We stumbled across a winery that had a red wine that was off the charts, at least in their frozen slushi machine.
Wife and several of our friends fell in love with it. Winery went bankrupt... an interesting story all by itself, but I may have had a hand in their closing. Owner after closing the night we were there, had a very personal and very long conversation with us. We were lit before he showed up, and 4+ hours later... sigh. I gave him some management advise he probably didn't want to hear.
Anyway, i was given the task to create a red wine several women fell in love with. i said, if I do this the label will feature you all, sans clothes
They agreed!!!
I contacted the owner of Finer Wine Kits (I was an early customer), and said I know nothing about this wine, can't tell you what it's made from, but I have a task to recreate it. Based on several back and forth he recommended his new creation "Family Affair". I ordered ONE batch, and as it came out of primary, I knew I nailed it. Several week later, I set up a taste test with various levels of sweetness and compared it to my LAST bottle from the commercial winery, now out of business.
At first the women were trying to compare it to the commercial wine and I had to check them and tell me which version, including the commercial you like better. As a group, they felt #4 in sweetness was closest to the commercial wine. Me personally thought it still wasn't sweet enough to match. BUT, once I gave them the new instructions, everybody (including me) liked #3. Two of us, including me, liked no added sweetness. Me personally, I prefer a very heavy bold red wine. Wife dislikes it.
So, on to the label... Three nude women, eldest sitting on a large turtle, the other two on either side. Doing it over, I'd put my wife on the left side, and I made the mistake of having her present the wrong leg forward... it is what it is. Anyway, it was beautiful overcast day, and I don't have my camera equipment anyway, but the iPhone took an acceptable pic. I set it up with a sepia filter, and named the wine "Framily Affair", (friends that are family)
Bottling day came, and OMFG, this is a freaking awesome wine. I sweetened it with cane sugar, I was literally out of corn sugar that I normally use. I still prefer my Cab/Zin/Bourbon barrel wine, but this is a lighter smoother slightly sweetened wine. I had one issue where the sweetener hadn't gotten will mixed in and I tasted a sample at the beginning of bottling and again at the end of bottling, dramatic difference. I apologized to my wife as we decorked every single bottle and dumbed them all into a carboy.
After the first batch came out of primary, I immediately ordered batch two. It will sit in secondary all winter. I'm trying to scale down the number of different wines we make, so this complicates things a lot. I'm guessing Super Tuscan wine will get the boot. I will probably order two more of this wine next spring.
Thanks for reading through my meanderings
Wife and several of our friends fell in love with it. Winery went bankrupt... an interesting story all by itself, but I may have had a hand in their closing. Owner after closing the night we were there, had a very personal and very long conversation with us. We were lit before he showed up, and 4+ hours later... sigh. I gave him some management advise he probably didn't want to hear.
Anyway, i was given the task to create a red wine several women fell in love with. i said, if I do this the label will feature you all, sans clothes
They agreed!!!I contacted the owner of Finer Wine Kits (I was an early customer), and said I know nothing about this wine, can't tell you what it's made from, but I have a task to recreate it. Based on several back and forth he recommended his new creation "Family Affair". I ordered ONE batch, and as it came out of primary, I knew I nailed it. Several week later, I set up a taste test with various levels of sweetness and compared it to my LAST bottle from the commercial winery, now out of business.
At first the women were trying to compare it to the commercial wine and I had to check them and tell me which version, including the commercial you like better. As a group, they felt #4 in sweetness was closest to the commercial wine. Me personally thought it still wasn't sweet enough to match. BUT, once I gave them the new instructions, everybody (including me) liked #3. Two of us, including me, liked no added sweetness. Me personally, I prefer a very heavy bold red wine. Wife dislikes it.
So, on to the label... Three nude women, eldest sitting on a large turtle, the other two on either side. Doing it over, I'd put my wife on the left side, and I made the mistake of having her present the wrong leg forward... it is what it is. Anyway, it was beautiful overcast day, and I don't have my camera equipment anyway, but the iPhone took an acceptable pic. I set it up with a sepia filter, and named the wine "Framily Affair", (friends that are family)
Bottling day came, and OMFG, this is a freaking awesome wine. I sweetened it with cane sugar, I was literally out of corn sugar that I normally use. I still prefer my Cab/Zin/Bourbon barrel wine, but this is a lighter smoother slightly sweetened wine. I had one issue where the sweetener hadn't gotten will mixed in and I tasted a sample at the beginning of bottling and again at the end of bottling, dramatic difference. I apologized to my wife as we decorked every single bottle and dumbed them all into a carboy.
After the first batch came out of primary, I immediately ordered batch two. It will sit in secondary all winter. I'm trying to scale down the number of different wines we make, so this complicates things a lot. I'm guessing Super Tuscan wine will get the boot. I will probably order two more of this wine next spring.
Thanks for reading through my meanderings
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