Now that's a sign of an impending apocalypse.
French wineries must be so fucked right now. They were already struggling before Trump tariffs because GenZ prefers cannabis.
Not due to cost as much as just aging and having some time and space, my wife and I have started making wine and mead. Actually what prompted it was moving to a place with a plum tree.
I highly recommend it; very rewarding. Pretty easy, not a huge startup cost. Delicious!
We are now rotating 6 x 5 L carboys, and making lot's of mead. We have got the process down to a very precise set of steps with careful measurement and controls. If you amortize cost for non-consumables like carboys, siphons, hygrometers, etc. and calculate only consumable cost, each batch is way cheaper than anything in a storefront, and made with love. Everything is better when made by one's own hand.
Where do you get your honey from? Do you make melomel?
We haven’t tried any melomel yet. Our backsweetening is based around warm flavors like butterscotch, maple, and vanilla so those profiles would clash.
The honey we prefer is Honning AS Ukrainian Sommer. Might be best to get from a local beekeeper, but this stuff is extremely consistent and delicious. Doesn’t really matter too much though, candidly. The fermentation strips a lot of the character.
Ooh you back sweeten? I haven't gotten into that yet as my dad tought me and preferred them dry and thought unfermented sugar is heresy or something. (Although we did try making a batch where we carmelized some of the sugar before fermenting to reduce fermentability, kind of tasted like marshmallows)
How does the maple taste? I love maple.
Our first few batches were not backsweetened. They were a bit dry but I still love the flavor. But the backsweetening is actually a fun bit of alchemy itself. Some people think it is heresy for purity reasons, and that is a-okay, but to the worries some have that it is unsafe, that can be mitigated. We actually pasteurize, so it is no bottle bomb issue.
The maple is really good. Maple and vanilla are 2 of my favorite flavors, but my wife talked me into the butterscotch extract and it actually turned a corner. Like, it leveled it up way further than I expected.
The caramelization idea is interesting. Maybe we should experiment.
So much good cheap wine is available in France I think there's something else going on. A global wine glut has been in the news here in California as well. There's a whiskey glut as well (might be distilled spirits in general). Could it be because cannabis is more available? Or perhaps more people are on meds that limit their intake of alcohol?
Its just GenZ having a very different outlook on alcohol, I am sure having cannabis as alternative helps with that outlook.
Beer is just more popular with young people in France atm
Drinking more cheap wine than expensive wine, more like.
More mead please
Honey is money
None of them can afford water, neither sparkling nor flat.
But- but they're the revolution people!
So the economical strain causes an identity crisis for France. When will they surrender?
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