Personal Notes

1. Memories of Wine Making
2. Why wait so long to start?
3. First Observations

Wine Log

1. My first batch?
2. My second batch?

Memories of Wine Making  

My first memory of wine making was some cherry wine my father made. I remember that there was a great deal of mess and work involved. It seemed to be a very error prone, finicky process. I was only 5 or 6 at the time, so I'm sure my opinion was out of proportion to reality, but it left an impression anyway. He placed a bottle of this wine in the local community's 50 year time capsule. I intend to be there when they dig it up, but I've since learned that expecting a bottle of homemade wine to last that long is asking a lot.

My second memory of wine was when my family traveled to France for a month, I think I was 11. Everyone drank wine there and we were able to see a few home setups and tour a couple of real French wineries. I especially remember Cogniac and thinking it was interesting that they named their city after a type of liquor. These were great experiences, but it still left me with the impression that making wine was a big, expensive, laborious process better left to the French magicians that had been doing it for centuries.

My next wine memory involves my father and cherry wine again. This time I was around 13 years old and any amount of work was too much work. Somehow my father got me to pick enough cherries from a neighbor's trees for a full batch of wine, plus some for jam. I think I had gotten into trouble, as boys often do, and had to pick the cherries as a punishment. While I don't remember why I was being punished, I do remember hating every moment of picking cherries off of those damned trees.

Please don't get the idea that my father was heavy into wine. I rarely ever saw him drink, which may explain why that damned cherrie wine lasted so long. For all I know, he could have a bottle or two left, 30+ years later.

In college I acquired an appreciation for beer and wine, enough said. I couple of friends were brewing beer in their basement and displayed their knowledge and beer making equipment. They

One day, while visiting friends in Lubbock, Texas, I learned that there was a new winery