I’m not a wine expert. I can’t tell you if a wine has hints of pear or raspberry or oak or chocolate. I can barely detect the difference between a cheap wine and an even cheaper one. I suppose my palette isn’t that delicate or maybe I just need to drink more wine!
The irony of this is that I make my own wine. Because I have kids. Let me explain…
My family are beer makers. My dad, my two brothers-in-law, and even my husband have dabbled in the brewing world. Taste testing the newest batch is always fun! And while I do enjoy a good ice cold beer on a hot day, wine is my preferred adult beverage of choice. Specifically, red wine (but I don’t discriminate!). After my daughter was born, I knew I needed a hobby–something I could do for me, for my sanity, for fun! So I got into making my own wine, which is actually quite simple, much more so than making beer.
I willingly admit that my first couple batches were a bust. As the wine ferments, it gets carbonated with the gas from the yeast. You can mix the wine to release a lot of the gas, but you realllllly got to mix it. I did not mix my first couple of batches. And my older sister lovingly told me that the carbonated red wine she tried tasted like a butt with fart bubbles of yeast bursting in your mouth. Possibly the worst wine review ever. But I have improved!
Except for my last batch. It’s a cabernet sauvignon and it’s drinkable, but there’s something just a bit off. Like it lost the alcohol somehow? Not sure, but I’ve got SIX GALLONS sitting in my basement and good golly what the heck do I do with it? Why, hello Pinterest…
My search has turned up several out of the box recipes that highlight the glory that is red wine, and I just had to share them because RED WINE ICE CREAM people!
[xyz-ihs snippet=”WineIceCream”]
Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Red Wine Popsicles
[xyz-ihs snippet=”winePopsicle”]
Red Wine Truffles
[xyz-ihs snippet=”winetruffles”]
Red Wine Burgers with Caramelized Onions and Goat Cheese
[xyz-ihs snippet=”wineburger”]
Red Wine Hot Chocolate
[xyz-ihs snippet=”winehotchocolate”]
Red Wine Iced Tea Sangria
[xyz-ihs snippet=”wineicedtea”]
Chocolate Red Wine Cupcakes
[xyz-ihs snippet=”winecupcakes”]
Cheesecake Bars with Wine Gelée
[xyz-ihs snippet=”winecheesecake”]
Red Wine Ice Cream Float
[xyz-ihs snippet=”wineicecreamfloat”]
