An interesting excerptI read early this morning from a small winery in Florida making country wines.
Gladys and Vince Shook, of the family-owned Florida Orange Groves Winery, don't even attempt to impress the non-believers. At their St. Petersburg winery, they're too busy selling their wines. They make their wines from, among other fruits and veggies, grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, blackberries and blueberries. There's even 40 Karats, made from, yep, carrots. Gladys Shook says people first stop in "because they think, "oh, whoever heard tell of wine made out of this?' Their curiosity gets them, and they come in, and they sample at the bar, and they say, "wow, we didn't know you could make wine out of this.' They're so surprised." Two years ago, a panel of judges conducting a blind taste test at the International Wine competition, mistook Black Gold, the dry blackberry wine, for a $60 bottle of cabernet. "And they thought our 40 Karats -- which by the way is made 100 percent from Florida carrots -- wine was the most expensive chardonnay that they made," she says. "They (the judges) were amazed. It's just that if they don't know what they're drinking, they are more impartial."
It was during a tour in Napa Valley, she and her husband got tired of hearing how wine is an acquired taste.
"Usually, if you take that little tour around Napa Valley, they say "this is an acquired taste,' or "this you have to learn to like,'" says Gladys Shook. "When we heard that, we thought, that shouldn't be. When you taste a wine, you should like it right away, that you don't have to have an acquired taste or learn to like it. It's either good or it isn't good."
Edited by: Waldo
Gladys and Vince Shook, of the family-owned Florida Orange Groves Winery, don't even attempt to impress the non-believers. At their St. Petersburg winery, they're too busy selling their wines. They make their wines from, among other fruits and veggies, grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, blackberries and blueberries. There's even 40 Karats, made from, yep, carrots. Gladys Shook says people first stop in "because they think, "oh, whoever heard tell of wine made out of this?' Their curiosity gets them, and they come in, and they sample at the bar, and they say, "wow, we didn't know you could make wine out of this.' They're so surprised." Two years ago, a panel of judges conducting a blind taste test at the International Wine competition, mistook Black Gold, the dry blackberry wine, for a $60 bottle of cabernet. "And they thought our 40 Karats -- which by the way is made 100 percent from Florida carrots -- wine was the most expensive chardonnay that they made," she says. "They (the judges) were amazed. It's just that if they don't know what they're drinking, they are more impartial."
It was during a tour in Napa Valley, she and her husband got tired of hearing how wine is an acquired taste.
"Usually, if you take that little tour around Napa Valley, they say "this is an acquired taste,' or "this you have to learn to like,'" says Gladys Shook. "When we heard that, we thought, that shouldn't be. When you taste a wine, you should like it right away, that you don't have to have an acquired taste or learn to like it. It's either good or it isn't good."
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