At the urging of my friend, Paul Welke, I’ve begun making my own wine in my basement.  I’ve picked up a variety of equipment second-hand (Kijiji is a great service, BTW), as well as buying a few items new (and I will be borrowing a few things from my parents, also).  Part of the appeal of this hobby is that it’s dollars a bottle, rather than tens of dollars.  According to the person I talked to at Winning Wines Plus (on the southside), a $75 winekit will make a wine at a $20-30/bottle quality for about $4/bottle.

Truth be told, the actual process of making the wine (at least thus far) is boring.  You mix water, grape (or other fruit) juice with “Package A”.  Take a hydrometer reading, record.  Cover the primary fermenting vessel and wait for at least a week.  Take another hydrometer reading.  Once the hydrometer gives you the appropriate reading, transfer the wine to a different vessel, and wait for several weeks.

Yea.  Not much goes on there.  However, I hope that through making a variety of kits and working through this process, I can start developing a greater understanding of how the wine develops and perhaps make my own changes to the wine-kits to tweak them more to my liking.

And of course, there’s also Beer to be made.  That process sounds a bit more exciting.

Earlier this year, I made the conscious decision to take up wine as a hobby.  I consider myself fairly lucky on that front, as Emily’s parents are also enjoy wine, which gives me the opportunity to try a lot more than I’d normally have the opportunity to try.  This also means I get to look over older issues of various wine magazines and the like when they are done with them.  Saves me the money that I’d potentially spend on these sorts of things, especially given my track record with reading magazines.

However, I did invest in a book about wine (Wine for Dummies, if you must know), which I have read bits and pieces of to help me understand various wine terminologies as I come up to things I don’t quite understand.  Even though I’ve been doing reading on wine and all that sort of thing – I’m still not all that sophisticated in my tasting of the actual products.

I can follow the ‘procedure’ for wine tasting, but when it comes right down to it, I’m not really that good at describing the taste or smell of the wine that I’m tasting.  It could just be experience (or lack of).  I don’t know.  It doesn’t bother me all that much though.  When it comes right down to it, either I like the wine or I don’t.

So, with that said, I’ve recently had a few wines that I’d like to recommend to you.

First is from Cono Sur’s Viognier (2007) from Chile.  I really enjoyed this wine.  I found it to be very easy to drink.  Can’t beat the price either as it goes for around $12. 

I also had an inkling for a Rose (and by that, I mean it was hot out and I didn’t really want a white).  Emily picked out a bottle from Capcanes Montsant, Mas Donis Roset 2007 (~$23) from Spain for me, and I was quite pleased with it.  I enjoyed drinking this wine, though I did note that the flavor could have been a bit fuller.

Finally, I think I’ve noted this wine before, but Gazela’s Vinho Verde (2007, Portugal) is really enjoyable.  A slight carbonation makes the wine tickle your tongue in very good ways.  Another easy drinking wine that is excellent for enjoying with people on a patio.  Again, very affordable, ~$13.

So, I like my wine.  Maybe I can’t tell you what flavors I taste or smell, but I don’t care and neither should you.