Coventional Wisdom, Fat Points and Other Rat's Mouths

Before leaving the Orlando area for the Gulf Coast and Punta Gorda (Spanish for “Fat Point,” just like Boca Raton translates to something like “Mouth of the Rat”) we visited a business that we just never expected to find in Florida - of all places. So when, while running some unrelated errands, we happened to drive past LAKERIDGE WINERY (http://www.lakeridgewinery.com) we decided to return first chance we got to take the free tour and tasting that was offered seven days a week on their sign. Now we are certainly not wine snobs, and in fact we don’t pretend to know much at all about the subject other than to say we do know what we like and what we don‘t like once we‘ve tried it, but we fell into the camp of the incredulous who assumed that surely there was no good wine, let along great wine, to be had in Florida. At the time, I never thought I would write about wine in Florida. Period!
We were surprised to find every parking space in the guest lot taken when we arrived, so we stole into one of the tour bus spaces (there weren’t any there on a Saturday). Like all good tours, you enter and exit through the gift shop. Theirs was very nice- on the order of an upscale wine and cheese shop but with nearly everything bearing their logo. I really liked the giant wine glasses- it would have made a great fish bowl if I weren’t living in a motor coach. It also would have been great for those times when you promise your wife you are only going to have “one” glass of wine!!!
But back to the wine. I’ve included a link to the site above if you are interested. Basically, the grapes grown in the area are all hybridized versions of Muscadine, and the wild Muscadine grape that the Spaniards found growing in Florida when they- not we,not you, not me, not any of the rest of us, not the French, not the Italians, and most assuredly not the English- discovered it many long years before vineyards were established anywhere else in the country. You would not have guessed correctly in a trivial pursuit game if you said that vineyards were first and are still the best in either New York or California. Not so. Florida was first. And lately it has been beating both New York and California, and even European wines with some great regularity at competitions world wide. My son and his bride love to go to Italy every chance they get to see the sights and sip the vino. Maybe after reading this they will want to jump on a plane and head to Florida. Then again maybe not!
We stared at showcase after showcase filled with bottles of wine with ribbons and metals around their “necks.” If their wine competitiveness keeps growing they will need to build a lot more showcases at the winery.
But I suppose the point of all this, and the reason for commenting here is this: conventional wisdom says that most of the good U.S. wine is in California and the rest is in New York. And conventional wisdom, especially in this country at this point in time, would be that we ALL want everyone to speak English and not some other language, especially Spanish. It’s becoming one of the hot topic issues of our time on the planet. But “conventional wisdom” is often backward looking and not forward thinking. The fact is that, defying conventional wisdom, there are fine wines in Florida, and more than a few towns whose names sound infinitely better in the native Spanish than they ever will in English.
Life’s lessons are learned through experiences which test the tried and maybe-not-so true.
Fine wine, by any name and in any language, is where you find it.