New Years Goals..."Our Celebration of Difference"!

With a new year just beginning, we felt that it was important to lay out our goals for the upcoming year!
The biggest goal that we want to convey to you this year is..."Our Celebration of Difference"!!
Now those might seem like fancy $2.00 words, but their meaning is quite simple. This year, we will try to do a better job of drawing the lines of distinction between ourselves at BHV and the factory wineries.
One of the biggest differences is how we view 'Wine Making'. We view 'Wine Making' as an..."ART"! When you take that approach to Wine Making, the entire game is transformed!
Another radical concept that we embrace and will talk more about in the future is the goal of creating wines to be the best that they can be! This means focusing on the uniqueness of the fruits that goes into making our wines. That's why we use only..."Whole Fresh Fruits" (never just juices and concentrates)!
What is retained in our wines is more important to us than what factory wineries take out. This year, you should expect us to talk more about all the good stuff that is in our unfiltered wines. One component that comes to mind is 'Natural Fruit Pectin'. If you get a chance, you might want to check this one out for yourself. If you're like us, you will question why any winery would want to remove this fabulous and natural ingredient from their wine!
One more topic that we are passionate about is supporting Florida agriculture! Depending on the time of the year, Florida agriculture and Tourism can swap places between the first and second most important industries in our state! Whenever we use and support Florida grown produce, we are helping retain and grow Florida jobs! Not only are "ALL" of our grape wines created from grapes that we grow and nurture, but our fruit wines are mostly made from Florida grown fruits!
Lastly (but surely not least), we need to talk a whole lot more about 'Recycling Wine Bottles'! By returning your empty wine bottles to us for recycling, you are making a huge and positive impact on our environment.
Starting January, 2012, we will be adding an entire New section  to our BHV web site. From now on, we will begin recording the number of empty wine bottles, corks and sealing wax that you return to us for recycling. It's important to us that you get the recognition that you deserve!
Well, that's probably enough for now. We sincerely appreciate your help and support! So, until we meet again...........

.....Salute and Happy Days!

What does..'Multiple Wine Pressings'..Mean?

With this Blog, we're going to address a question that keeps coming up.."Multiple Wine Pressings"!
Most people are totally confused by this topic and most wineries don't or won't address it. So, let's head into the Wine Cave and 'press out' the truth!
To help put this into perspective, we will explain how 'We' press our grapes, then, to show the contrast, we'll explain how many modern factory type wineries handle their pressings.
At Bunker Hill Vineyard and Winery, after our grapes are finished fermenting (usually 10 to 14 days), we siphon off our 'young' wine from their fermenting bucket into a glass carboy. Remaining in the bottom of the fermenting bucket is an organic material called 'Must'. It is comprised of mostly grape skins and dead yeast cells. We take this 'Must' to our ratchet press and press out the remaing wine.


Manual Ratchet Press

Then, we add this pressed out wine to our glass carboy and move the glass carboy to our Wine Cave for long term storage (at least a year). Then, the mostly organic ' Must' material is composted on site. For us, this is a simple and straightforward process!
At many factory type wineries, this 'Must' material takes an entirely different path.
Instead of pressing the 'Must' once and sending it to be composted, it is diluted with water and pressed again. In some cases, it may have water added, again and pressed for the Third time. Then, their wine is "Filtered", flavors added (think Notes and Hints), bottled and sent to market. There is no requirement that you be told about these multiple pressings. Your best bet is to drop them a note and ask them how many times that their wine was pressed. Depending on their response, you can make an informed decision on whether to buy their wines.
So, now you know what is meant by 'Multiple Pressings'.
In our opinion, wines created through the use of Multiple Pressings are inferior and designed to inhance the wineries profits.
It is our heartfelt belief that world class wines are only pressed once and are 'never filtered'!

"Salute and Happy Days"!

Alternative Wine Sweeteners!

Any of you that have visited Bunker Hill Vineyard and Winery have been  shown the "Secret of Creating the Perfect Glass of Wine"!



FOXY RED ~RED WINE




One question that we could not answer was "IF" alternative sweeteners could be used in place of cane sugar. We have asked several of our guests (who use alternative sweeteners) to try their sweeteners in their Bunker Hill wines. Their responses have been recorded and the answer is a resounding...'YES'! If you are using an alternative sweetener on a regular basis in other foods and beverages and you wish to enhance the sweetness of your glass of wine, your alternative sweetener should work just fine.

We wish to thank each of our fabulous friends and guests who participated in this volunteer research progam. From now on, we will share your findings with our new and future guests.

