When you think of vineyards and wine tours the first thing that probably comes to mind is Napa and the last thing that comes to mind is Southern Illinois. I thought the same thing, until I visited Southern Illinois for the great American eclipse and found the most charming vineyard along the Shawnee Hill Wine Trail.
We set out with a mission to view the eclipse once we knew that Carbondale in Southern Illinois would experience one of the longest periods of totality during the eclipse, a whole 2 minutes and 41 seconds to be exact. Carbondale is about 5 hours straight south from Chicago and a pretty easy drive. We knew we wanted to view the eclipse away from a large city and without thousands of people around. We ended up finding Orlandini Vineyard in Makanda, IL. They were a small winery offering a Total Eclipse of the Vines viewing experiences. To our delight they were only selling 150 tickets and their property was nestled in the back country roads where not many people would be on.
I’ll be honest we had no expectations for the actual winery because we didn’t even know Illinois had wineries. When we arrived we were blown away at the property, staff and wines they had to offer. The winery dates back to 1988 when its first vines were planted and is set on several acres of property. The property has a small tasting room with a huge back deck that looks over an amazing pond. The pond is out of a storybook, with large old trees circling the pond and over-sized chairs perfect for sipping wine and relaxing on a hot summer day. The property is lined with gorgeous rows of vines growing luscious grapes. They produce all types of wines; red, white and rose, with some of the grapes grown on their property and some borrowed from the surrounding wineries. They offer three reds; 2013 Reserve Chambourcin, Rosso Gustoso and Saluki Red and two whites; Saluki White and 2014 Vidal and a blush Saluki Blush. The Saluki wines are an ode to the local university’s mascot and the white is delicious, we bought a few bottles to take home.
The actual viewing of the eclipse took place on the grand lawn in front of the property. All around us were lush trees and rolling hills with the sun took the center stage. Everyone lined up their chairs and we sat watching the eclipse with our viewing glasses on and waited for totality. In the moments before totality the air became cool and still, the temperature dropped about 15 degrees. The sky began to look like dusk, with beautiful glow and totality inched in. For 2 minutes and 41 seconds I looked at the sky with my bare eyes in total awe, not believing what I was seeing. The entire winery erupted in cheers and clapping, we were witnessing one of the most amazing natural events in the world. Not only was it amazing to see, but it was also emotional, which was surprising. I had chills and was choked up to be witnessing such beautiful sight. For those minutes nothing else in the world mattered, there were bigger things going on, the moon was passing in front of the sun! It’s something I don’t think about daily and probably haven’t since grade school science, but there is a whole universe out there that moves and functions every day as life goes on here on Earth, it’s absolutely amazing.
When totality ended, we donned the viewing glasses again, checked out the sun as the eclipse finished up and went back to everyday life. And boy did everyday life settle in quickly, we spent the next 13 hours in the car trying to get back to Chicago! It was excruciating, but totally worth it to see a the full eclipse.
If you missed this eclipse this time around there will be another one coming up in seven years on April 8, 2024. If you are near the path of totality I highly suggest you go and see it. It will be one of the best things you ever see in your life and you won’t be disappointed.
We weren’t able to make it to the other wineries on the Shawnee Hill Wine Trail, but the trail has about 40 miles of winding country roads and small wineries along the way. We weren’t able to visit these wineries on this trip, but would hit them up on our next trip down. Check them out below;
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