In the last week I have had at least 5 people (all 50-ish women) looking for 'The Blueberry Wine" and all were quite surprised we didn’t have any.
Has Franzia or Gallo put something out that is generating this?
Come on Roberto, get with the times! Didn’t you see Parker’s review of blueberry wines saying that they have tremendous aging potential, 20 years plus 
The strongest blueberry flavors I’ve ever had in a wine were Thackerey Orion many years ago…
Cheers,
Hal
There’s one that can go well beyond 20 years. seriously.
Seriously, they were looking for fruit wine and one that was relatively cheap and seems to have big distribution (maybe in BevMo and CVS drugstores?).
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I no have word
Blueberry port out in NYC. Haven’t heard about blueberry wine.
However, I did have a sour cherry wine from Michigan that was not really all that bad. Took a bit of mental effort to accept it, but once I got over that, the wine could pass for some kind of Sangiovese/Barbera/Tempranillo concoction, with more pronounced sour cherry flavors than any of those. No sweetness, fermented dry. Surprisingly drinkable.
We once sold a dry raspberry wine from Alba, New Jersey that was pretty good.
My first thought was Bargetto’s Chaucer’s line of Meads and fruit wines but a look at their website doesn’t show a Blueberry. Some Blueberry wines show up on cellar tracker by searching under “fruit wine” but nothing jumps out as having big distribution.
I’ve had lots of fruit wine, but usually at “wineries” in Connecticut and Maine. Some made out of blueberries. Rhubarb is common as well. I’ve never liked it when I had it (it’s hardly wine in the sense of the drink from wine grapes and almost always sickeningly sweet) and would be surprised if you could find it distributed widely. It’s the sort of thing they make in places where you can’t grow grapes very well?
Paging Kirk.Grant.
Yes, there is at least one!
Rhubarb isn’t even a fruit! Ugh!
I think it is hyped to be some sort of healthy version of wine because of the antioxidants in blueberries. The only time I’ve had blueberry wine was in Vermont. It was horrendous.
Paul Thomas in Washington at lease used to make a FANTASTIC dry rosé from Rhubarb:
I had that stuff on the wine list at Antoine’s in NOLA when I worked there. A relative of the owner had found it in a health food store and demanded we try it. It was good!
Santa Monica carries its’ own vibe.
Markus, most of these women looked to me to be midwestern tourists, the sort who are shocked to find we don’t sell Blackberry Brandy or Peachtree “Schnapps”…
I’m sure it has potential to be really interesting. I’ve always had it at places started by families on their farms on the side of the road as a tourist stop. (They often have a Verizon tower in their silo as well.) People stop in on the wine trail, eat some barbecue, have some rhubarb or strawberry wine, and take a couple bottles for the road. The lists are usually rounded out with some wine made from anonymous trucked in California grapes. Typically low acid, high oak chip wines lacking character.
I bet if the stuff is made by a real winemaker who takes her winemaking seriously, fruit wine could be an interesting proposition. It sounds like you’ve already laid out some good examples, Roberto.
Yes, but my real question is: has one of the big boys gotten into this and made it more of a mass market thing? If there IS some getting some traction at BevMo or the markets, I want to be able to tell the customers that (just like with Almond or Peach “champagne”).
Both Doug S. and Glenn L. have had Bob Bartlett’s Blueberry Reserve made here in Maine. While Glenn has only had the 2005 Reserve…Doug’s had some from the 80’s and early 2000’s. All in all these are wines that are worthy of 20+ years in the cellar. They’re serious wines…and they’re a serious value in my mind. Only 8 years ago the Reserve was only $25/bottle…even now at $50 it’s still a steal. If you don’t want to drop the coin…buy the “Oak Dry Blueberry” for only $24. He also makes a Reserve Pear that needs 10+ years in the bottle before it starts to hit it’s drinking window for only about $35.
I have a small cellar…but I think these wines stand well against the other “gems” in my cellar like G. Conterno, D. Dagueneau, Musar, and Cantillon.