Posted by Jim at July 31st, 2006

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while may remember a post about making wine.

In it I imagined the horrors likely to result if Kristen actually followed through on her idea of making wine as a hobby. I’m more enthusiastic about the idea now.  This is largely because the wines have been drinkable–good, in fact.

So far Kristen has made:
Concord Grape Wine: We have concord grapes growing in our backyard. Thus, this was inevitable. Oddly enough, the year that she decided to make wine for the first time, we had a mysteriously small number of grapes, forcing her to buy the majority from the store. Last year, we had more grapes than we needed (by far). Thus, I’ll be able to taste wine from our own grapes for the first time in a few months.

Spiced Apple Wine: This one turned out a little oddly. Made from a mix of apples picked at Crane’s Orchard near Fennville, it had a hard time beginning to ferment. When it did finally start fermenting, it really went. It had a slightly sour flavor, a high alchohol content, bubbles in the glass, and the cork popped like it was coming out of a champagne bottle.

Sweet Mead: As someone who read Norse mythology as a kid, I always wondered what mead was and what it tasted like. It turns out that there are various types of mead and that its pretty easy to make. With grapes after all, you’ve got to crush the things. With mead, you just have to pour honey out of a jar. Personally, this has been my favorite so far.

Coming up this year:
Strawberry wine
Concord grape wine
Peach brandy
Metheglyn (possibly): It’s mead, but with spices.