Boldly Go Solo

Specialty beers, cars from the good old days and relaxing massage. This is Hershey, Pa.?

Children and chocolate. That is what most people think when they think Hershey, Pennsylvania.

But it's entirely possible to have a grown-up weekend in the town that chocolate built.

Mine involved visits to a winery, a brewery, a spa, an outlet mall and an antique car museum. All for a travel story for The Burg, a monthly community newspaper for Harrisburg, Pa.

I've written about Hershey way more times than I need to count. Somehow I keep ending back there! Each trip has been fun...and different. Including a falconry  experience.

This time, I started at the spa in The Hotel Hershey. In the parking lot, I could see the roller coasters of the nearby amusement park and Chocolate World in the distance. But those were two places I bypassed all weekend.

Mason-Dixon Wine Trail in Pennsylvania. Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as Pennsylvania wine

"When tasting wine, connoisseurs hold their glasses up to the light to look at the wine’s color and clarity. I don’t always know what I’m supposed to see, but at Naylor Wine Cellars in Pennsylvania, I held up my white wine and it was crystal . . . No. I have to say that it was most definitely cloudy. Very clearly cloudy."

That's how today's Washington Post story, called A winemaking and tasting tour through Pa. and Md., begins.  

Wine in Pennsylvania? Most certainly. 26 on this particular "wine trail," with several wineries in Maryland included. The trail is rather circular, surrounding York, PA, in every direction.  

I went with a friend during the 8th annual Tour de Tanks event, which is how we got into all the back rooms. It runs until the end of March, every Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., except for Easter Sunday.

Whether the wines compare to California or Italian or New Zealand wines... Who am I to say? I like what I like and I'm no connoisseur. You'd have to taste for yourself. 

My friend "L," a Harrisburg, Pa. resident, says I missed two really good wineries. One is the The Vineyard at Hershey in Middletown, whose wines "have brought Pennsylvania wines to a whole new level," he says.