I recently wrote about working on my second batch of home made wine.  The Sangiovese & Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from California have been crushed, de-stemmed and had the yeast added.  The “must” is now fermenting away and based on the quality of the fruit, we are hopeful for our second vintage.

But today I want to write about year 1.  We decided upon things pretty late, which meant we were left to settle for whatever fruit was left.  We ended up picking up some Zinfandel that we were pretty excited about as well as some merlot that we were a little less excited about.  We  did our thing and the result was WINE.  How good was it you ask?  Good question.  It was youthful, simple, but seemed OK.  We were much happier with the Zinfandel than we were with the merlot.  But rather than spilling out the merlot we decided to try a Zin/Merlot blend.  It seemed to work so we bottled it and PRAYED…

And you know what…???…it ain’t half bad.  Yes, it is a simple wine.  No, it is not age-worthy.  Yes, a lack of sulfites (good and bad) means a bottle open for more than 24 hours is vinegar and not wine.  But hey, if consumed within a few hours of opening the bottle it truly tastes pretty good.  Nice fruit.  Soft & round.  A nice wine.  SO, my big test.  I went to a party tonight and brought a bottle.  And people LOVED IT.  Everyone was super impressed that I (with my two partners) MADE this wine.  I was such a proud (psuedo) winemaker!

Happy home made wine tasting!

WTG