“Florida Fruit Wines”

January 2014

“Florida Fruit Wines”

What would you think if I told you that ‘Florida Fruits’ are the best in the world?

What would you think if I told you that wines made from ‘Florida fruits’ are the best in the world?

Well, the answer to both of these statements is…TRUE!

From the small Florida Family Farm to the large corporate grower, Florida’s farmers are committed to coaxing the best fruits from the soils of Florida!

As you’re reading this Blog, Florida growers are tending and harvesting the most succulent strawberries, oranges, tangerines, red grapefruits, guavas, key limes, bananas and much more! Thousands of acres of tomatoes (beef steak, cherry, grape, roma’s, etc.) are being planted for the Spring/Summer harvest! As our northern states are locked in snow and ice, a virtual convoy of trucks and railcars are moving Florida’s fresh fruits northward.

As our winter changes into late Spring and early Summer, fresh Florida Blueberries and Peaches ripen in Florida’s warm sunshine.

As late Summer deepens and Fall arrives, Florida’s fresh grape harvest fills the grape buckets to the brim!

At the peak of each of these Florida fruit harvests, some of these delicious fruits make their way into the care of Florida’s premier vintners. All the goodness of these fresh Florida fruits is transformed into beautiful “Florida Fruit Wines”.

Made properly (Unfiltered), these gorgeous Florida Fruit Wines will retain all the unique tastes of the tree ripened fruit for decades to come!

For way too long, we have relegated our fruit wines to a backseat status. Believe me, it’s time to move these gems to the head of the line! If you want a real treat for your taste buds, sally up to the wine tasting table and sip a sample of Florida ‘Orange’ wine, Florida ‘Red Grapefruit ‘ wine, Florida ‘Cherry Tomato’ wine or, perhaps, Florida ‘Strawberry’ wine!

 

 

Whatever the season (Spring/Summer/Fall or Winter) you can count of Florida’s premier vineyard/wineries to produce the best fruit wines in the world! For, you see, it’s rather easy when you’re in Florida and the best fruits are grown at your backdoor!!

Until next time…”Salute & Happy Days”!



The “Muscadine Grape”….100% American!

September 2013

The “Muscadine Grape”….100% American!

Did you know that Florida and the southeastern United States are home to one of the world’s finest grapes, the… Muscadine Grape?

Did you know that the Muscadine Grape is an “American Original”? Its stock is 100% American!

Did you know that the Muscadine Grape makes “World Class Wines” including ‘Reds, Whites and Rose’?

It is the only grape that thrives and prospers in Florida’s hot and humid climate. It produces bountiful grape harvests laden with sweet and delicious grapes. At BHV, we grow seven different varieties. The colors range from gold to black and sizes from ¼ inches across to over 2 inches across. Aged over one year, the wines produced from our Muscadine grape easily competes on the world stage of fine wines!

For too long we have permitted our Muscadine Grape to remain in the shadows. With this Blog, we hope to bring it into the light!

To begin our journey into the light, we will reach back into history and to one of the earliest pages of our country. In the year 1585, Governor Ralph Lane of Roanoke Island wrote a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh in England. In the letter he wrote…”We have discovered grapes of such greatness, yet wild, as France, Spain nor Italy hath no greater”. The grape that Governor Lane was talking about was the…Muscadine Grape!

Between that long ago time and today, we have mostly forgotten our Native American grape heritage. Most of the grapes grown and the wines produced in our country today are from grape stock from Europe. Most of us have little or no knowledge about our fabulous Muscadine Grape.

 

 

       

For years, our doctors and health professionals have suggested that the antioxidants in a glass of red wine would benefit our health. Did you know, however, that the Muscadine Grape has…

·       40 times the Antioxidants of any red grape in the world!

·       6 times the Resveratrol of any red grape in the world!

·       More Fiber than Oat Bran!

·        The Only grape to have Ellagic Acid!

