Between the Vines: One woman's wine-soaked musings

A hobby you can drink: Just one reason to make your own wine

By guest blogger, Pasquale Amantea

Why make your own wine?

Here in Trail, B.C., we’ve been making our own wine since a wave of Italian immigration in the mid-1900s introduced Old World traditions of winemaking to our community. At that time, Trail would import truckloads of grapes from California and vintners would create their own special blends. To continue the legacy, I took over importing grapes in 1972 and have since heard thousands of explanations why people choose to make their own wine.

In this blog I’ve compiled some of my favourite reasons as a way to encourage wine aficionados to test their hands as vintners: 

1. A great hobby that I can also drink | Winemaking is a fantastic hobby for those who love to drink wine and who also like unique vintages unavailable in stores. The great thing about homemade wine is that you can create your own blends and adjust them to your taste. Some of our favourite blends include combinations of these grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. Because of the popularity of homemade wine, there are myriad recipes online that you can use to create your own special blend.

2. It’s cost effective | As many of you may know, one bottle of wine from your local liquor store can cost anything from $9.99 to $1,000 and more, depending on the quality and brand. However, one batch of homemade wine can produce several bottles at an average cost of $11 per bottle. 

3. Bonding with friends and family | Making wine is a great way to spend time with friends and family. Here in Trail, groups will get together over dinner and ironically, wine, to prepare new vintages for the coming year. Also, we’ve seen up to three generations in one family gather to make wine, passing knowledge from generation to generation. 

Guest blogger Pasquale Amantea with boxes of imported grapes
Photo credit Brian Findlow

4. Health benefits | Many experts say that red wine in moderation can be beneficial to your health. Scientists credit antioxidants found in red wine—polyphenols, resveratrol, catechins—for helping to cut the incidence of heart disease, cancer, and inflammation in the body. 

5. A great personalized gift | The best kind of gift is one that comes from the heart, and what is more heartfelt than a few bottles of wine you’ve poured your heart (and strength!) into? In Trail, many vintners use traditional handmade Italian crushers and presses to prepare grapes for fermentation. This work requires a lot of physical strength and endurance, not to mention patience. With homemade wine you are also able to personalize not only the blend of wine but also the label, which could include a photo of your family for bottles being gifted to relatives on Christmas or a special vintage label for an individualized occasion, such as a 50^th birthday. 

Pasquale Amantea is an Italian-Canadian who lives in Trail, B.C. A home vintner for decades, he has a keen interest in all things wine and is responsible for importing grapes annually to Trail, where a large community of Italians and Portuguese make wine in their homes each year. 

Publisher's note:
Post author Pasquale Amantea, descended from a long line of winemakers, has a series of wine-related articles he'd like to share with an audience outside his backyard. I am happy to have him do that here. Opinions are his alone and facts are received as already researched. You can reach Amantea by phone at Star Grocery (250) 364-1824 or by email at [email protected].

À Votre Santé!

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Secret wine society? Seven reasons I'm an Opimian and think you should be, too

Have you heard of the Opimian Society?

It's not a secret wine society, but it doesn't make a lot of noise on its own behalf. I am, however, very happy to be a member and very happy to help spread the word.

Here are seven reasons I think you should be a member, too:

1. Opimian members have access to wines from around the world that are either exclusive to Opimian or not available to everyone, everywhere. This is exciting for me here on the west coast of Canada;
2. Prior to each ordering cycle, members receive their cellar-offering choices online and in a full-colour magazine. It's here each winery is described and tasting notes for each wine are shared;
3. If I don't want to make a decision regarding which wine to choose from this month's offerings, I can let Opimian do it for me with either the Opimian Select or Founders' Choice options;
4. Every month Opimian members receive Tidings magazine, with its myriad expert wine voices from Canada;
5. Once a year Opimians receive the Opimian Wine Review that tells us where our wines are sitting on the lay-it-down/drink-it-now scale;
6. Local Opimian chapters host excursions, dinners, and wine-tasting events; and
7. Opimians get rewarded for bringning new people to the club.

If you think you'd like to become a member of the Opimian Society, let me know and I'll refer you. And yes, for every new member I refer to Opimian I will receive a reward I can spend on wine; so will you.

Cheers all!

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Who knew Virginia had a wine country?

While I'm certain many of you did know about Virginia's wine country, I did not; at least not until during WBC10, when the location for the 2011 Wine Bloggers' Conference (WBC11) was announced.

Charlottesville, Virginia won. And I'm going. 

Charlottesville is nearly in the middle of the Monticello AVA (American Viticultural Area), which is on the edge of the Central Virginia wine region.

Here is www.VirginiaWine.org's description of the Monticello AVA:

The Monticello AVA is in the central Piedmont area. The area is nestled along the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains and encompasses the small ridge known as Southwest Mountain. It is historic in that it is home to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, where Jefferson spent years trying to grow European grape varieties.

Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Virginia
Photographer: Matt Kozlowski

Virginia has a relatively long and hopeful history in the wine-making game; in fact, there was such hope that area settlers could create a vibrant enough wine industry to become a major supplier to the British Empire that a law requiring each male settler to plant and tend at least 10 grape vines was put in place in 1619.

