I’m sampling my 2009 Dapple Dandy Pluot Wine. It is a 91 pt Wine at the 2010 California State Fair. When I make wine, there’s never enough fruit! The wine has maintained its fruity aromas and very smooth and mellow. No added sulfites but very stable. It’s like biting to Dapples even during freezing evenings. Come and Enjoy with me!
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Very nice, I have to start making wine.
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Cool. Did you grow the fruit and the winery made it for you or do you run the winery? That’s a stout sweet wine,13%! It’s good that it still tastes like the fruit, don’t most wines not really taste like the grapes they came from?
How did that pom wine in the background taste?
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We’re renting a winery through alternating proprietorship arrangement. I’ve been making fruit wines for more than 40 years. More than 500 different kinds of fruit wines, the world over!
In 2010, I entered 240 different kinds of wines at the California State Fair and about 232 of them got awards. So we went commercial.
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The one in the background is our first commercial wine. It is Merlot-Pomegranate. Very nice flavor targeting the Asian Palate.
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Very nice, and congrats on all the awards. Sounds like you’ve found a unique niche market, even though I’ll admit I don’t know that much about the wine-making business.
What are some of your other popular unique fruit wines?
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Congrats on the awards! I don’t make too much wine although I have made five gallons of peach wine the last couple years from my own peaches. I get all these peaches at once and wine is a great way to use them all up. I have a five gallon carboy that has cleared from last falls batch. I don’t have bottles or a corker but I do brew beer and have four five gallon kegs. It’s ready to keg once I get another beer empty. I have one keg of beer almost empty. My peach wine will sparkle, but I don’t mind. I will probably make plum wine too once my plums start to grow crops. They are next in line. I have made hard cider too. I can’t wait for my sour cherry trees to grow up If you don’t use sulfates do you ferment with natural yeast? Your wine looks delicious! You might just pick up some customers from this forum. How much are the bottles and what about shipping?
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My Best Of Show Fruit wines:
Shiro Plum
Dragon Fruit
Meyer Lemon
Passion Fruit
We have more than 30 Double Gold Medal wines also and my favorites that are popular included
Shinseiki Pear
Blueberry
Blueberry Merlot
Jasmine petals
Hibiscus
Persimmon Sherry
Blackberry
Calamondin
Cherry-Pomegranate
…
I even made Durian wine that’s very popular with Durian lovers but didn’t win any awards for obvious reasons that Judges don’t know what Durian fruit is!
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Now, I start questioning the judges’ qualifications right there at durian wine 
Do you sell your products via mail order? Some of your unique fruit wine is very interesting.
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I have a friend that makes fruit wine, I love to go over and try the latest batch but he says I am a terrible judge, I like them all 
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Well not the pear, it skunked, I still finished the glass, lol
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Unfortunately we don’t have a national wine sales license yet. Very complicated to deal with each state especially if you sell fruit wines.
Reminds me of the movie Sideways, about a wine connoisseur and his not-so-discerning buddy when they went on a wine/bachelor road trip. I’m the same way, if it tastes good, that’s OK by me. I will say that back when I was trying out various varietals, I think my favorite was white wine out of the Loire valley in France. I prefer the whites to reds usually.
When I saw the pic of the Merlot in Joe’s pic it reminded me of a famous and funny line in Sideways uttered by the wine snob, but I can’t repeat it here. I loved that movie.
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Joe, whats your favorite fruit wine (non grape/apple/pear of course)? I’ve always been intrigued by making wines out of other fruits but have heard they often don’t come out all that exciting. I confirmed that a long time ago with blueberries and never tried any fruit wines again.
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If you would like to send me a free bottle of pluot wine I will PayPal you the money I owe you from that thing you lent me a few years ago. Lol 
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And that is an understatement. Lot’s of hands reaching for your pocket. Like it’s their territory and they may let you buy your way in. We don’t need the Mafia anymore, we have state government.
I like pomegranate but semi-sweet, just an occasional glass, I’m more a vodka guy. I would drink my own though. I’m going to spend through next harvest reading about fruit wines and the various ways to make them.
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Drew if you get started in this our store is : https://capncorkhomebrew.com/ You can talk to Andy he owns the store. He will get you started with anything you need to know. It’s probably closer to you than it is with me.
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Out of all of the wine my friend makes my favorite is a wild plum . He picks the fruit locally from wild trees, makes a dry white wine that I think is superb
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I thought the meyer lemon wine sounded extremely interesting.
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I drank a lemon wine my friend made that I really liked ( I know, I know, I like them all) it even seemed to age well, had the last bottle this winter at a little get together at his house.
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