30-Mile Spirited Tour

As part of a Local Food conference taking place in Athens this week, there was a special tour happening today. The 30-Mile Spirited Tour offered participants the chance to ride a bus through the countryside and visit the Dancing Tree Distillery, Shade Winery, and Jackie O's new taproom. You did not have to be a conference registrant to attend, so a few friends and I signed up!

Our first stop was the Dancing Tree Distillery in Shade. Founder Kelly Sauber taught us all about the science of distilling alcohol.



I was totally distracted by the prettiest cat EVER!!!



Loooooook at this pretty cat!!!



So beautiful!



Okay, back to the science! This little building is the distillery! All the magic happens in there.



It was so clean inside, and the machines made these really peaceful bubbling sounds. I kind of felt like I was in a submarine!



Love!



Blub blub glug! Glug!! Blug blub glug!












After the tour, we headed to the tasting room to sample the wares.



Cheers!



Our next stop was Shade Winery.



So many different wines to choose from!



One thing I love about Shade Winery is that they offer complimentary oyster crackers. And they get the BEST ones, the Kroger brand ones. MMM!!!



Cheers!



Vino!



They've added a little grilling patio down by the pond. Look, there's Yumi! I think it would be fun to grill out here and enjoy some wine.



The vineyard!



We got to learn some of the science behind grapes and wine! Super cool.






Our final stop of the day was at Jackie O's new taproom. Dan got us a sampler to try! Cheers!



Art told us the story of purchasing and renovating the barn.



Cheers!



The new facility is awesome!



Super powerful beer machines!



They used to have to do this stirring by hand at the old brewery!



We wanted to push these buttons.



Dark Apparition. YUM. YUM!!! Cheers!



Laurel, Summer, Tracy and I. What a fun trip!! So glad we went!