My Corner Online
River Ridge Winery
River Ridge Winery, Oct 2020
River Ridge Winery is located at 850 County Road 321, Scott City, Missouri, but to us it is really Commerce. There are several ways to get to it from Cape Girardeau and we tend to take different routes each time. It is about a half hour drive from Cape Girardeau. GPS will get you there, but we tend to take ourselves first to either downtown Scott City or down Highway 55 towards the Benton exit, taking Highway E towards Commerce, before we follow the GPS. Sometimes we like to drive through the old town of Commerce where some of hubby's family used to live. It is fun to imagine it as a bustling riverfront town back in the day. We also like to stop at the Mississippi River and walk down to it. The above video includes a bit of the river walk and the winery, so I included it on both pages.
Jerry and Joannie Smith are the original owners and Jerry was a hoot and really made the experience of visiting the winery. He would take time to visit all of the tables personally, telling jokes, and would even sit down and chat with complete strangers for a while. He made you feel welcomed and at home. In 2016 Rob and Denise Bullock purchased the winery and although it is still a good winery to visit, it is not quite the same without Jerry.
Our first visit was April 26, 2008 and we were fortunate enough to have had a visit from Lucky Dog himself! We had picked out the wine named after him as the one we liked best during the tasting and then he came to visit us.
I found this photo interesting because this is before all of the seating on the terrace (which is the grass on the right side of this photo) was built. I normall do not include us on our website, but I liked seeing the before photo.
This is a tour of the winery. It was not too exciting and was a small room behind the main building.
We were invited to walk up the driveway to visit the vineyard. We walks almost up to the house where the owners lived, but stopped just short. I remember enjoying the quiet walk. In later years we were not allowed to go to the vineyard.
I love May apples! Apparently I found some on our walk.
On September 4, 2017, we took a trip down to Commerce to hunt in the cemetery and decided to visit the winery to finish out our day. I am sure we have visited this winery many more times than I have found photos to share. Here you can see the terrace. We usually like to sit on the terrace. There are also lights. They often have good music at this winery.
On October 20, 2020, as shown the the above video, we visited the river and then the winery just for a day out.
