These are my last entries to the State Fair Competitions and so I wanted to know the ratings of my home made wines. Some of my wines are of 2004 vintage and are made without a molecule of sulfite added anywhere in the process, and they are very stable and has withstood the test of time and still win awards. There will be a wine tasting event, from all the fruit wines that I made, at the Festival of Fruits on August 13th, sponsored by CRFG Los Angeles Chapter. The festival of fruit feature is the Pitahaya, or dragon fruit, and I made wine from the fruits that Ed Valdivia gave me and it won the Best of California Award at this year's wine competition. But equally important is that the Lisbon Lemon wine that I made also won the Best Of California award, proving that wines from citruses can be the best of the best among other fruits lumped in that class.

On Aug 14th, at 11:00 am to 12:00 am, I will be talking about Fruit Wine Making 101. It is my desire to pass on the torch of home wine making to fellow rare fruit growers as I continue to move on to other endeavors. So be there, I will give important tips on making the best quality wines, not posted on the internet.

Official Results from 2010 California State Fair Home Wine Competition
Winemaker: Joe Real
Lisbon Lemon: Best of California, Seeded Fruit Wine Class
Dragon Fruit Pink Flesh: Best of California, Fruit/Other Blend Class

10 Double Gold Medals: Dragon Fruit Pink Flesh, Dragon Fruit White Flesh, Lisbon Lemon, Kiwi, Purple Tomatillo Sherry, Blueberry-Merlot, Cherry - Pomegranate, Elderberry, Hibiscus Petals, Jasmine Petals & White Grapes

2 Gold Medals: Improved Meyer Lemon, Bearss Lime & Blossoms

42 Silver Medals, 21 Bronze Medals, 8 Honorable Mentions


For the citrus fans here... Some other noteworthy Silver Medal Citrus wines: Tarocco Blood Orange, Sanguinelli Blood Orange, Blood Orange Port, Citrus Yuzu-Sudachi, Rio Star Grapefruit, Grapefruit-Lemon

And yes indeed. I have mentioned earlier that I so wanted to make blood orange to find out the final color of the wine and I got access to plenty of blood oranges. And indeed, the wine color can be deep red, and it stayed stable after all the fermentation and filtration. The anthocyanin pigments are soluble in wine solution. But not so the lycopene types from some grapefruit and Cara-cara navel.

Citruses do make great wines.

And for the banana fans here: 2004 vintage California Gold Banana wine won Silver Medal.