A Passion for Winemaking Begins

I made my first wines in high school

     In high school, I was a straight-laced, nerdy geek: studying ferociously for tests, memorizing geography and history, and always trying to get A+/100 scores. It was a drive for perfection that I inherited quite honestly. As other kids were amusing themselves by playing sports and goofing off, I was having fun with education.

     As it turns out, I also had a deep fascination with math and science. Ninth grade Algebra and Chemistry went so smoothly that I headed full steam ahead into Trigonometry and Biology the following year. My brain couldn’t get enough of solving problems, using formulas, and learning what made the world tick. There seemed to be a new learning adventure waiting for me every time I flipped a page in my text books.

     One day, I showed up for tenth grade Biology with Mr. Grulich and my life changed forever. You see, that day is the day that Mr. Grulich taught us about microbiology: tiny, microscopic creatures that couldn’t be seen, but comprised a totally invisible universe unto themselves. As Mr. Grulich talked about Louis Pasteur and the visible discovery of microbes through the use of microscopes, the inevitable subject of fermentation came up. By using microscopic creatures, men and women were able to create wine and beer.

     Wow! This was a revelation that blew my mind. As an artist uses paint and canvas to create paintings, as a cook uses raw vegetables and meat to create dinner, a winemaker could use grapes and yeast to create wine? All you needed was yeast and sugar? Well, that was enough information for me to start my own experiment at home in my lockable armoire!

     Being a cook for quite some time already, I looked around the kitchen at home for something, anything to make wine with. I found bread yeast. Microbes. CHECK! Scouring the freezer turned up some frozen orange juice. After adding warm water to this, I enthusiastically blended in some white sugar from the pantry. Fruit and sugar. CHECK! I then rehydrated the yeast and added it to the sugary orange juice mixture. Finally, I funneled the frothy orange concoction into a clean milk jug and added a balloon to the top, placing it into my armoire. My covert fermentation operation was officially underway.

     Now, all I had to do was wait. This was a time in my life when my mother repeatedly verbalized that “Patience is a Virtue.” I had no idea what she was talking about, and it took me decades to learn what she meant. I constantly checked my experiment, sometimes up to four times per day. I watched it transform from a lifeless, cloudy liquid to a boiling effervescent life form, inflating the balloon to its max. Eventually, the balloon deflated and there seemed to be no more activity. It must be ready to drink, I concluded.

     I poured myself a big glass of still fizzy “wine” and sipped it slowly on the couch. Surely, the wine was going to make me feel a certain way. How long does it take to feel anything? What will it feel like? Blind faith coupled with scientific enthusiasm kept me sipping, and sipping, and sipping. I had no answers to any of these questions, but I did know one thing immediately: it tasted absolutely awful! It was yeasty and acidic and made me feel horrifically bloated.

     I wasn’t feeling any specialness from this beverage, until I stood up: BOOM, it hit me! I felt pleasantly light headed and more than a little loopy. It felt like going around on a merry-go-round and feeling the high of extreme dizziness. Wow! Intoxication was a different feeling altogether, and I enjoyed it.

     By this time, it had gotten dark and started raining. I was quickly getting hungry; my first case of the “wine munchies”. I decided to ride my bike a couple of miles to get a burger and satisfy my cravings. When I got on my bike, the real adventure began. It was one my best bike rides ever, racing through huge rain puddles, tripped out by the reflections of lights on the wet streets, and drunk ordering through the drive-thru. What a great time. My first wine “trip” ever.

     I was hooked, but only for a short time. Again, patience wasn’t a virtue quite yet in my life. After finishing the Orange Wine, I moved on to one more batch: this time the featured frozen juice concentrate was Welch’s Grape juice. That was to be the end of my winemaking in New York State. More winemaking adventures were to re-appear for me in Denver, Colorado. But, that’s another story for this Colorado winemaker…