspberry-apple sparkling wine. And the fried chicken and fried biscuits with homemade apple butter are both divine. But stay far, far away from that Cab Sav. It's a killer.

Labels: Drink