Thank You Very Much...Larry and Lenora

"Certified Wildlife Habitat"!

Last week, the land of Bunker Hill Vineyard and Winery was certified as "Certified Wildlife Habitat" by the National Wildlife Federation! This was made possible because we provide and maintain all the basics for wildlife to thrive..."Water, Cover, Food, Quality Habitat and a place to Raise their young". As you enter our Wine Accessory building on your next visit, please look to your left. Positioned next to the sidewalk is a sign commemorating this honor (see photo).

Certified Wild Life Habitat sign in front of our  Farm Accessory Building.

As most of you know, we are a "Green" environmentally responsible vineyard and winery. We consider our resident wildlife an integral part of this environment. They live here freely and are never hunted nor harassed. We consider it a privilege to share our land with these animals. This same wildlife is represented on all of our wine labels (see photo).



Our wine labels represent the wild animals on Bunker Hill Vineyard's protected lands.

For the first time, we would like to share with you a small glimpse of our on-going concern for their welfare.

At various times throughout the year, assorted species of birds choose our vines as a safe and secure place to raise their young. When this happens, we consider that vine a restricted area. We run a "caution" tape around the chosen vine and suspend all maintence to that vine until the baby birds leave the nest. At this time, we do have an active nest of "Morning Doves" on one of our vines (see photos).




Caution tape protection.

 


Two baby Morning Doves.

 Although we're not absolutely certain, there appears to be 2 babies in the nest. Even though we are in our grape picking season, we will Not pick any grapes from this vine!

You are welcome to visit our vineyard/winery (Monday ~ Sunday, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm) and take photos of this mother Dove and her babies, but all photos Must be taken from a safe distance.

Thank You for Your Support...Larry and Lenora

How to "Pear" Wines (pun intended)?!

With this Blog, we're going to discuss a topic that is totally confusing to me..."How to Pear Wines"!
OK, raise your hands if you are as confused as me. Yep, just as I thought, we are all in the same boat! Let's step into the Wine Cave and mull (pun intended) this one over. To help us out, I invited a "Wine Expert" (Billy).
It appears that the first step is to find out all that we can about "Pears", so we can determine what pears have to do with wines. Billy I recognise your raised hand but, please hold your questions and/or comments until the end of our discussion. Without a doubt, pears are yummy! Mostly, pears are yellow, but they, also, come in colors of 'green and red'. They are closely related to America's #1 fruit...Apples and rank as the #2 fruit. Today, there are more than 3,000 known varities of pears in the world. Most of the pear production in the U.S.A. comes from the states in the Northwest. Well, there's a lot more good stuff about pears out there, but you get the idea. Pears are a fabulous fruit and, as Homer said,..."the Gift of the Gods". Billy, there's no need to jump up and down, I'll address your question in just a moment.
Now that we've garnered all of these wonderful facts about pears, we need to figure out how this relates to our red and white wines. The "Experts" (like Billy) keep telling us that a red wine 'Pears" with this type of food and a white wine 'Pears' with another type of food. Personally, I see no reason why you can't enjoy 'Pears' with All wines. The color of the wine (or the pear) should make no difference.

Ok, Billy, I'm ready for your question. Billy, where are you? Has anyone seen our wine expert, Billy? Oh, darn it, Billy had to leave. He did, however, leave us a note. Let's read what Billy wrote..."A Pair of Pears is NOT a Pare"! Whoa, that's really deep! It's easy to understand why we need wine experts! I do wish, however, that Billy would have told us exactly which pears go best with which type of wine. Does a semi-ripe pear go best with a Rose' type wine? Maybe, next time, Billy will be able to stay a little longer. In the meantime, I guess that us (common folks) will just have to continue to enjoy our (unfiltered) wine with our usual (common folks) tastes and simple (common folks)..."GUSTO"!

"Salute and Happy Days"

An American Hero and..."The Brass Ring"!

