By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
It was a tough job on a hot day at the Crawford County Fair, but somebody had to judge the homemade wine competition.
The wines were divided into 11 groupings from reds and whites, dry and sweets, those made with grapes, and those made with other fruits and berries.
Senior Judge Ben Danals explained what judges were looking for in the different wines in the competition.
“Well you look at the standards kind of like as if you were at dinner, or just at home enjoying a bottle of wine,” Danals said. “But when you are making a determination on how to place your wines you are going to talk about how does it linger on your tongue, does it have good color and clarity, does it have a lot of sediment in the glass, does it have a nice the word they use is bouquet, but does it perfume nicely before you taste it. And does it taste like it is supposed to. If it is supposed to be dry does it taste dry, or is it a more sweet wine.”
Taking first for red dry grape Ray Hartman explained how he achieved his technique of making the dry wine.
. “This was a blend of Concord, and Niagara both Ohio native grapes. And I always buy my juice at some of the wineries that sell the home wine making kits. So of course I have to buy in the fall when they are fresh,” Hartman said. “So it is a limited time when I get the juice and ferment it in glass; a glass carboy. And so I ferment it to dryness.”
Revealing that his preferred wine wasn’t a dry wine Hartman continued, “I don’t like to drink it that way so I sweeten it to my taste, but I always set some aside for the fair entry that is dry. “
Many of the contested wines came down to small nuances in the wine making technique, in the rose wine it was a simple aroma that won first place.