Yep, this is “Our” grape. It has thrived for millennia in our sandy soils of Florida. This is the grape that has waited patiently for us to recognize its greatness. If you’ve never enjoyed a glass of Muscadine grape wine, we strongly suggest that you enjoy one today! Very possibly, your taste buds will rejoice with the unique taste, flavor and crispness of this fabulous Muscadine wine.

So, until next time, we hold our glass of Muscadine grape wine before us in a toast and say, we wish you all the best and happiness throughout the upcoming ‘Holiday Season’!

Salute and Happy Days”!   



Locally Grown Grape Wines!

October 2013



Locally Grown Grape Wines!

We all know why “locally grown” foods are our preferred choice. Without question, they are fresher, tastier and more wholesome. We can easily visit the farm, talk with the grower and ask any questions about ‘How’ the crops are produced. Since they are grown in the U.S.A., we know that they are grown to the highest agricultural standards in the world. We know that the grower lives in our community, raises his family here and attends our local church. In every way our local farmer is tied to our community. The dollars that we spend with our local farmer stays in our community and help our community grow and prosper.

So, does this same logic apply to our wines? Does that local Vineyard/Winery deserve our support? The answer is……”Maybe”!

Please consider a few ‘wine facts’. First, most Vineyard/Wineries in America today are simply…”Factories”. They are sourcing most of their inventory in the form of juices & concentrates from off-site sources. Some of these off-site sources are in the U.S.A., but many are not. Sadly, only about 30% of the Vineyard/Wineries in America today are growing all their own fresh grapes and fruits.

Fortunately, it’s easy for us to determine which local Vineyard/Winery to support. By law, every Vineyard/Winery ‘MUST’ tell us on their wine labels “How” their wines are produced. Look for the words…”GROWN, PRODUCED, VINTED & BOTTLED”… on their wine label. Only local Vineyard/Wineries with those words are worth your support and patronage.   

 

If you are lucky enough to have a local Vineyard/Winery in your community that is doing all the right things, please pay them a visit. Just like the local farmer, ask questions, learn about their operations and share this knowledge with all your friends and family. There’s nothing better than….”Locally Grown Grape Wines”!

Until next time…….”Salute and Happy Days”    

Pairing of Wines…“ Do You Really Need an Expert”?

June 2013

 

Pairing of Wines…“ Do You Really Need an Expert”?

One of the most contested and confusing parts of enjoying wines is the alleged “Pairing of Wines” by the “Experts”!

As the premier winery in Manatee County, BHV is constantly asked about ‘How’ wines should be paired. With this Blog, we will attempt to answer this question.

The mystic surrounding wine has been with us for a very long time. Today, most of us are removed from the process of growing grapes and fruits and creating wines. We have lost our connection to our wine heritage. Our daily lives dictate that we rely upon a plethora of ‘Experts’ and ‘Consultants’ to help us function in our modern world. Wine purchasing and enjoyment seems to be a perfect candidate for this ‘Expert’ help.

Please understand, most of our ‘Wine Experts’ today, are involved in the distribution and sales of wines. They rely upon the information provided by mostly distant and factory wineries. Most of these ‘Experts’ have never made a single bottle of wine. Most cannot even tell us the basic difference between ‘Unfiltered’ and ‘Filtered’ wines. When we go to ‘Wine Festivals’ or nice Restaurants the wines most often ‘Paired’ are those wines being promoted by the factory wineries. So, what do we do?

Well, the answer is to ‘EMPOWER’…YOU!!

From this day forward, YOU are empowered to make 100% of all the decisions regarding your choices of wines! What really counts is YOUR…Taste. If YOU like the taste, flavor and bouquet of the wine, then that’s a perfect choice! If YOU choose to enjoy your wine at room temperature, refrigerated or even with an ice cube, then that’s a perfect choice! If YOU choose to enjoy a red wine with a fish dinner or a white wine with a steak dinner, then that’s a perfect choice! If YOU choose to add a little extra sugar or a cinnamon stick to your glass of wine, then that’s a perfect choice!

