A Bottled Hobby

It’s one thing to make a grape jam, another to make a jammy wine. But you can do both, in the comfort of your own home, and still enter to win at the California State Fair, which is accepting entries for its 2008 Home Wine Competition until June 28. You have to be 21, or else they’d have to award you handcuffs with that blue ribbon, and you can’t be a commercial winemaker, so you don’t have to worry about competing with Bob Lindquist wearing Groucho glasses. But you do have to take this seriously-last year’s red wine winner, Richard Valentine of Saratoga, offered up his 2002 (!!) Cabernet Sauvignon for judging. That means you’d better have that wine started by now. The good news is they’ll take you very seriously, as all wines entered are given judge’s tasting notes and scores. The awards ceremony is held August 27 during the 2008 California State Fair in Sacramento. To apply, go online to bigfun.org. If you have questions, contact G.M. “Pooch” Pucilowski at (916) 961-6150 or GMPooch@pacbell.net.