Sunday Funday! at Summit Lake

From many viewpoints, you can't see much of the highway, if any,
but you can hear it. And yet, so what? It's a winery. Just go there.

Sundays at Summit Lake Winery, just two miles across the river from Jefferson City, are known as Sunday Funday! On the Sunday of our visit, the day was living up to its designation. The restaurant was packed, and the staff was swamped, but one friendly woman, whose name I neglected to write down, paused to pour for us.

Buy one appetizer on Sunday Funday! and get a second one at half price, the winery’s website says. Even better reasons exist for a stop — the Norton, for starters. It was typically astonishing, living up to expectations set on our central Missouri tour of top-notch wineries. Maybe I had become jaded with this embarrassment of riches; in any case, I was Nortoned out. I went for two lighter reds: St. Martin, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Chambourcin; and Ideal With Friends, a semi-dry St. Vincent that will be perfect for a summer evening.

The winery is on a bluff overlooking U.S. 54. You can hear the roar of the trucks and sport utilities barreling down the highway. Still, it’s a great resource for the Jeff City area. I wish we had a winery on a bluff overlooking Springfield — a winery that had Sunday Fundays!, that dispensed a richly complex Norton and a pleasant summer red. How about that hill southeast of town where the KWTO sign used to be? Perfectly situated for the view and the traffic roar. Just add Norton.