Different Unique Wines.

One day at the kitchen table Dr. Wetbrain and Harold were sampling a bottle of home-made wine that the Doctor made.

“That was the best wine I have ever tried!”, Harold wide-eyed said.

“Birch Sap Wine and I held back on the sugar. Mind you tapping Birch trees is like tapping Maple trees for sap there is a little bit of a chore involved. Especially in the cold winter months of February and March.” Dr. Wetbrain declared.

Ingredients of the Birch Sap Wine is –

4.5 liters of birch tree sap

250 ml of white grape concentrate

1.25 kg. of sugar

2 tbs. of citric acid

Pack of wine yeast

Directions to make this great Birch Sap Wine.

In a very large pot bring birch sap, grape concentrate and sugar to a boil. Remove pot from the heat, add citric acid, stir until sugar is dissolved. Cool then apply the pack of wine yeast.

Cover the cooled pot loosely with a cheese cloth or towel. Don’t touch it for 10 days.

Siphon into a large wine fermentation jar. I think they are all large! Allow to ferment for 3 months. Drink and be merry with the greatest wine ever.

Homemade Elderberry Wine

Elderberries are way too bitter to eat raw, also will make you sick from their toxins. Diarrhea and vomiting, neat things like this. But Elderberries make awesome wine.

The first time I made Elderberry wine was in the 80’s with my buddy Dennis and his 70-year-old dad who was our wine making mentor. We made a 10-gallon batch!

Driving up a logging road and around one of corners we came across bushy tree all by itself. Filled with ripe Elderberries. Dennis and I filled any container like empty beer cases that we could find. We took all these berries to his dad’s basement and made wine.

Unfortunately, we put a tad more sugar then requested. OK a lot more. Never mind the 6-month fermentation period. We were sampling at 3 months, and a 20-ounce glass would get you pissed drunk. Yeah, too much sugar, but great tasting. Like drinking juice.

Dandelion Wine

This homemade wine is pretty good. You must harvest the Dandelion flowers at full spring bloom. Only 2 quarts of flowers for 1 gallon of wine. Best part is the fermentation duration is only 1 week.

Homemade wine can be made from any natural product such as fruit, vegetables, mushrooms, rhubarb, flowers, watermelons and tomatoes. All are a hit and miss. Sometimes a wine experiment turns out great, and sometimes not so much. Trial and error.

Few other unique homemade wines.

Jalapeno wine – Never tried, might be hot.

Honeysuckle wine – The flower pods do hold a lot of juice.

Tomato wine

Chocolate wine – Too sweet.

Mushroom wine

Crab wine – What?! Must be a Newfoundland thing.

“Let’s try my safe cranberry wine Harold”, Dr. Wetbrain asked.

Mike Paulson and 1971 Wine.

San Francisco in 1971 Mark Paulson was influenced by a friend to purchase a 3-liter bottle of expensive wine for only $250. These days that value would be around $2000. This classy Domaine de la Romanee – Conti wine would be a great present for my daughter’s wedding, Mark thought later.

Fifty years later Mr. Paulson’s son Cody brought to his dad an article about the same bottle of wine that was auctioned off for a mere $80,000. Cody tried to buy this bottle of wine of $5000, dad said no. Shortly after Mark explained this new information to his daughter and gently mentioned that this wine is no longer a wedding present. She concurred.

This precious wine which barely survived an earthquake in 1989, is now set up to be auctioned off by the Bonhams Skinner Auction House. Bidding starts at $50,000. Mr. Paulson noted that with all the publicity going on this bottle can fetch $100,000. Good luck Mark. It may very well happen. I think Mark Paulson has chosen correctly when he bought that fine bottle of Domaine de la Romanee – Conti wine in 1971. Made in Burgundy, France since 1232, Dr. Wetbrain added.

Dr. Wetbrain reminiscing of the 70’s. “I remember during my late teens when you wanted booze you had to find a bootlegger. Someone that was old enough to get into the liquor store. All our peers bought a case of beer or a 26 oz. bottle of whiskey or vodka. Not Lawrence, my best friend and me. We always got a case of fancy imported wines. Wines like Piesporter, Blue Nun and Black Tower. We were so stylish then.”

Category: Wine