This is my last visit to Younity Winery for the purpose of my Environmental Photography project, from now on I'll just visit for fun! This was the first time I called ahead before going over; I knew that Clem was in the off-season, so there could be the chance of him not being there. But I called and discovered that he was busy packaging up a wine we hadn't tasted yet. This new one is called Brieanna, named after their daughter, and it's made with Brianna grapes! Clem happily invited us over to taste, and we bought three bottles of it (at a great discount). I think this is number one on my favorite Younity wine list; Brieanna has a kind of tropical taste, it's not dry, but not too sweet, I mostly enjoyed the balance of fruity flavor on the back of my tongue. There was only one other person here today, a professor from Unity College who also bought a bottle of Brieanna. This visit wasn't as long as others have been, Clem had a lot more packaging to do and preparations to make for his pear wine. I have shared many of my best photographs from this semester with Clem, and he thanked me greatly for providing him with my work. We bought our wines, hugged goodbye for now, and wished each other a Merry Christmas. In the spring, I hope to be able to make more trips to Younity Winery and bring other friends and family here to enjoy the experience of a small town wine business with big flavors and great memories. #maineingredient #unitymaine #winelove #younitywinery
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This last visit to the Younity Winery was very productive, informational, and enjoyable. I asked Clem for a more in-depth tour of the wine production area since this time it was just myself and four other friends visiting. Enthusiastically, Clem led us to the room where there were about six 250 gallon buckets all holding fruit in the process of fermentation. Currently, there are blueberries fermenting for the House Wine, two varieties of pears fermenting for the I Got A Pear...Wine, Pumpkin for the Pie-Eyed, and Niagara grapes for Over the Barrel. The pears had just begun fermenting the day before, and we could hear the fizzing of the yeast eating sugar. All the fruit ferments for about a month and a half; yeast is added to the 700 level (we didn't really learn what this meant), then sugar is added as food for the yeast, which also displaces the fruit so they float. When the fruit stops floating and there's no more fizzing sound, that means the fruit isn't fermenting anymore. The entire room has to be kept between 65-70 degrees, because the yeast won't work below 60. Clem also had a half batch - around 300 pounds - of elderberries fermenting for about 3 weeks to go in the Palmer Sisters wine. Sometimes, people will just call Clem up because they have a surplus of random fruits for him to collect and make a wine out of, which Clem loves because his favorite thing to do is have fun with his wine making. Clem also mentioned that coming up soon (I forget the date) is Small Business Saturday, where the winery boxes up a bunch of full cases of mixed-variety wine bottles and sell them for only $10. While visiting, we got to hear the story of how they winery came to be called Younity Winery; apparently when Clem and his wife started the business they named it Unity Winery, but a wealthy winery owner in California had the name "Unity" already trademarked for his winery and told Clem he couldn't use that name. After putting up a small fight, Clem decided to alter the name slightly to "Younity" because, as he says, "it's not about me, it's about you", since the customers are the "Maine ingredient". #maineingredient #unitymaine #winelove #younitywinery "Wine doesn't have to be normal, have fun with it." Clem and his wife are looking at retirement soon, and they already have a few interested buyers for the winery. However, Clem is going to be picky about selling the business because he wants the new owner to carry on his way of creating new wines, having fun with the process, and sharing in his overall enthusiastic personality. Fewer people show up to the winery in the fall, but from what I've seen it's still a good amount of customers for a slow part of the season. It's clear that knowledge of Younity Winery has reached far beyond Maine, and it's popularity can only grow bigger.
#maineingredient #unitymaine #winelove #younitywinery My last visit to Younity Winery was probably the most fun so far; Clem recognizes me and usually my friends as soon as we walk in the door and this time, we all got introduced as the college kids who come to visit "every weekend". That day there was an adorable family from Georgia visiting the winery, they were super friendly, talkative, and laughed at all of Clem's bad puns (which he makes frequently). Today I got to learn more about some of the wines I've been drinking nearly every weekend now; the Blue Fusion wine is one that some people either love or hate because it tastes pretty much like the vinaigrette you put on a salad...and there are some who actually do put it on their salad. This wine is over oxidized to give it that vinegar taste because, in Clem's words, "why not have fun with it." There was a visitor from Napa Valley once who tried the Blue Fusion and Clem thinks he is crazy for loving that wine so much. All of the grapes grown at the Younity Winery are American and have only been grown for about 100 years. More recently, turkeys have become a problem for the vineyard - they will mercilessly eat grapes to the point where one year, the winery couldn't sell a particular wine because all the grapes were gone! Besides turkeys, irregular weather patterns and drought have made it difficult to grow grapes in Maine, especially since the season for growing is much shorter here than in locations with a warmer climate. A family from Israel came to visit the winery, a father, mother, and 2 year old son. They'd been living in Maryland for two years and enjoy staying in Maine when their son's grandparents visit from Israel. Younity Winery sells all over the state of Maine, but very little across the country. Despite this, some very interesting people from places around the world end up in Clem's tasting room. #maineingredient #unitymaine #winelove #younitywinery
The Younity Winery is open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9am to 6pm and the owner can be reached during the weekdays by phone or sometimes just stopping by. This schedule is good news for me, as my class schedule during the week is pretty filled with classes and homework. So far, I have not run into any trouble with photographing on site, the whole location is open to my camera. I am planning to discuss with Clem the possibility of using some of the photographs I generate to help upgrade their website and add more imagery overall. In later meetings, I hope to talk to Clem about some of the impacts he's seen (if any) in the community since the winery opened, and I hope to talk about how climate change has been an issue in the wine making process as the grapes have suffered from drought. I have learned a few things about the winery itself and the people who run it; for example, I know that this winery (like a lot of others) started out small, and is still only run by the owner and his wife. I also know that all the wine labels were hand drawn by a woman who also illustrates children's books. While this winery is unique in many ways, it's really the passion that goes into making the wine that makes it so much better than your average grape juice.
After getting the all-clear to base my entire semester's project for this class on the local winery, I decided to pay a visit, which turned out to be a really great way to end a Sunday. I had read up on the business beforehand, looking at reviews and comments online, and a popular opinion was that not only was the winery highly enjoyable, so was the company. As soon as my two roommates and I arrived I found this to be quite true; we were surprised to see so many cars outside (after all, it was a Sunday evening). We followed the big "Younity Winery Tastings" sign around to the back door and immediately found ourselves in the middle of a group of already tipsy wine-tasters. We were welcomed inside by the owner's dog, Pepper, and within five minutes we all were holding large wine glasses and laughing through each taste of wine we were given (which was nearly every one). Clem, the owner, immediately asked all of us our names and upon hearing mine, was instantly overjoyed that I had come in for a visit. "Everyone, this is Dakota the photographer," he announced to the room of strangers. After this we were all enthusiastically informed on each wine we got a taste of: from what grapes were used (or in some cases, what apples, peaches, or pears), what kind of climate the grapes like, which wines were top-sellers, we even learned what legs were in the wine world (don't ask me to remember though because I was already feeling the wine at that point). After getting a short but nonetheless enthusiastic tour of where the wine is made, my roommates and I selected a few wines to purchase, and everyone got to keep their tasting glasses. With that, we said our goodbyes for now, Clem gave us all big hugs, and I already can't wait to visit again. |
Dakota QuennevilleI am 21 years old, attending college in Maine. I have a huge passion for photography, and I really love dogs. Archives
December 2017
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