Prime wines keep coming
After 61 years of making wine Eric Armstrong can still make a good drop. The Bishopdale winemaker won five out of the six wine making cups on offer at the Nelson A&P Show.
‘‘They thought they were going to knock the old dog off the perch, but they didn’t quite make it this time,’’ Eric says.
His grapefruit and lemon sweet wine was named Champion Wine of the Show, and judges were impressed by its balance.
Eric said he whipped up a small batch of the wine using his grapefruit ‘‘from out the back and lemons from round and about.
‘‘I must have done a good job of slapping it together.’’
Eric, is a judge at national wine competitions, and set up the Small Sips Winemaking Group three years ago. The group which has 33 members meets twice monthly at his house.
‘‘It was once a month and one or two said they wanted to meet more often. I said you can if you like. I’m sitting here on my own at home.’’
Eric runs the evening and people taste samples. He shares his decades of wine making knowledge. He started making wine in 1953.
‘‘I called it Small Sips, because it is not a booze up.’’
Eric says there are loads of wine varieties around including vegetable and flower wine.
He is currently making a dandelion wine made from dandelions he saw while breaking up a trip in Culverden.
‘‘I said to Kelvin Banks, Small Sips is having a herbs wine night. Next thing we were on our hands and knees picking all these dandelions.’’
Eric still works three part days a week at Nelson College sharpening tools and looking after the equipment in the technical block.
He’s been there 19 years after retiring from his building job as a foreman.
‘‘It’s hard work in that building game.’’
He had his stomach cut out from stomach cancer a few years ago, but likes to look on the bright side. ‘‘Life is for living. ‘‘That is one of the reasons I started this club going.
‘‘I’m not dead, I’ve got stuff to offer people.’’