Saying good-bye to Maine with style

Sean and I have found a favorite new place to go when we're in Maine. Once a month the Lucerne Inn has a wine tasting dinner. When we went to the last one we saw they were having a Fall Festival to raise money for a lady that works there that has terminal cancer. It was a wine/beer tasting event so we decided to check it out. The theme was fall flavors and drinks. I didn't know they made so many different seasonal flavors in beer. The event was on our last night in Maine for the season. When we pulled up they had these cute pumpkins lit up that spelled out "The Lucerne Inn". This place is so cute and a wonderful wedding location - there was actually a wedding going on that evening. Of course it didn't compare to my wedding location (heehee).

Once we got in we saw there were several tables with different drinks and food to taste. We started out with the beer and ended with the wine. We sprinkled in the snacks throughout. Here's my take on all the things we tasted. Before you freak out it really was a taste so it looks worse then it was.

Sam Adams Light - Yummy! Will have to have this again when I feel like a beer
Sam Adams Coastal Wheat - not my favorite at all
Sam Adams Octoberfest - it was ok
Sam Adams Winter Lager - ICK!
Lindeman's Cassis - Black Currant flavored beer - very yummy!!
Lindeman's Framboise - Raspberry flavored beer - good
Lindeman's Kreike - Cherry flavored beer - extra yummy! It was like drinking a cough drop
Lindeman's Peche - Peach flavored beer - good too
Estrella Damm Inedit - a cross between a beer and a white wine - odd - but it could have been that we tasted it after tasting all the fruity Lindeman's (which tasted more like fruit then beer)
Magic Hat - Roxy Rolles - like drinking a micro brew - yuck
Southampton Pumpkin Ale - like drinking a pumpkin pie. you must try it if you can find it near you. was so good but couldn't drink too many at once
Sea Dog - Pumpkin - kinda nutmeg taste. wouldn't drink again.
Shipyard Pumpkinhead - kinda cinnamon taste. wouldn't drink again.
Gearys - Autumn - icky microbrew
Gritty's - Halloween - not as bad as Gearys but still a microbrew (yuck)
Ayinger - Octoberfest - nice and light and flavorful
Spaten - Octoberfest - heavier then Ayinger but still pretty good

Then we headed to the wines. Here's Sean posing with our red wine.

Kunde Zinfandel - California - good but not the best CA Zin I've had.
Root 1 Carmenere - Chile - very interesting - earthy flavor (but not like dirt)
Spanish Sons Tempranillo - Spain - earthy flavors (AKA tastes like dirt)
Red Rock Merlot - California - tasty
Louis Martini Cabernet Sauvignon - Australia - Napa California - not bad but a cab (which isn't my favorite)
Bridgewood Syrah - California - heavy

When I was in France a few years ago I learned about Kir Royal and really enjoyed it. At the wine table they were making a form of this drink like this:
1 Part Quady Elysium - California
3 Part Yellow Tail Sparkling - Australia

I ended the evening with a couple of these. In case you thought I remembered all this on my own then you don't know me very well. They actually gave us a handout with all the items and I jotted down some notes so I would remember later which ones I liked. Sean ended the evening with the one Port on the tasting menu and it ended up being the funniest notes I wrote down.

Sean: Needs a good cigar.
Tonya: You could light your mouth on fire and reminds me of when we were in Greece and got free wine cuz we tipped.

I just loved this ad they had hanging on the wall. The best part is the fine print at the bottom. In case you can't read it, it says "Available only while the weather sucks." LOVE IT!

They also had a "putting green" where you could donate money and you got 3 chances to make it into the pumpkin's mouth. Of course Sean had to try. He thinks now that he can technically play golf all year round that he's pretty good.

To my surprise he made one! Here he is with the prize he picked out. Big shock he picked a Sam Adams sign to hang in the bar in Maine. You can also see the cute pumpkins they had lit up to mark the tables in this picture.

So you don't think it was all about the drinking, there was food too. The food at the Lucerne Inn we have always found to be so good. The chef there is amazing. Here's some of the items we had.

Corned Beef
Sausage
Pumpkin/Squash Soup
Cheese and Crackers
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Apple/Cranberry Spice Cake - my absolute favorite!!! I could have eaten the entire tray!!!

We ended the night with Sean doing what he does - taking a computer apart. In case you've never seen the inside of a desktop computer I thought I'd through this picture in. He was helping one of his friends add some additional memory to their computer.

I hope this inspires you to look around your local area and see what fall flavors are out there and try them out. But keep this in mind - it was told to us by a lady at the event. "Never mix the grain with the grape."