Quote:
Having come from an area where
"Wine" meant
"Grape", the
"Professionals" frequently looked down their noses at fruit or country wines. But, there are those Winemakers (grape) who understand the difficulty of making a nice country wine, and they respect us hobbyists for doing it. I've had a lot of help from some of them. We have made some Cabernet and Zinfandel, but now we are in Washington, we don't find so much grape crop available anymore.
I have tasted some really wonderful country wines, and also some bad ones. Same with
Bought wines. I do enjoy some commercial wines; but at this time we are trying to make
most of our wines ourselves, just as we are trying to grow
most of our own "meat" (chicken, duck, rabbit, goat, and we trade for elk).
So you may be surprised by the wines you make. You probably could win awards if you chose to enter any shows. It's true, we all have different tastes, but with so many fruits and veggies we can make wine with, there's going to be something to suit everyone.
The only reason we entered shows in the first place, was we were new at it. We had joined a club to learn how (fruit winemaking is a bit different than grape), and our club encouraged us to enter. They all said it was a good way to learn techniques, and how to improve our winemaking skills. The judges makes note and you get to read the notes after the show. We learned a lot, but now, like you, we just do it for ourselves (and good friends who may stop by).