Waseca Garden Club features homemade wine making

The Waseca Garden Club, which meets the fourth Monday of each month, met at the Southern Research and Outreach Center (SROC) on Monday, Sept. 22. The evening featured Bev and Marshall Herfindahl for a wine making presentation; about 25 people attended. The Waseca Garden Club has been meeting for forty years, with the first meeting taking place at the SROC on Sept. 19, 1985. All Waseca Garden Club meetings are free and open to the public. 

 

After club president Dacia Hinkhouse opened the meeting, the demonstration began with an invitation to taste any or many of nine homemade wines set out on a table. Half the wines were white and half were red. Said Marshall, “The flavors go in order starting with the sweetest first.” The sweet wines were “clear”;  the flavor of the reds became dryer the further along the samplers got. 

 

Bev said, “Marshall has been making wine the longest because he made it for the first time in his dorm room in college. Then, when it was ready, he drank the entire gallon in a single night.” There was a collective groan from the club and a member said, “All that work for just one night.” Marshall stated he has learned a few things since then. 

 

The Herfindahls make their wine from commercially created kits. Said Marshall, “I suggest when you do it, to buy everything in the kit. If it says it stays in the bucket for two weeks, then it stays in the bucket for two weeks. Just follow the directions.” He had a six- and a five-gallon bucket with a hole cut in the top. He showed how to use the tool he called a “De-gasser, to be used after the yeast is poured in and pressure starts to build.” 

 

Bev continued, “What starts out in a six-gallon bucket with the water and concentrate, is then poured into a five-gallon bucket once all the crushed grapes are removed and the fermentation has begun. We don’t crush the grapes, they come like that in a bag.

 

“Fermentation occurs naturally as tiny organisms from the yeast turn the sugar in the grape juice into alcohol. Two more weeks in the five-gallon bucket will get you 24 bottles of wine. For flavor there’s sugar or wood chips.”  

 

Marshall added, “We did beer for a very short time, but one case of beer will get you 54 bottles and I can’t drink that much beer in a year, so we just stick with wine.”

 

Bev said, “If you want to sell your wine you have to get a license, so we mostly just give our wines away or drink them, we also donate quite a bit.” A question was asked about different flavors of the same wines and if those differences were because of the season the wines were bottled. Marshall answered, “We do this in our basement and we have special tools wrapped around the buckets that keep the wine a constant 70 degrees, that’s in either winter or summer.”

 

Another guest asked about cabernet being such a dark color. Marshall responded, “The dark color of Cabernet Sauvignon is due to the thick skin of the grapes, which contains pigments.” The couple were also asked if they’ve ever tried making wine without the kits and Bev replied, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We’re pretty happy with the kits so we’ll just do that for now.”

 

This week’s refreshments were provided by Pat Forshee and Jane Lau and they served apple cake, veggie pizza and assorted nuts and mints. The Waseca Garden Club will meet again on Monday, Oct. 27 and will feature a discussion on Spruce Tops by Pat Forshee, this is free and the public is encouraged to attend.