Welcome to Diary of a Distiller. I am in the process of moving the content over from the old site. The biggest problem with moving the old content over is the photos. So the text will be here, but photos will have to slowly follow. Until then you can read the old content in the Archives.
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Diary of a Distiller: Chapter 30 - Done for the Day
By JMF on Dec 12, 2008 | In Main | Send feedback »
Over the weekend we had a very busy time at the Winery. Saturday night was the culmination of a month of work by several dozen people from the area who entered in our Gingerbread House competition for charity. We have had several classes a week on how to make and decorate gingerbread houses and ended up with almost thrity contestants. There were five categories: Professional, Under 17, Traditional, Historical, and Fantasy. There were some absolutely wonderful creations, and I was surprised at the quality of all the entries, especially the fact that some of the best were by people who had never done this before.
Sunday night I went to a Sunday Night Cocktail event hosted by my friend and award winning mixologist, Lydia Reismueller, formerly of the speakeasy style cocktail bar PDT and restaurant/cocktail bar Elettaria in NYC. Lydia has been having these Sunday events for the past two months at the Westcot Forge restaurant in Blue Hill, ME and they have been a big success. I tried a few of her new creations and said my good-bye's for the season, as she heads off to travel the world until March with her chef boyfriend. I'm already looking forward to when she starts up the Cocktail Sundays again next Spring when she comes back to manage one of the excellent, local, organic farms.
Diary of a Distiller: Chapter 29 - 75th Anniversary of Repeal Day
By JMF on Dec 5, 2008 | In Main | Send feedback »
Today is the 75th Anniversary of Repeal Day, a day of celebration and rejoicing of the end of one of this nations debacles in judgment, Prohibition. Although Prohibition only lasted for 13-14 years on a national level, it was in force for many decades prior in several states. Here in Maine it started in 1851.
I'm starting off my day with a business meeting of the Maine Winery Guild. Last year I kick-started the association into forming and this will be our third business meeting. Owners of most of Maine's 18+ wineries will be there. I also invited the owners of the State's micro-distilleries to attend, so we can decide whether to join the Maine Winery guild, or start a separate association. I know that after-wards a few of us will be celebrating Repeal Day by tasting each others products.
