A Half-baked Tourist Attraction
Our reporter visited this 'Strange Scottish Winery' and enjoyed it immensely - read on to find out more:The drive from Edinburgh to Errol, in Fife, took about an hour. Once there we struggled to find ‘Cairn O’Mohr’ and had to ask the way at the local butcher’s shop.
When at last we found it, the word ‘eccentricity’ sprang immediately to mind. ‘Cairn O’Mohr’ is promoted as ‘The strange Scottish Winery - The Half-baked Tourist Attraction’. Decorating it with African-influenced paintings and sculptures, Judith and Ron, the owners of this fruit winery, have enhanced this image.
Beginning our tour with a ‘tasting’, we dubiously sipped alcoholic and non-alcoholic ‘Oakleaf’ and ‘Elderflower’, finding it surprisingly tasty, fresh and light.
‘I’d like to explore Rhubarb wine with haggis this year’ Judith said, in a heavy Scots accent, ‘and our best-selling Elderberry goes well with oatcakes and cheddar.’
‘The faces are breeding nicely. It gives people something to look at’ Judith told us, as we passed the sculptures outside and headed for the barn. She showed us round each part of the winery, explaining every element of the process.
There are six wines in the basic range, 2 white, 2 rose and 2 red, plus limited edition wines. These range from dry to sweet and from £5 to £8 and all are made with fruit grown in the Dundee region.
‘Our wines stand up on their own. They’re not like grape wines, they’re developed for social drinking.’ Judith explained.
The Winery has been in business since 1987 and now produces around 120 000 bottles per year. Learning their trade through books and ‘trial and error’, winemaking was an eight-year hobby before the business was set up. Cairn O’ Mohr have created ‘one-offs’ for special events in the past. ‘We’ll go bananas for the Millennium’ was one slogan used. ‘Have you no heard of Fife’s bananas?’ asked Judith with a wry smile.
This abounding sense of humour, ability to laugh at themselves and the ‘half-baked’ image of the place makes it completely unique and worth a visit for entertainment value alone, plus the wine is good too.