Friday, February 4, 2011

Kitchen of a winemaker

One of life's simple pleasures is a glass or two of wine after work.

Where we live, there are many small wineries scattered throughout the hills and it is so lovely to go driving around the vines on the weekend, sampling wine, meeting the winemakers and vignerons and buying a case here and there to drink or store for later (the storage part happens less often I must admit).


When you are married to a winemaker however, it isn't always a case of a simple glass of wine after work.

It often requires tasting barrel samples, blind tastings of varieties and vintages and comparing or scoring each one, based on nose, length, mouth feel, colour, etc etc.
Oh yes, there are definite advantages to being married to a wine maker, but I'm not sure if the kitchen being turned into a wine lab is one of them...
Happily, our own label is doing well and the 2009 Grenache is nearly ready for release.

I love seeing all the bottles snug in their boxes ready for their journey into shops, restaurants and peoples cellars.

I love too my husbands hands after he has been playing with the wine all day...

You can always spot a winemaker at this time of the year!

10 comments:

  1. Que fantástico Amber! Conocer de vinos y su cultura, y todo su trabajo hasta paladearlo!


    Is so fantastic to know of the wine and all its culture, from the work up to tasting it! Chin, Chin!!! Kisses, Gloria.

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  2. I agree, there is something very sweet and soothing about that end of the day glass of nice wine but I guess being so surrounded by it regularly could take away some of the magic. I enjoyed your post, with photos perfectly matched. I especially like the photo of your husband's hands!

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  3. Very nice photos. It must be really interesting to be involved in the whole process and have the possibility to enjoy a glass of your own wine. You are lucky, definitely! Just look at the positive side ;-)

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  4. thanks so much for checking out our blog and by the way we are so jealous of these wine tasting adventures!

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  5. Thank you so much for your sweet comment! What beautiful pictures you have :-) Aloha from Maui!

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  6. I didn't realise that you were winemaker's, how neat your kitchen looks even in spite of your husbands wine-tasting bottles and glasses! These are such lovely pictures, especially the one of you, your hair is a wonderful colour, and great that your husband let you post the photo of his hard won hands.

    Hugs Jane

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  7. so cool atmosphere :)

    P.S. Also, I am hosting my very first contest :) It's personal for the Apple Tea, please visit if you feel like participating at
    http://theappletea.blogspot.com/2011/02/contest-pick-header-for-appletea.html

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  8. We went to a few wineries for wine tasting and it was a lot of fun.We also learned so much about grapes .It's a great way to spend some time comparing soils to the grapes produced.One winery has different wine from the one next door.I am sure you enjoy every minuteLOL

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  9. Hi Amber! Your lives as winemakers look so enjoyable - even if you do sometimes have wineglasses lined up along your kitchen bench like test tubes! By the way, I hope the chickpea bread turned out nicely! I really love it and you've reminded me that I should make it again very soon!

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