With today's Blog, I'm going to tell you the story about the..."Brass Ring"!
Many years ago (more years than I would like to count) I had the privelige of knowing a marvelous old man. I was 22 years old, a medical corpsman stationed at a military hospital and my entire life lay before me. This gentleman was...100 years old ..., a military veteran and his life was nearly over. Physically, he was in very poor shape. He had suffered untold trials and tribulations defending America in many wars in many distant lands. In one of those wars, he had lost both of his legs. If there ever was an unsung hero, this old man would get my vote. As though a reward for his suffering and bravery, he was blessed, in his old age, with a mind unemcombered with senilty or disease. He was, truely, a page of living history! Each of my duty days, I would look forward to our conversations. I would sit on the chair next to his bed and listen to him tell me about the great moments of his (and America's) past. The history that I read about in school was alive and vibrant and laying serenly in a non-discript hospital bed just a couple of feet away. Day after day, he would turn page after page of his historic life and enhance my understanding of what it meant to be an American. This old soldier, in his youth, had stormed up San Juan Hill with 'Teddy Roosevelt". He had survived the mustard gas and the trenches of World War I. He had raised a family and buried each one. It seemed to me that he was the last survivor of a generation of Americans that bridged the 19th and 20th centuries.
One day, he told me the story about the "Brass Ring"! I have never forgot this story and have used it, as a guiding beacon, for my entire life! For the first time, I will share this story with you.
When he was a young child the old man went to a circus with his family. At this circus was a 'Merry-Go-Round'. As he and the other children would ride the merry-go-round horses, they would try and grab the..."Brass Ring"...off a post positioned next to the ride. If a child was lucky enough to grab the brass ring, that child would get a free ride on the merry-go-round. Most children tried and most children failed. It seemed that it was always just out of reach. It took daring and perserverence to succeed, but there was abiding danger for all who tried. Reach out too far and the child might fall off his merry-go-round horse and break his arm or his leg. On this day, at this circus, on this merry-go-round ride, in the distant past, a child with his eyes shut, reached far out for the brass ring. As though a dream, the child felt the cold brass metal against his hand. When he opened his eyes, he beheld his fingers firmly clutched around the prize! By reaching further, by perservering, by taking a huge chance, by risking everything, by dreaming the impossible, this child succeeded where the others had failed.
Without being told, I clearly understood the meaning of this story. What the old man was telling me was that it is possible to be anything and do anything with our lives..if we want it bad enough and are willing to...reach for the brass ring!
One day, I came on duty and was greeted with a sad surprise. This old man, this American war veteran and hero, was gone. According to the ward staff, he had gone to sleep and passed, peacefully in the night. I walked to his empty room and over to beside his empty bed. As I stood there, I recalled the words of another American Hero..."Old soldiers never die, they just fade away".

On this day, our Independence Day, it is proper that we stand beneath our unfurled American flag and salute ALL the hero's of our past and present. For it is them that have willed us our freedoms, our liberties, our independence, our futures and our opportunity to..."Reach for the Brass Ring"!

Salute and Happy Days!

"SULFITES", Friend or Foe?

Very few subjects elicit as much consternation as "Sulfites" in wine. If ever there was a need to separate fact from fiction, this is it!
So, let's head into the Wine Cave and uncover the 'Real' truth.

Firstly, "ALL " wines naturally contain sulfites. Yep, even your organic wine. To keep the playing field somewhat level, the Feds (BATF, USDA & the FDA) have laid out the rules and regulations concerning sulfites in wine. According to the rules, if a wine contains less than 10 parts per million of sulfites, they don't have to tell you...and most won't! The upper limit on sulfites in wine is 350ppm. Organic wines can go as high as 100ppm, but most are half that.
So, what's the purpose of sulfites in wine? The simple answer is to keep the villains (bacteria & fungus) at bay. In order to protect our health, Sulfites have been added to wines for hundreds of years. It is NOT a new thing.
Is there an alternative to adding sulfites to wines? Sure, but you wouldn't like it. We could use "UHT" (ultra high temp). This would knockout the villains, but would, also...destroy the wines color, alcohol, taste, flavor and bouquet. Today, sulfites are still our best option.
When I drink a glass of wine, I get a headache. Am I allergic or sensitive to the sulfites in the wine?
That's a great question, but difficult to answer. I would need to know everything that you ate or drank in the last 12 hours, their sulfite levels and if you are asthmatic. Many common foods and drinks contain levels of sulfites far higher than wine. Some of these foods are cheeses, fruit drinks, baked goods and dried fruits and run as high as 5000 ~ 6000ppm. About 5% of asthmatics are allergic or sensitive to sulfites. Over 99% of everyone else...ARE NOT! Chances are, your headache is NOT caused by the sulfites in your glass of wine, but rather the other foods or drinks that you've consumed.
So, is "SULFITE" a Friend or a Foe?? When looking at the facts, it appears that sulfite is a pretty good friend. There will always be people that will try and frighten you and discourage you from enjoying your glass of wine. Made the right way (Unfiltered), wine is a fabulous adult drink that should be a vital part of our lives. So, the next time that someone disparages your wine because it contains some sulfites, just 'Smile' and offer them some more..."Cheese"! The less wine that they drink...the MORE there is for us!!

"Salute and Happy Days"