Through the years I have had various opportunities to try wine made by amateur wine makers. You know those people making wine in their garages or basements? For some well respected wine makers it is the way they began their wine making career. For many it starts as a hobby and remains just that. A part time endeavor making wine for personal consumption.
Now you never know what you are going to experience when it comes to tasting homemade wine. Wine can be made from just about any fruit and through the years I have tasted wines of all different qualities from very good to undrinkable. Hey, I have had wines from legitimate wineries I found undrinkable. You just never know and that is part of the excitement of new wine experiences. So when my husband and I were invited to try some wine made by a local Douglas County resident I was absolutely game.
Dale and his wife Betty are long time area residents and have a small garage at their home devoted to wine. Dale has been dabbling in wine making for several years and currently makes Baco Noir, Pinot Noir and Merlot with grapes sourced from an established vineyard in the Melrose area of Roseburg. His “winery” is clean and organized suggesting a promising tasting experience and that is exactly how it shapes up. We start with the ’09s in the barrel and finish up with some ‘08s and ‘07s in the bottle. We even get a taste of Dales pride, an ’01 Merlot. By the third barrel sample it is obvious to my husband and me, Dale knows what he is doing and the 15 years he has spent at his hobby has paid off. He is indeed making some quality wine.
I particularly enjoyed his two pinots that included wine made from grapes off a 777 clone. These two pinots had bright fruit flavors combined with floral and earthy nuances and were delightful. Dales ‘07 Merlot was a lighter bodied Merlot packed with flavor and very well balanced. The two Baco’s were also lighter bodied with classic Baco flavors of deep, black fruit, anise and spice. Very nice and again very well balanced. Frankly, both my husband and I were quite impressed. Our thoughts were very simply, that these wines were better then some wines we have paid to taste at various wineries in our life time!
I would have loved to encourage Dale to go “pro” and start selling his wines and even start a winery. You know me…when I taste good wine I just can’t help but want everyone to have the same experience. But it doesn’t appear Dale and Betty are interested in taking his obvious abilities to the next level. But tasting Dale’s quality wine got me and my husband thinking. How many other home wine makers are out there making quality juice? How many more Dales are out there, right now under our noses making wine too good to be missed? In an area like ours rich with wine history and great grapes there has to be more. So we have started a home wine makers group called UmpquaValleyVinophiles(http://groups.google.com/group/umpquavinophile)
in hopes of flushing out other talented home wine makers. If you’re out there let us know. Lets get together and talk wine…
No comments:
Post a Comment