reasons for winemaking

I've yet to bottle my first batch, but I'm looking forward to trying to come up with something drinkable that I could point to and say that I helped the fruit. There are too many cheap versions of wine to do it for financial reasons in my opinion. My misspent youth enjoyed many bottles of Boones Farm Strawberry Hill, Pink Catawba, and Blue Nun. The latter being my high end stuff for fancy friends.

Alcohol has contributed to the demise of many and I think that is what has Ken concerned. I've found people who have seen the destruction first hand, particularly a loved one, find little humor deep in the bottle.

Having said that, I drink a couple glasses of someone elses wine every evening. The weekends, with dinner guests and merryment it goes much beyond that to the wobbly legs, big grin times. My frequent dinner guests are all neighbors and they walk home, so no harm, no foul. Remember, yeast is proof that God loves us and she wants us to be happy.

Ramblings and musings,

Rick

PS: There seem to be a few Ricks on this board.

The weekends, with dinner guests and merryment it goes much

I was going to say something, but i will just agree with your comments, can't remember what it was i was going to say anyway, hic. Enjoy

Tonight I gave a friend of mine a bottle of my methgelin, a brew I'm extremely proud of, it cost about £2 a bottle to make. I'm currently drinking a dram or two of £200/bottle single malt whisky that he gave me. I'd rather be drinking the methgelin, it's better ;) (But then I'd rather be drinking the £75/bottle bowmore special casking he gave me, only got a shot or two of that left though ) What a bottle costs isn't everything. How much you enjoy drinking it is. Somehow, drinking something you've made and having friends say "wow, that's good" makes a big difference.

On 7/22/2006 7:47 PM, alien wrote:

Not to derail the topic, but I very much enjoy the Bowmore 17 year old offering. It's just lovely.

I've found that it's really very difficult to get a true appraisal from friends/family/acquaintances. They don't want to say negative things about something you've hand crafted, regardless of how they really feel. I've had friends take two sips from the glass, rave about a mead of mine, and then leave it on the counter. It's a matter of taste, as mead is not like most wines. I don't take it personally when friends don't enjoy my mead, and I take it with a large grain of salt when they heap praises on my meads. Blind judging is the way to go for an unbiased appraisal, but even then the number of decent mead judges are limited. Case in point, I recently entered my mead in my homebrew club competition for the AHA COC. I took second place, and was very happy with that result. I myself judged the winning entry and gave it a 19 on a 20 point scale. It was excellent. But a significant portion of those who had judged my mead offered the advise that it would be better once it was not so young and had aged a while. Given that fact that this was a three year old mead, and (if I may be so bold as to judge my own mead) it is very well integrated and not at all likely to improve with further aging, I strongly disagree with the judges on this point. I'd far rather receive judging remarks that say that the judge felt that my mead was not well integrated, or which point out a flaw or a perceived deficiency, rather than a judging remark that attempts to guess at some facet of the mead making process or history and which may be just a wild guess with no basis in reality.

Cheers, Ken

Ken wrote; "I've found that it's really very difficult to get a true appraisal from friends/family/acquaintances. They don't want to say negative things about something you've hand crafted, regardless of how they really feel."

You never met my daughter!

"Blind judging is the way to go for an unbiased appraisal, but even then the number of decent mead judges are limited... I'd far rather receive judging remarks that say that the judge felt that my mead was not well integrated, or which point out a flaw or a perceived deficiency, rather than a judging remark that attempts to guess at some facet of the mead making process or history and which may be just a wild guess with no basis in reality."

My wine club puts on an amateur contest every year. We always have lots of meads, melomels, etc. entered and have a separate category for these honey based drinks. Several members are mead makers and act as judges. We make an effort to give meaningful feedback to those who enter the contest. We have a nice prize for mead best-of-class this year...etched glasses. Check out website

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

For me it is like woodcarving or fine art..It is taking a raw medium and creating a beautiful piece of work for all to enjoy.

Ben Franklin is rolling over in his grave.

Everyone knows that "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"

Yes, but it's still yeast doing the job and this is a wine forum so I used a bit of "Poetic License" and modified it a bit.. trying to stay on forum

I know my friends are giving me honest prase when they start bringing me sacks of bottles and expecting full ones in return!

Why do I make wine - namely good wine rather than just alcohol!

Even with the above requirements and the money I spend on ingredients and equipment, my wine is cheaper than commercial wine that I would like.

Ray

Ken,

I agree that one's friends are often overly kind in their appraisal of homemade wines. You really can't trust most feedback you get to your face; people just want to please, and they want to be supportive. Some don't even have a clue, but they're still very affirmative of your (our) efforts. They're all nice people. Just look elsewhere for constructive criticism.

I've found two things to identify worthwhile feedback:

First, if a person can give you specific, detailed points of like/dislike, and appear somewhat knowledgeable, it might be worth listening to.

Second, I do bottle counts at wine events. Sometimes I'll stand within sight of the bar and keep an eye on which wines go first, or if people return for more. Other times I'll count empty bottles afterwards (if I'm the host), to see how I did against the competition in actual usage. If done discretely, this can yield valuable feedback, or, sometimes a blow to the ego. If a stranger( who doesn't know your connection) makes a face when they taste your wine, say something like " Say, you don't seem to think much of that wine with the yellow label. What's wrong with it?" Chances are you'll hear something useful.

Ya gotta be sly.

BTW, at our July Fourth picnic, we had 22 neighbors show up. A fairly sophisticated and experienced bunch of wine drinkers for the most part. Most brought bottles of ( commercially produced ) wine, of the quality that you would want to bring as a gift. The bar was a help-yourself table at the back of the patio. The next day I counted 16 empty bottles, of which 10 were labeled "Mike's Good Wine" , and there were still a dozen commercial bottles. I figure the average person had about 3 glasses of my wine. Made me feel pretty pleased, but don't mind me. I'm just crowing a bit. ;-)

Mike MTM, Cokesbury, NJ, USA

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