We bottled our first batch of Riesling seven weeks ago tonight. When we decided to try our hand at becoming home vintners, one of the things that most excited me was designing a label (besides actually making the vino, of course!). Conveying excitement, thought, anticipation, passion, hard work, failure, success, and devotion onto a piece of adhesive-backed cardstock has been the most difficult task I think I have ever taken on – so our wine remains label-less. While there shouldn’t be any pressure to “get it right the first time,” I really want to be able to look at that label and see our entire experience of that first batch.
The experience thus far has been priceless. Taking on such an educational hobby with my new husband that requires us to work very closely together was just a bonus in all this. We’ve learned a fair bit about wine along the way, but one of the most important things I’ve learned is that patience is key to becoming a successful wine maker, amateur or otherwise.
Patience, or as I refer to it, “the P word,” is not a virtue I was blessed with. You can imagine my instant-gratification-lovin’ self was overwhelmingly disappointed when I popped the first cork after only 5 weeks of aging. If you know anything about wine, you know it was pretty foolish of me to think some miracle had occurred inside those dark green glass walls in only 5 weeks – you have my permission to point and giggle 🙂
I had to read two books, a magazine, talk to our supplies guy (and amateur wine maker), and spend a lot of time researching on the internet to come back to an unsurprising inclusion… I’m impatient. So while I tap my fingers on the desk, trying to fill up the time between now and Drinkability, we decided to start our second batch of wine tonight, a nice red – a Pinot Noir. Next up, a Pinot Grigio (and hopefully a weekender out to the Texas Wine Country).