Making California Wines in Florida

Most people know that you can't grow California grapes in the Florida heat, but they might not know that it is possible to make California style wines in Florida. How, you ask? Pardo Wine Grapes to the rescue.

This Tampa family has been bringing California grapes and juice to Tampa for decades. Home wine making hobbiests drive from as far away as Port Lucie to purchase grapes and juices from this family run operation.

A lot of people make wines at home by using grape juice concentrates, but it's not the only way. If you plan ahead, it's possible to make wine from freshly pressed grapes right here in Florida.

More details from the website:

You can order refrigerated buckets of freshly pressed grape juice shipped from California ready for you to ferment. This juice is not a concentrate or a sterile pasteurized product. It’s the juice of freshly pressed grapes, refrigerated to retard fermentation and shipped to Tampa. Renew a tradition practiced by your ancestors or start one in your family. Make 5 gallons or a barrel, it’s up to you.

If you want to make a traditional style wine, but want to learn the basics first there are several 4 week wine making kits available.

Wine Anyone?

I'm not really a wine drinker.  I'm more of an occasional beer drinker (I'll save that for a future post), but a few wine oriented websites recently caught my attention.  The Wine Bloggers  and South Florida Food and Wine provide wine reviews and opinions for wines at various price ranges.  There's also a wine Meet Up group.)  Backroads Wine recently wrote an article about Florida wine attractions that sounds promising. 

Speaking of wine tours, I recommend Lakeridge Winery in Clermont, FL. It's been operating since 1989 and is one of the most successful wineries in the State.  I've been there a few times and always learn something new during the informal tour and video presentation.  Best of all it's free and, if you're like me and don't have a special taste for wine, you can always buy some as a gift for your friends and relatives that do. 

Florida Wine Fact:  Did you know that wineries in Florida use specially developed varieties of grapes that tolerate the summer temperatures better than the traditional varieties you find in California or New York?

From the Lakeridge Winery website:

Lakeridge Winery is situated among the rolling hills of Clermont. You will find it a delightful place to enjoy while you are visiting central Florida. Complimentary Tours and Wine Tasting are offered seven days a week. Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. until 5p.m. and Sunday - 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tours usually run every 15-20 minutes and begin in the upstairs theater to view a 12 minute video presentation which shows the growing of the Florida grapes to the wine making process and the finishing with the bottling and labeling.

If you don't live near Central Florida, you can also find wine from Lakeridge at various retailers by using their locator tool. I tried it and discovered that their Southern Red and Southern White varieties are available at many Publix supermarkets in the Tampa area.

For those who made it this far....I do realize that the wine in the picture was imported from South Africa.  My wife received it as a gift and it's all I had available to accompany this article. I'll do better next time - promise!