The blueberry won third place in class. Not bad to ribbon the first time I've entered a competition. There were 148 wines competing overall. I have a picture, but my home puter motherboard blew and it will be a couple more days before the replacement puter arrives. I also learned how they set the rules for fruit. it must be from the last year's crop - which means my young strawberry can be entered again next year, since it is this year's crop.
I've been making my wine the way I like it - but now I know what the fair judges look for. Oak is out. I like a semi-sweet, but that has to be entered as sweet in the local contest. The judges are looking for SUH-WEET in that category, not semi-sweet. I like a medium body wine. The winning fruit wine was a blueberry as well, and the woman who made that told me she pressed the berries (a practice discouraged in the blueberry recipes I have seen), resulting in a wine so densely colored that regular room light would not pass through the bottle. I talked to another winemaker who says he uses "at least 75 pounds of fruit" for each 5-gallon batch he makes. That's off the chain, man!
I am a big winner, though, by meeting an older fella who seems to be the king of winemakers in the area. He has a couple acres of muscadines, so I went and picked 60 pounds Sunday. He has been making wine since the early '70s. Got to see his dedicated winery, complete with 8-by-10 corkboard chock full of blue and red ribbons from years of past fairs. I got to taste samples of his wines that won the two best overall fair rosettes. He has lots of equipment, including a crusher he says he'll lend me. Lots of fun! Looks like the beginning of a friendship.
Plus, with the muscadines in my freezer now, I am going to get to make the recipe given to me by a moonshiner's wife.
On the labels and etc., the county where I live is 520 square miles but only has 34,000 people in it, so having a label would definitely invite favoritism of friends, or at least the appearance of that. Plus, with my new friend entering every class every year and also helping out in conducting the event (he does not judge), that would not look good if they were identified. All names are obscured, too. The bottles are only identified by a number on a tag and on the cork.
Thanks for the pair!
