Hermann, Missouri, is a beautiful quaint town with several wineries, antique shops, restaurants, and bed & breakfasts. It’s about an hour west of St. Louis. Lovely, lovely town.

My husband and I were fortunate to be able to visit Hermann. I had been eyeing it for a while and we finally got the chance to go! We got there on a late Friday afternoon and left Sunday mid-morning, so we only made it to three wineries, but we are definitely going back to hit the rest. I’ll start with our arrival.

STONE HILL WINERY

Once we got to Hermann, we went straight to Stone Hill Winery. The wineries in the area all close between 5 and 6 pm and it looked like we were going to make it for the last tasting at this winery. We missed the tour by several minutes (we’re going to do the tour next time). Well, we paid for the tasting and chose which wines we each wanted to try*. (*As of this blog post in May 2017, tastings are $5.00 per person for six samples or $10.00 per person for six samples and a souvenir wine glass).

I have to say, all of the wine we tried there was excellent. The Dry Rose was my favorite.

View from the Winery

ALPENHORN GASTHAUS

That night we had reservations at Alpenhorn Gasthaus. It was wonderful! We did the Wine Country 4 Course Dinner that is offered on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights at 7pm (you need to call and make reservations). The setting is gorgeous. We arrived at 6:30 and each ordered a glass of wine to take as we walked around the grounds. Oh, it’s so peaceful. We found a couple of Adirondack chairs and settled in for a bit before dinner. The chickens and sheep in the back pasture were a nice bonus.

The dinner was superb. We started off with a Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake with Basil Pesto. The second course was a small salad consisting of organic spinach, pickled beets, cuties, goat cheese, and candied pecans with Balsamic Vinaigrette that had been aged 25 years. And there were also the most delectable bread pieces with a dipping sauce – focaccia puffs & herbed dipping oil. I really want to figure out how to make them and how to make that dipping sauce. It was DELICIOUS.

For the main course, we had a choice between Garlic Lamb Loin Chops with Garden Salsa or Her Crusted Red Snapper with Wasabi Aioli. Both came with a side of veggies and mixed grains. I ordered the lamb and my husband ordered the Snapper. Confession- I don’t really like lamb and I don’t eat a lot of seafood! And I had to choose one, so I went with the lamb. The lamb was excellent, though! And my husband raved about the Snapper.

After dinner, we went down to the wine cellar where we had dessert and sampled some Port Wines. It was very nice.

The atmosphere at Alpenhorn is absolutely lovely. If you go to Hermann, make sure you book dinner reservations OR I saw that their breakfasts get rave reviews. Next time, I’d like to try that, too.

ADAM PUCHTA WINERY

Saturday morning we started out going to some shops in the downtown area before heading to the wineries. We also at at the Wurst Haus (linked below). Then we headed to the wineries. First up, Adam Puchta Winery.  Adam Puchta Winery is the oldest continuously owned family winery in the country. Cool, huh? I think it’s in the 7th or 8th generation now. I find that to be truly spectacular. For $5, you can do an 8-sample wine tasting. They have some excellent wines. We found a table and spent a couple of hours there sipping on wine and listening to the live music they had that day.

OAKGLENN WINERY

Next we went to OakGlenn Winery. The wine is excellent and the views from OakGlenn are stunning. This winery is located on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. They also had live music. We stayed outside and enjoyed sipping on wine and taking int he beautiful view.

HERMAN WURST HAUS

Oh. My. This place is awesome. They have many many different flavors of bratwurst, German sausage, and bacon and many other food items. We bought a lot of wurst packs and bacon packs to bring home with us. I highly recommend getting one of your meals at Herman Wurst Haus. You can sample some of the bratwurst before you buy, too.

IN GENERAL

There are several antique stores in Hermann, which I LOVE. We went into a few of them and purchased some really unique items. Here are some pics of the downtown area and surrounding areas.

Okay, so if you’ve researched a bit about Hermann you may notice I’ve left something out. And that is the Hermann Trolley service.

It has nothing to do with the service…we just never used it so I can’t really comment on it as far as how it is to use it. I do know that they have several trolleys going around town to the wineries. It is $20 per day per person. The reason we didn’t use it is because we took a taxi to Alpenhorn Kitchen and the driver who took us offered to be our private driver the next day for the same price as the trolley! So, we did that. All we had to do was call her when we were ready to be picked up from wherever we were. It was really convenient!

We’re already talking about going back to Hermann. Hopefully, sometime this summer? That would be wonderful. We have a lot more exploring to do!