Underage family fun at Schnebly's

WINE TIME: Schnebly's has a fun open tiki hut area were you can bring your own picnic or dinner and enjoy free live music (like we did!). Be warned, it can get very loud, especially since a lot of people like to have large parties there. The winery has beautiful gardens and waterfalls for a lovely nighttime stroll.

Yes, it blows being underage, especially when everyone else is enjoying a nice glass of wine. Thankfully, my parents are a bit understanding and allowed me to sample some of the bizarre and oddly delicious wines Schnebly's had to offer. South Florida is known for its heat, the beach and tropical fruits. Logically, the creators of the winery decided to take advantage of these factors and make a wine blend from succulent native plants, including leeches, mangoes and avocados. I went on a tour of the grounds with my sister, aunt and uncle. The tour guide detailed their special fermenting process (which I understood because I taught myself anaerobic/aerobic respiration/ fermentation about a month ago for bio.) I learned that unlike other large wineries, Schnebly's does all of their bottling on site, from fruit to corking the bottle. I found this very impressive, especially with all their different wines. After the tour, my mom let me sip on a variety of wines, accompanied by chorizo and crackers. Despite it's notoriety at the winery and my personal love for the fruit, the lychee wine tasted quite syrupy and treacly. Similarly, Schnebly's had a coconut, guava and passion fruit wine that all tasted way too sweet! YUCK. Perhaps they would be better served as a dessert wines, not dinner. Even still, it's not that I don't like fruity cocktails- in fact, I love Sangria ( maybe that's because it tastes more like a grape fruit juice?), these wines just left me wanting a tall glass of water to rinse my mouth clean. They did, however, have a nice avocado wine that was drier and smoother that I liked. Overall, it was a fun time. I enjoyed watching my parents and uncle & aunt dance to music ( what a sight to see!) , the live atmosphere and temporary escape from the hustle of city life.