Congrats!!!!

Gina *BabyBlue8

2009 California State Fair Home Wine Competition
by Joe Real

Our team won a total of 4 Double Golds, 16 Silvers, 5 Bronzes, and 5 Honorable Mentions.

My solo winemaker awards are shown below along with the award winning wines:


By joereal at 2009-09-09

Close up:

By joereal at 2009-09-09


Wall mounted:

By joereal at 2009-09-09


By joereal at 2009-09-09

Too many awards too little wine to go around! Only Double Gold Award wines served here. Bottle of Merlot-Pomegranate and Calamondin. We also have Blueberry Jubilee and Shinseiki Pear being poured to wine glasses somewhere in the wine-making crowd. Was truly blessed to receive high praises from fellow award winning winemakers. They were truly amazed at the taste quality and uniqueness of the flavor of our fruit wines. Dramatically different than the majority grape wines. Aromatic, pleasing, well balanced, they were blown away by the taste as they roll their eyes and say Wow! Although we were the last to set-up because we were late at the event, we were among the first to ran out of wines. Many repeatedly tasted our wines and savor every drop of it. Wish you were here too!

By joereal at 2009-09-09


Sorry for this iPhone pic against a very bright background. The accidental photographer didn't know the iPhone tricks to getting a better picture. As soon as I get more pictures of the event I'll add them here. From Left to Right: Val Tiangco, Pastor Glen Snyder, and Joe Real. Glen Snyder is our Pastor at First Baptist Church in Davis and he is a special guest at the event. We were all surprised to find each other at the event and still another church member from Napa Valley also won his very first double gold after several years of competition. The Pastor was happy to see us all, gifted with talents of making wine... Shown also are Shinseiki Asian Pear Wine, Calamondin Wine and Merlot-Pomegranate Wine. I wore my favorite T-shirt that day. In the T-shirt is a picture of Albert "Wine"-stein toasting a glass of wine and a caption that says "Drink a cup of wine or two and be a genius!". Many winemakers wanted that shirt too!


By joereal at 2009-09-09

Congratulations Joe. As someone who has been lucky enough to taste your wines, I think the awards are well deserved.

Helix

I'm not much of a wine drinker but this post was motivation enough to make a trip out to meet up with my long time citrus buddy, Joe. I had another ophthalmology meeting which was being held in San Francisco this year so I took the opportunity to visit Joe and see his plants. When we arrived Joe was unloading wine making supplies which further sparked my interest in seeing his wines. We toured his beautiful yard and I was able to see all of the hundreds of varieties of fruit from pears, pomegranates, bananas, apples and of course citrus. The 200+ n 1 (I believe thats about the count now) citrus tree was spectacular. Seeing pictures of it on the computer is nothing compared to standing right next to it to admire all the fruits and grafts. As we toured Joe gathered many different fruits to sample such as persimmons, pomegranates, guavas and others. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the fruit sampling but the best was yet to come. Next Joe broke out the wines. First was Calamondin which was out of sight! With its complex flavors I can see why it was chosen as one of the best at the fair. Then onto blueberry which was a wonderful departure from your standard grape wine since I love blueberries. My wife's favorite was a special Tamarillo wine. It was very sweet, fruity and had tremendous depth of flavor. Who would've thought of making wine out of tamarillo?? It was wonderful! Joe was gracious enough to even take us out to lunch before he had to catch a flight. The surprise bonus was the bottles of wine we left with to bring back to the east coast. Laaz, there's one with your name on it. Thanks so much Joe and to your wife for a fantastic visit!!

Here I am with my youngest citrus apprentice and Joe (sorry about the shadows) I'm holding a mammoth sized Sarawak pummelo and Joe has a cluster of fruit in one hand and his wine in the other.


Joe's wines have made it to the east coast

Good deal! The last bottle Scott brought back was excellent.

Congrats Joe! Let me know when you get your winery going and start shipping. I would certainly love to try some!

I love my blueberry wines--they are better than grape wines to me. I would love to try yours.