No matter where your wine experience takes you, if it’s your choice it will always be…a perfect choice!

If ever again a wine ‘Expert’ should question your decision in wine, here’s what I want you to say……”I’m sorry, but this is NOT about you, it’s about ME!!”

 

Thank You…”Salute and Happy Days”!



Recycled Wine Bottles!

Recycled Wine Bottles!

 

When you pick up your favorite bottle of wine at your grocery or wine store, do you ever give a thought about the glass wine bottle? Do you ever wonder where the glass wine bottle was made or who made it? When you throw your empty wine bottle into your recycling bin, do you ever wonder what happens to it?

Well, with this Blog, we’re going to answer these questions and, perhaps, a few more.

Americans love their wine. Let’s begin by throwing out a few interesting wine facts. First, each year, we adult Americans consume over “350 Million” cases of wine. That’s about “4.2 Billion” bottles! Florida, by the way, is the “Third” wine consuming State in the nation! Did you know that Florida grows grapes and makes world-class wines? Yep, that’s a fact! Florida can boast of about ‘25’ Certified Florida Farm Wineries! Our wineries stretch from north Florida, through central Florida and into the Keys.

So, what about those empty wine bottles? What happens to the bottle when we’ve poured and enjoyed the last glass? Well, per the E.P.A. (Environmental Protection Agency), approximately 70% of our empty wine bottles are going to our landfills. That leaves us with less than 30% going into our recycling bins! Most often, if you throw your empty wine bottle into your recycling bin, the glass is broken up and added to the asphalt in our roads. Only a very tiny fraction of our 4 billion plus empty wine bottles are being recycled by our wineries!

Unfortunately, this sad picture gets even worse. Instead of stepping up to the plate and repurposing their empty wine bottles back into wine bottles, most wineries are continuing to buy new wine bottles from factories in China, Mexico and Italy. This is an unsustainable trend. Our children and grandchildren will be compelled to deal with this environmental disaster unless we take corrective steps on our watch.

So what can WE do?? Well, we can begin by insisting that our wineries take back and reuse our empty wine bottles. As we know, glass can be cleaned and sanitized and reused…Forever! Vote with your dollars! Support the wineries that recycle/reuse their wine bottles. In Manatee County, BHV (Bunker Hill Vineyard & Winery) uses only 100% recycled wine bottles! Last year, we recycled over “12,000” empty wine bottles! So, you see, it can be done. All it takes is the will to do the right thing!

Until we meet again….”Salute and Happy Days”!

Salute!

Salute!

Have you ever thought just how important that wines are in our lives? Every great occasion that we experience is shared with a glass of wine. With our wine goblet in hand we toast each other’s health.  Graduations, promotions, birthdays, weddings and great triumphs are memorialized by raising our wine glass in salute!

With your permission, with this month’s Blog, we’re going to vary off course from our normal discussion of wines. Instead, we’re going to raise our wine glasses in a toast to a group of fellow Americans that fought to protect and preserve our precious freedoms. This month, the last survivors of “Doolittle’s Raid” will meet for the last time. More than 70 years has passed since these brave men flew into the pages of history. Without them, and the countless other warriors of WWII, we would not enjoy all that we have today. So, it’s only fitting that we glance back into our past and remember a moment that changed the world!

Lest we forget, on the morning of April 18, 1942, at about 8:00 in the morning, sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bombers lifted off the deck of the American aircraft carrier…Hornet! They were approximately 600 miles from the shores of Imperial Japan. Led by Lieutenant Colonel James (“Jimmy”) H. Doolittle the planes of this group of 80 volunteers lifted one by one from the rolling deck of the carrier. Still reeling from the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan on December 7, 1941, the United States and its allies needed something to boost the morale of its soldiers and of their citizens back home. This bold and daring venture by “Jimmy” Doolittle and his brave men became the catalyst for the change of the momentum of the war from the Axis powers to America and her allies. Due the embarrassment of the “Doolittle Raid”, the Japanese high command resolved to prevent this from ever happening again by destroying America’s aircraft carriers. A month and a half later, japan suffered its greatest disaster of the war at…the “Battle of Midway”.

