I should not have been surprised with the apple wine as Davenport has acres of apple trees in their orchard. Carloads of families pulled into the small parking lot (located just a half mile north of the 1900 street exit off highway 10) with their brown paper sacks and small boxes, ready to pick apples. A tractor pulled wagon carted people out to the designated apple picking area and returned them when their sacks were full. If a family forgot their sacks, they could use some of the small boxes provided at Davenport. The grape picking season had already ended, so we did not have the opportunity to pick our own grapes in their five acre vineyard.

As people returned from the apple picking, several groups joined us in the wine tasting. We started with the dry wines and progressed to the sweeter wines. Charlee, who declined to be in any of my pictures, explained the process for creating the various wines and proudly shared that they were recently features in Wine Spectator magazine. Red and blue award ribbons hung in display around the hand hewn walnut tasting bar. I would love to have this walnut bar in my house!

I had to laugh at one of the signs posted by the cash register. "Please don’t be offended if we ask for your ID. We’re getting old and don’t see as well." With a location so close to the University of Kansas, I suspect they’ve had their share of underage students attempting to buy wine.

Most of the bottles of wine cost either $7.00 or $7.50 (this is Kansas, not California!) The apple wine was only $5.00 and my favorite wine, a dry red that had been aged in oak, cost $14.00. Reasonable prices for a local product.

The tasting room is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 4pm to 7pm and again on the weekends from 1pm - 5pm. Apple picking hours can be obtained by calling 785.542.2278.