Wonderful thread, you all.
To add to Ray's comment - AND it's nice to know the commercial view
point, so we can expound your rationale compared to theirs for our fruit
wines dates. What interesting conversations I've learned reading this
newsgroup. thanks!


signed DAve, dated 2005 (when I started making wines) haha.

Ray Calvert wrote:
"Dar V" wrote in message
...
Joe,
It has been a very interesting discussion, and I've learned something new.
I understand the concept from the commercial point of view, but for the
home winemaker who makes something other than grape wine, it should be up
to the individual. In other words, do what is best for you so that you
drink your wine/mead at the right time when it tastes the best.
Darlene ;o)


Exactly, home wine makers do not need to be bound by the commercial
wineries. They can set their own standards within reason. You just need to
understand why commercial wineries do it they way they do. Some years you
have a good quality harvest and the next year the grapes may be of poorer
quality. If the poor quality grapes, or concentrate, were held over to the
next year and then made it a good year and labeled with the good year date
it would throw everything out of kilter. You could no longer tell by the
year which was a good wine. For them, the year must indicate when the
grapes were picked. As a home winemakers, you may be trying to show off our
your wine making abilities rather that the quality of the grape and it may
be more important to you to indicated when the wine was started. Then you
could put both dates on the label.

Ray