 

So, please, join me by raising your wine glasses in a solemn toast to these men of uncommon valor and bravery. At the very moment in our history when courage and sacrifice was needed most, these men stepped into their airplanes and flew into certain danger. With humility and gratitude to each of you we say..

”Thank You, Salute and Happy Days”!    

Blending of Wines?

Blending of Wines?

With this Blog, we are going to turn our attention to the much misunderstood wine process of…”Blending of Wines”!

This has become such a common practice by wineries, that we thought it warranted a good dose of facts!

Firstly, we are all familiar with blending ‘stuff’. When we pour cream into our coffee and stir it with our spoon, we are ‘blending’ the two ingredients together. Likewise, if we were to take the juice from a Valencia orange and the juice from a fresh Mango and pour and stir them together, we would end up with a ‘Valencia Orange/Mango’ blend.  In any case, blending seems to be a fairly straightforward and a simple process. Is it, however, just as simple and straightforward for wine?

To answer this question, we’re going to have to enter a ‘fantasyland’. For the sake of seeking the truth to this question, we need to pretend that we shared a winning lottery ticket! Even after we paid off all our debts, we have some money left. After some brainstorming, we elect to start ‘Our Own Winery” (yep, that’s the name that we chose). One of the first decisions that we need to make is whether we want to make ‘filtered’ or ‘unfiltered’ wines. Since most of the wines at our local wine store are ‘filtered’, we decide to follow their suit.  The second decision that we need to make is what kinds of wines that we are going to make. Since most of the same wines are ‘Red, White & Rose’, we elect to follow the pack. From now on it gets a little tricky. Since most of the filtered wines are ‘mixed & blended’, we’ve got to go to our ‘color chart’ and pick a ‘color’ for each of our wines. Once we settle on our colors, we’ve got to find a bunch of supplier sources for our juices. Since Nature doesn’t care about our ‘color chart’, we’ve got to line up enough juice suppliers so that we can vary our juice purchases each year from each source. In other words, this year we might need to buy 30% from supplier ‘A’, 30% from supplier ‘B’ and 40% from supplier ‘C’! Next year, however, that ratio might not work. Instead, we might need to buy 10% from supplier ‘A’, 60% from supplier ‘B’ and 30% from supplier ‘C’! Whatever the combination, we’ll need to dump these juices into our mixing tank and ‘Mix & Blend’ them all together. If we’re lucky, the combined color should match our ‘color chart’. Wow!...I sure hope that all that juice sourcing and mixing and blending to match our ‘color chart’ is worth it!

The fact is….”it’s NOT worth it!! You see, color has “NO” affect upon the Taste, Flavor or Bouquet of our wines! If there is “NO” positive affect upon our wines, it should “NOT” be done! What all wineries should be doing is celebrating the fabulous diversity in the colors and tastes of the grapes and fruits.

 

 

Naturally, the colors of our wines are determined by how much sunlight, rain and nutrients that the plants and fruits receive. Logically, the natural colors of our wines will/should vary from year to year and from harvest to harvest. For wineries to step in and artificially create consistent colors to match a color chart is a disservice to us all!

So, now that we’ve got the facts, perhaps we need to step back and review our winery plans. It would be a whole lot better for us to create our wines in concert with Nature. Instead of ‘mixing and blending’ we’ll concentrate on making our wines to be the best that they can be. Then, when our wines are ready for us and our customers to enjoy, we’ll tell everyone why our colors are different this year from last. In wine making as in everything else in life, it’s always best to be honest and forthright!

Until next time….”Salute and Happy Days”!