Winemaker’s Notes for June 2025

Greetings again from the wine crafting cellar at Hermit Woods Winery.  

Ken and assistant winemaker Ben have been busy this past June: 

• June is RHUBARB time in New Hampshire.  We purchased rhubarb from two local growers, Ken and his wife Maya harvested rhubarb from a 50-year old patch at a friends home and also from their own (much younger) backyard patch.
• Two experimental batches of rhubarb wine are underway as I type this, both fermented in our upright, French Oak barrel fermenter.
• Ben and I also finished and bottled a beautiful batch of Blueberry Mead which is now available in our Tasting Room.  Also, we bottled the next batch of Deep Blue: a very popular wine we do not want to run out of.
• We also bottled a wonderful batch of Deep Blue Reserve which has spent over 2 years in a French Oak barrel without being topped up allowing the wine to become slightly oxidized resulting in a myriad of complex, port-like aromas and flavors.
• We’ve also located a local supplier of high quality blackberries!  This has been a goal of ours and will now allow us to elevate such favorite red wines as Red Scare and Hermitage.
• A NEW WINE is underway, it is carbonated and made from wild blueberries, called Blueberries Aux Bubbles! (A revised form of our popular ‘Wild Blue’).  Cans of this wine should be released the first week of July.
• We also canned another batch of Blueberry Cider, which has become very popular.
• Ben and I also made some progress on our new Vermouth-like product and hope to bottle that in July … stay tuned!

Hope to see you here soon; stop by the cellar anytime. 

Cheers!

Ken