omg, that's disgusting....

I decided to open up a bottle of my wine and try it.  Its recommended that it spends 4 months in the bottle, and this has only been in for 1+.  But when I bottled it, it tasted pretty good - so I thought it might be drinkable.

Its drinkable alright - if you like turpentine and mouthwash with a subtle after-taste of battery acid.  It was disgusting...it needs to age.

look what we got!

Well, there goes the money to reside the house....

AJ and I are both water people, but since body-surfing and swimming are generally 'out' in the frigid Puget Sound, our relationship with the water has floundered.  And what does a floundering water-relationship need? Kayaks of course!  

Adrienne noticed that recently on Craigslist, people are apparently spring cleaning and seemingly just want to get rid of stuff because things are cheap.  She saw these online this morning, called immediately and secured the sale.  Between our phone call and picking them up, about a hundred other folks inquired - some even offering considerably more money - but the guy already promised them to us, so we lucked out.  Included in the sale: life vests, spray-skirts, paddles, roof rack, and two 15' touring kayaks.  

We bought 'em for pennies, drove straight to the Sound, and gave them a spin.  Awesome!   

branding

I'm thinking that when we're done saving the oceans, perhaps Adrienne and I can just sell our wares out of an old station wagon.  Today I bottled batch number 4 and 5 of my wine while drinking a beer that Adrienne made last fall.  Meanwhile, AJ was making all sorts of delicious things from scratch in the kitchen - Kimchee, vegan fish sauce, and BBQ sauce.  She asked me to make some labels for her goods - thus The 20th Avenue brand is born.  My wine is from The 20th Avenue Cellar.  AJ's assorted goods are from The 20th Avenue Kitchen.  Our garden is ramping up to be most prodigious - so we will soon have fresh produce from The 20th Avenue Garden.

Stay tuned folks - I think we'll be a worldwide household name soon.... 

indonesia

AJ and I returned from Indonesia last night.  The trip was over-the-top stellar and has whetted our appetite for more excursions to southeast Asia.  We visited the world-famous beach breaks and cultural centers of Bali, and chilled like professional chillers on Pulau Bunaken where coral walls fringe the shoreline.  A couple pictures are below, but I will be sure to add many more in a folder at my flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjmeyerphotos/) - check back soon!

batch one

Behold - the first bottling.  Vintage 1 of The 20th Avenue Cellar.

pop, pop, fizzle fizzzz

That's the sound our closet makes.

To be clear, our guest bedroom closet has been turned into Moonshine Central.  Adrienne got her second batch of beer going in as many months, and I have three one-gallon jugs of apple wine fermenting.  These nascent alcoholic beverages love the dark closet as the yeasts do their thing, turning sugar into alcohol.  They off-gas, so what you see are copious amounts of bubbles dashing to the surface in each of these containers, going 'pop, pop, fizzle, fizz' all the way to the top. Its an orchestra of carbonic action in there....

it begins

What you see above is my first jug of wine.  Apple wine, to be precise.  In 6 months, this will be nearing perfection and ready to be enjoyed on a nice, hot, summer day.  Here marks the beginning of my career as a winemaker - I predict an award winning amateur Pinot in about 6-8 years....

Addendum

I made two other batches tonight (Feb 5th) - each with slight variations of the same ingredients.  "A" is the original from above, "B" and "C" are new.  Its the next suggested step in my beginner wine-making book.  The point is to learn what more/less fruit, more/less sugar, or going with/without different juices does to the wine.  So far this is really easy - I hope I am not totally screwing this up...