At our various Museum events, our members have truly enjoyed sharing the wines I have made as part of a wine club. We have served Museum Merlot (a red wine) and Flying Ace White (a chardonnay) at some of our member functions in the past year.

The wine club I belong to is run by Lindsay Austin, whose facility is called Kings Hill Cellars. Lindsay sources the grapes and has chosen great vineyards with a history of flavorful fruit. We crush, press, choose the type of fermentation, and later do the blending. (For example, this year I chose to blend 5% Syrah with the Merlot). This is after the mixture has been in oak or stainless steel containers for 6 months.

The last step is the bottling, which we did last weekend.

Expect to taste some of these wines at upcoming Museum events (but not too soon—as we will serve no wine before its time!).

I have lived in “wine country” for 45 years and have taken many winery tours. However, until I did the process myself, the explanations from the tours were just so many words. Now I can talk about it from experience, which is what I like.

For more images, check out the Schulz Museum’s Facebook page.

—Jean Schulz