More on Home Made Wines

Earlier I had written about some memories of making home made wine as a kid. Today, I attended a lovely family function. One of my cousins had brought a few bottles of his "home made" wine, which he makes with a few friends. He once brought several bottles to a function at my house but being the host I never got around to tasting it. However, I had heard nothing but praise about it. Therefore, I was anxious to try it this time. It was a very good red wine. It was slightly dry with a good amount of fruitiness to it.

I asked my cousin about his methods. He told me that he blends three kinds of grapes: cabernet, sangiovese and I think he said canberra. The wine is roughly 60% cabernet and 30% sangiovese with a little of the third grape, He sometimes uses merlot grapes, but he said they were a bit sensitive and can go bad. The grapes are from California.

His methods are not as I described in my previous post about home made wines. This a first class operation with stainless steel equipment and French oak barrels. The care given to the process is evident in the quality of the wine. He told me that he and his friends have made white wines in the past, but that they were not of good quality. He mentioned that another cousin of ours makes excellent white wine.

He told me about the place where he buys his grapes and other supplies and equipment. It is a place that caters to hobbyists liek himself. He said that it is a growing business as wine and beer making are becoming increasingly popular in his area.

Gino da Pinot?

There was an Associated Press article in the Boston Globe the other day (here is a link to the article from another source) about wines with unusual and/or fun names. My favorite (for some unknown reason!) was the one called Gino da Pinot. The Italian word "da" essentially means "by" which would seem to indicate that the name is a little backwards. Perhaps that is part of the fun. The wine, a Pinot Noir, is from California's Monterrey County and I have seen at least some good reviews. Since I plan to be in Monterrey County in December, I may have to check it out.

I thought I would take this opportunity to just throw in some random thoughts since I have not posted in a while. We had a wonderful vacation a couple of weeks ago (part of the reason for the lack of posts). It started with a terrific family reunion in San Diego (and included visits to both Petco Park and the Zoo). We had a wonderful train ride on the Pacific Surfliner from San Diego to Ventura. It was a very scenic ride along the coast. (Travel tip: I opted for business class which was $17 per person more. For the extra money we got reserved seats, bigger and more comfortable seats, coffee and Danish in the morning, and a :snack pack and glass of wine after noon -- well worth the extra money). After a night in Ventura at the beautiful newly-expanded home of my brother-in-law and his family, we rented a car and drove to Arroyo Grande with stops at the Brander and Melville wineries (after tasting 14 wines, my wife drove the rest of the way to Arroyo Grande). We then spent three nights in the beautiful and comfortable home of my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. We had great dinners at their home, plus at a wonderful restaurant overloking Morro Bay. We also had a lovely lunch with yet another sister-in-law and brother-in-law at Avila Beach. Not to be overlooked, we spent three hours at Starbucks with my wife's parents, including the infamous BG, who sold wines for many years and has commented on this site.

One other tidbit I would like to mention. Yesterday, our local paper had an article about a winery in our area. While I still have not yet visited the local Westport winery (about an hour away), I now need to add this other one (10 minutes away) to the list.

Finally, I did receive a suggestion about this blog. It was that I should not continue to take pictures of the wine bottles in the same setting, but I should use different settings to make it more interesting. I think it is a good suggestion and will do so from now on. I should mention, however, that I have already taken pictures of several bottles that I have not yet written about so will still the same setting for a while yet.