Newbie from Eastern NC

Ronnied · Oct 27, 2010

I have been checking out this forum for a few days and just now getting around to this.

We live in a small Eastern North Carolina town called Washington. Located on the Pamilco river. Everyone around here grows scuppernong grapes. (I hate the taste of those things) My grandmother had a BIG vine in her back yard years ago and I remember as a kid finding her wine barrel out behind the barn! She made a batch every year!! My mother and aunts would fight over the last Mason Quart Jar!!

So with that said, I have decided to continue with my grandmother wine making tradition, but with different grapes.

I have just bottled my first batch of WineXpert White Zin. Bought my equipment and kit from Midwest in August. Get folks with lots of knowledge!(Thanks for the help guys). Got interested by looking at it on YouTube and seeing how easy it looked. It's not rocket science with the kits. And that is great for me. I guess that you can do as much as you want with the fruit...
I am getting ready to start my next kit a Cabernet Sauvignon. I hope to age this one at least 6 months. I can tell this will be a learning process and that I can make any kit my own by adding and taking things out of the kits.

It looks like there are lots of very knowledgeable people that are posting here and I plan to take advantage of the years of knowledge that they have obtained.

Thanks to everyone and the hosts of this page so that people like me can start and enjoy this hobby!

winemaker_3352 · Oct 27, 2010

Welcome aboard!! Feel free to ask questions along the way.

pwrose · Oct 27, 2010

Welcome to the forum, and your are right about the knowledge here, and the best thing is they are all friendly enough to help and even answer repeat questions that alot of other places get annoyed with. That doesn't mean anyone should do it, but these guys and gals are alright in my book.

Being that you are as close as you are maybe next year during the berry season we can get together and find some. You have alot of places over your way that has blueberries and plenty of strawberries too.

I am still on the hunt for a place to get raspberries and large amounts of blackberries next year.

Ronnied · Oct 27, 2010

There use to be a huge blackberry vine behind the Arby's when I was growing up here! I use to live in that area! We would go over there and pick wild blackberries and my mom would make jam and pies! Those were the good ol' days!!

I know that there are some nice farms over by New Bern with tons of Blueberry! I think that Brileys farm over by Pactolous has fresh fruit that you can pick in the spring.

pwrose · Oct 27, 2010

We put bees on several blueberry farms over near New Bern, however those are all commercially picked blueberries. I have never known them to allow the public in for a pick your own type of thing. Although I did manage some blackberries from one of them this past year.