How's that for the power of positive thinking? I mean, it finally worked, sort of. Not the part about supplying the entire British Empire, just the part about creating a vibrant wine industry.

And I'm looking forward to taking in one small part of it during WBC11, July 22-24, thanks to a scholarship made possible by some very generous corporate and individual donors and hard-working scholarship committee members.

I'm excited to be able to learn about this wine region and its wines in just a short couple of weeks. Thank you dear scholarship-fund donors:

• Vin | 65
• Melissa Dobson
• Enobytes.com
• Cornerstone Cellars
• Cartograph Wines
• Amy Corron Power
• Debbie Lessner-Gioquindo
• Vintank
• Hahn Family Wines
• Layercake Wines
• Soirée
• Melanie Ofenloch
• Joe Herrig
• Scott Wadlow
• Doug Levy
• Megan Kenney 
• Amanda Maynard 
• Liza Swift

If you are interested in keeping tabs on hundreds of wine bloggers during the 2011 Wine Bloggers' Conference, then follow this hash tag on Twitter: #WBC11. You won't be disappointed.

Cheers to you!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Wednesday's wine word: Champagne

At the last round of writing and social media workshops I delivered to Community Futures South Fraser in Abbotsford, I was inspired to do two things by the clients who attended.

Here is one of them: A new wine word every Wednesday.

I'm not sure if we'll continue with the title, "Wednesday's wine word," or if we'll use some other configuration of the three Ws—Wednesday, wine, word. Time, as they say, will tell. Or, maybe, you will tell because you have a better idea for the regular wine-word-explanation feature on Wednesdays. Please share if you do.

Champagne

While Champagne is a sparkling wine, not all wine that sparkles is actually Champagne. Make sense? I didn't think so.

In order for a sparkling wine to be called Champagne, it must come from the area in France also called Champagne. And, it must be made in the traditional method from any combination of these three grapes: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay. If the wine is made from Chardonnay exclusively, then it is called a Blanc de Blancs; if it is made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, or a combination of the two, it is called a Blanc de Noirs. And, yes, you can have a rosé Champagne.

There are different levels of sweetness, from bone-dry to very sweet:

• Brut (very dry)
• Extra dry (just off-dry)
• Sec (medium dry)
• Doux (sweet, dessert-style sparkler)

Champagne is a delicious, albeit costly, wine that is perfect for celebrations. However, since we like to celebrate often at our house, we usually count on a much more wallet-friendly sparkling wine made in the traditional method: Cava from Spain. 

I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone.  When I have company I consider it obligatory.  I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and I drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty.

~Madame Lily Bollinger on Champagne

Cheers to you!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

No perfume while tasting wines, please

Pretty puh-lease!

I know you love your expensive, exclusive perfume. But I don't.

It's not that I don't like the smell; rather, it's that I get a screaming headache from scents, save those derived from essential oils. (Women's perfumes and scented lotions, plug-in air fresheners, and Windex are the worse culprits.)

Now, if you don't care that I have to load up with anti-histamine and pre-emptive migraine medications when I go out in public, how about if you care that your perfumes and scented lotions interfere with the pleasure of tasting wine.

That's right. They do.

I would love it if all people who organize wine events would include this line (or something like it) in their promotional material and invitations:

Thank you for refraining from wearing perfumes, scented lotions, and fragranced cosmetics. Your fellow tasters will appreciate your consideration.

Salut!

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.

Lots of familiar faces and unfamiliar wines at Marquis Wine Cellars' first food- and wine-bloggers tasting

I sure enjoyed the time we spent at Marquis Wine Cellars on Tuesday. I tasted all 18 wines but didn't get a chance to make any real notes. I always find it such a challenge to properly taste and record at events like this because I'm just so easily distracted, especially by opportunities to socialize and chat with so many lovely and wine-smart people.

Karen Laing, fellow writer and Chairman of the Board of Prospera Credit Union,
joins us for tastes at Marquis Wine Cellars' Tuesday event

Salut!

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved. 

Fellow wine writers, bloggers and lovers: please tell me how you do it

I don't know about you, but I don't remember things the way I used to. I have to write everything down these days. And that goes for my wine tasting, too.

I keep my tasting notes in a few places: a small purse-size notebook that travels with me everywhere; a spiral-bound notebook I keep in my kitchen; and a lovely journal, given to me by my dearest friend, that I keep for my special-occasion wine notes and labels. 

I know this seems rather complicated, but I haven't yet figured out a better way.

The trouble is, I have to.

You see, I've lost my little blue purse-size notebook. I've lost it before I've transcribed the notes about many of my special wines into my journal. I've lost it before I've written about certain wines in my monthly wine column in the Abbotsford News, or here on this blog, or for Palate Press. I haven't even yet tweeted about many of them. (I'm silently hoping my little blue book is sitting beside my lost Fendi eye glasses and that I'll soon find both.)

I need a better way.

Fellow wine writers, bloggers, lovers: please tell me how you do it. Keep your tasting notes, that is.

Salut!

Copyright © 2009 Kathleen Rake. All rights reserved.