Lakeport >> Hundreds of shades of pink, red and white span the walls of many a grocery store, but the members of the Lake County Symphony Association Wine Club would much prefer to drink their own concoctions.
“You can control what your product is,” said club member Connel Murray. “You can select the fruit, and the key to good wine is good fruit.”
Although Murray makes his wine with the symphony association club, he does have his own label, aptly called Muritage. An 18-year home wine making veteran, he equated the wine making process to gardening. Specifically, why tend your own fruits and vegetables when you can drive over to Safeway and buy some? For the same reason you’d make your own wine. “When you go and buy commercial wine, you never know what you’re gonna get,” he added.
Some people enjoy home wine making for the competitive aspect. Club member Richard Robinson strives to make wine on par with the professionals, despite lacking some of the more expensive wine making equipment. He tweaks each batch of wine just a little bit, always looking to best those commercial makers. “Every year is different,” Robinson said. “You can’t really make the same exact wine twice in a row.”
Then there are those who are just looking for a good time, like Lake County Symphony Director John Parkinson. He joined the wine club four years ago for the camaraderie as much as the wine making itself.
Of course, drinking your own product is “more personal,” he said.
On Saturday, members from the Lake County Symphony Association Wine Club came out for the 15th Annual Home Wine and Beer Makers Festival at Library Park in Lakeport. The event brought together amateur and commercial wine and beer makers alike for an afternoon of music, conversation and tasting. Sponsored by the Lake County Symphony Association, the festival is its biggest fundraiser of the year. And it was actually because of Murray’s home wine making adventures that the festival was born.
Back when the symphony association was still the Clear Lake Performing Arts, they held a wine and art auction to bring in money for the organization. When that fell through, they quickly ran short on funds. Murray suggested the festival. The idea was met with unanimous enthusiasm.
The association’s wine club had been buying grapes from local growers up until then, but as their venture transitioned into a fundraiser, they asked growers if they were willing to donate 100-200 pounds of grapes. The majority of growers were supportive. Now, the club receives a call whenever grapes are available.
The wine club has about 25 active members who share a facility on Highlands Springs Road. There, everything they need is at their disposal for the year-long process — crushing grapes, fermenting the wine, racking it and re-racking it, until finally it can be bottled. It’s an ideal setup for home wine makers who’d prefer to keep cars in their garage, instead of wine making equipment.
“We would love to have more members in the wine club,” Murray said. “Doing it on your own, unless you’re ready to invest quite a bit, is going to be a pretty primitive affair.”
There’s also a ready support system in place. Diving into the endeavor without help could be quite difficult, but joining the club takes the intimidation away. “Everyone there is part of the process and knows part of the process,” said Parkinson. “From that standpoint if you’re just jumping in it’s real easy.”
Many club members work independently and have their own labels, like Murray, while others prefer to keep things simple, like Parkinson. And while Robinson has no plans to begin his own label, if he could do it all over again, things might be a little different.
Before moving to Lake County two years ago, Robinson was a Colorado resident. There, he bought California grapes and taught himself the ropes of home wine making through books and online forums. He vacationed in California, but it wasn’t until retirement that he moved here. He had no idea how much he loved wine until 10 years ago when he started making it. “If I had it to do over again, I would have come to California many years prior and I would have started my own vineyard and my own winery,” he said.
But now, Robinson is satisfied with his hobby as part of the Lake County Symphony Association Wine Club.
Home wine makers can’t sell their products, only share with family and friends, so the Home Wine and Beer Makers Festival is pretty much the only time the public gets to taste what members have spent a year (or more) working on. It’s always a satisfactory experience.
“Like most do-it-yourself projects, if you like it you want to share it with as many people as possible,” said Murray.
The festival in never a nerve-wracking affair — the response from the public is always overwhelmingly positive. “It’s like … an artist sharing his paintings, or us sharing our music,” said Parkinson.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
