Grandpa's Footsteps

[GrandpasFootsteps]

In honor of my first (and highly successful) bottling party (17 gallons!) this past weekend, my 73 year old uncle produced a bottle of my grandfather's homemade raspberry wine.

Now many of you may have seen my introductory post on here about how my grandfather, who died in 1992 at the age of 92, is my inspiration for this hobby. My family loves that I'm doing this and they talk to me frequently now about my grandfather's winemaking days.

Back to the raspberry wine. He made it from scratch in a closet in Houston. The bottle we opened this weekend is 36 years old. And it tastes simply incredible. It is strongly, or at least tastes strongly, alcoholic. The sugars have turned almost like syrup, they stick to your tongue in a good way. It doesn't have a burn but it has a alcohol fumes in the aroma. It has significant legs & arches, but since it tastes a bit "thick" it may be a result of that. It has good acid and is very weak on tannins - although I imagine 36 years would have mellowed it significantly. It wasn't spoiled at all despite many summers and winters of temperature fluctuations in an air conditioned attic room. Reminds me a sweet cognac.

My uncle will probably not live another 36 years, but he took 6 bottles of my freshly bottled wine and added it to the dwindling cellar (attic) stock of my grandfather's wine.

I am very proud.

 

[Wade E]

Awesome story and thanks for sharing!!!!

 

[jtstar]

awsome great job

 

[closetwine]

Great story! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Mikael]

that was awesome!!!!!!!!

winemaking is such a wonderful family tradition...what i am going to do in a form of carrying on my papa's work is when we go to barrel the wine in october...i am going to pour a bottle of his wine to intermingle with it as a way of caryying the wine into the next generation. thank you for sharing that great story!!!!!

 

[closetwine]

that was awesome!!!!!!!!

winemaking is such a wonderful family tradition...what i am going to do in a form of carrying on my papa's work is when we go to barrel the wine in october...i am going to pour a bottle of his wine to intermingle with it as a way of caryying the wine into the next generation. thank you for sharing that great story!!!!!

Thats awesome Mik!

This is what winemaking should be... a family tradition!

 

[docanddeb]

VERY cool!!

Debbie

 

[Minnesotamaker]

I hope that I am lucky enough to leave some wine behind when I go. What a nice remembrance when family can get together and share one of your grandfather's contributions to the family.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

G'pasteps, maybe some of your wine will be shared by your family and future generations as well.

Mik, what a wonderful way of honoring your papa's memory.

Lon, hope you're not in a rush to leave behind some of your wine! Haha!