A Little Background (and Theology)
I'm a Baptist. A Southern Baptist, actually. I have, over the course of the last 25 years, spent time inside other denominations and even been a member of a couple of non-Baptist Churches, but I always end up back in a Baptist church.
I also make wine in my home. And while that may seem like a contradiction, one of the things I like most about being a Baptist is that there is a focus within the church on individual interpretation of scripture.
The majority of the Christian world teaches that the consumption of alcohol in itself is not contrary to good Christian living in any way: drunkeness is a sin, but drinking in moderation is acceptable. Many churches even use alcohol (in the form of wine) in religious services. The Southern Baptist Convention, as a denomination, has generally taken the position that either alcohol (in and of itself) is bad or that comsumption of alcohol (in any amount) was wrong.
After looking at the Bible myself, my conclusion is that the majority of Christianity is right in this case and that the Baptists are simply stuck with a historic position. Fortunately, part of being a Baptist is that on non-essential theological issues, I get to disagree with the church without losing my place in it.
My Wine
Last year, I made a couple of gallons of blackberry wine from berries picked wild near my home. This year I've expanded production a little to about a dozen gallons of wine and a few other flavors.
About a third of what I'm making this year is watermelon - made from melons grown in our garden here. I received some rave reviews of my watermelon wine at a friend's house earlier this year.
Second to the watermelon this year will be some blueberry wine. The berries were transported from my wife's childhood home in Red House, Md. I used champage yeast with the blueberries and we will probably get about a dozen 750ml bottles out of the batch.
Other flavors this year include red grape, white grape, a white grape-peach mix, a straight peach, strawberry, and raspberry. At the moment I'm considering adding a batch of rhubarb wine to my cellar.
Some Wineries Online...
The Kirkwood Winery in Summersville, WV, is probably my favorite winery at the moment. We drive past the winery on our way from Tazewell, Va., to Red House, Md., when we go to visit my in-laws.
