The Finest Wine There Ever Was

This week at glamjulz we launched our beautiful sparkly wine glass charms, just in time for summer!

I have always been a wine girl!  I was actually raised on the stuff.

My Mom and Dad both immigrated to Canada from Germany in the 50’s.  Wine is a huge part of the German culture, just as much as beer!

I was allowed to stick my finger in a glass of wine to taste it when I was a little kid and on my 10^th birthday I was given a small wine glass with apple juice in it.

As we got older my parents educated my brother and I both on alcohol and how to consume it responsibly.  We were taught at a young age how delicious certain wines tasted with different foods.  By the time I was a teenager I knew that you drank white with fish and red with steak and when Mom cooked up some delicious Bratwurst my Dad would probably want a beer.

It was available to us to have a little taste if we wanted to.  I loved how my parents were so liberal and it worked in their favour because we never looked at alcohol as something to hide from them.  We were actually the responsible kids in our circle of friends.

In the 70’s my Dad came across an English wine making book.  The book suggested that wine could be made from absolutely anything!  Dandelions, parsnips, grapefruit and bananas!  My Dad read that book and his passion was ignited!  Not only was he excited about all of the dollars he’d be saving by no longer buying store bought wine but he dreamed of creating some really good quality wine, hopefully as lovely as what he once drank at the Mosel River in Germany.

My Mom says most of the 70’s were his experimental years and not every batch turned out as heavenly as Dad had hoped.  Sometimes they had to dump the wine down the drain and head over to the LCBO for a bottle of Bright’s Cresta Roja.  Come on, this was the 70’s, remember? The selection in North America was not at all what it is today, you had to endure a headache if you were going to drink wine! Ha ha!

My Mom remembers in the beginning my Dad collecting grapes for his first “REAL” batch of wine!  He had his eyes peeled for the specials and when they came up he would buy the grapes, pull off all the stems and freeze them.  Once he had enough he was able to rent a wine press to squeeze them all.  Dad had it all figured out and the weekend of grape pressing was scheduled!  As things do not always go as planned he got called in to work overtime and he had no choice but to leave my Mom to the task.  My Mom was up for the challenge.  She took the job out to the driveway, got my brother settled in his high chair and I was her 3 year old assistant.  The whole event was an epic fail, the press was awkward and needed to be bolted to a floor, it was moving all over the place.  My poor Mom gave up and that evening my Dad said, “That’s it, I’m investing in grape juice!”

That was the day the Universe shifted and my Dad started making the most delicious wine that ever touched our lips.  He still kept up with his experiments though, my brother and I can both tell you stories about mushing up bananas with our hands through a thin organza filter in the basement! YUCK!

My Dad mastered his craft and got better and better at it.  He was the wine expert of the family for over 30 years.  Since my Dad passed away I’ve toyed with the idea of continuing his legacy but I’ve realized the commitment is too great and it’s better left as his legacy.  My Mom has a basement full of 11 carboys, a corking machine and some other wine paraphernalia! Let me know if yours is the right home for these things!  They have tremendous value with all of that passion from my Dad.

Enjoy your wine this summer and I hope your glasses will be decorated with our gorgeous little wine charms.

You know something?  They kinda sparkle just like my Dad did!

Monica XO