We were well into our day of tasting along Route 116, savoring wineries new and familiar. Our next stop was one of our favorites: Harvest Moon Winery.
After a great introduction to the new Bowman Winery we were ready to visit a winery that we visit every time we’re in the region: Harvest Moon Winery. The winery is set well back from the road and surrounded by vineyards. The tasting room and production facility share a large parking lot. The entrance area has some covered picnic tables, plus there is a lovely patio area behind the tasting room. That’s a lot of different ways to enjoy Harvest Moon wine! We love the exciting vibe in the tasting room bar, with a lot of repeat visitors and engaging wine guides, so we went inside and found some space along the bar.
As usual, the tasting room was full of enthusiastic Harvest Moon fans. The wine guides were coping with their expansive wine list and swirling customers, keeping track of everyone’s position in their tasting flight. Owner/winemaker Randy Pitts was dividing his attention between the tasting room and the production facility where he was blending his first non-vintage Zinfandel. This is a very busy time of year for a winemaker, and supporting the Taste of Route 116 at the same time was quite an undertaking!
The Harvest Moon wine club has a lot of flexibility. In addition to the typical free signup and free tastings throughout the year, there are private winery events and preview emails before new releases. The club comes in many flavors! The Tiny Bubbles Club provides four bottles of Estate Sparkling twice a year. The Harvest Moon Club sends out two bottles of wine four times a year. The Crescent Moon Club has six bottles twice a year while Coseche Luna Club ups the bottle count to 12 bottles twice a year. Finally, the Blue Moon Club offers twelve bottles four times a year. In each club you have the opportunity to trade out any bottles in your release for other choices, just by sending an email. Whatever you want, Harvest Moon can make it happen.
We reluctantly trimmed our Take Home list to a manageable size (their Savage Zin is not to be missed) and set off toward our next Taste of Route 116 stop!
About the Author: John grills a mean steak and is always in the market for another wine fridge. Believes that if a winery has more than 10 employees, it's probably too big. Buys wine faster than he drinks it, but who cares?
