Batting .750

Guava, my first batch of wine 2 years ago, came out quite good.  It was a trick, designed to lure me into yet another hobby.  I learned that with my second batch, carambola (starfruit).  This batch required numerous tweaks, and eventually was uncorked twice to achieve something just drinkable.

In that next year I made some really bad wine.  Some of it is still in the basement.  Pumpkin, now almost 2 years along, refuses to release its overpowering vegetal character.  Wild plum not only refuses to clear but remains bitter beyond belief.  Others have already found their way to the drain or the still.

So it was with some pride last week that we bottled 4 separate small batches of novelty wines, 3 of which I would be willing to submit to friends.  The lime-ginger wine is afflicted by that funny chemical aroma that all of my citrus wines seem to have.  But the passionfruit, hibiscitrus (hibiscus-citrus), and most recent carambola wines were excellent.  Passionfruit wine takes surprisingly little pulp (I helped it along by a secondary addition) which makes the developing crop even that more exciting.  I learned a lot about what makes carambola wine tasty through the acid adjustments required with my first batch.  The hibiscitrus required a little special something in the secondary, but with that, it when from completely unremarkable to perhaps the best of the three.

Last night, Lisa gave me a nice picture from bottling day, when we finished the leftovers on the back porch.  I think if I can maintain this average, I will be quite happy.