Getting Tipsy at Alfalfa

You don’t need to book a flight to California for a Sideways-style adventure the moment you start to feel your mid- (or more quarter-) life crises creeping up. Recently, Bostonist was delightfully surprised to learn there are over a dozen wineries (with actual vineyards!) right in Boston’s backyard.

This whole realization came about last weekend when Bostonist was on our way to Singing Beach. While driving through Topsfield, saw a sign for Alfalfa Farm. The real eye catcher though was the sign underneath exclaiming “WINERY.” Needless to say, Bostonist became very excited and immediately pulled over.

Alfalfa Farm is a small family-owned winery that’s been in the wine business since 1974. They grow three types of grapes on the premises; Seyval Blanc (a white French-American hybrid), a Marechal Foch (key for their semi-dry red wines), and the Aurora grape (used in their crisp fruity flavored wines).

Alfalfa's weekends feature a free wine tasting for all visitors – an important reason to make the trek. After sampling everything on the table, we bought the Cranberry wine and the Chardonnay- which we suspected would go well at a BBQ or with a summer seafood dish.

Feeling friendly with a mild buzz going, and two bottles in stow for later, we were off to finally make it to the beach. If you have access to wheels, you can make a fabulous little wine-tasting trip outside of Boston to try the Bay State’s (surprisingly lovely) local wines. A little known secret- Martha's Vineyard only has one, Chicama – founded in the seventies.

Post contributed by Victoria Daskal