Backyard Grapevines + Homemade Wines

During a recent trip to my father's house, we took our glasses of wine and bottles of brews outside to check on the status of his grapevines. 

Growing up, my dad used to purchase red and green grapes by the crates to make wine in our basement. He always made red wine, sharing his secret that 8 out of 10 crates per barrel of wine were red grapes, the other 2 crates were green, otherwise the wine would come out as black as squid ink. Even as little kids, he would let us taste his creation, barreled in the basement below our beds. 

My dad made a trellis on the doorway for the grapevines to grow up and over, and they have. They are happy in the sun and are looking lively this time of the year. A few months ago there were miniature bundles of grapes on the vines, but they were only a part of this first year's harvest, too young to make anything from them. In the next few years, my dad has hopes to harvest the few varietals that he has: some native to Florida, some native to California, and some native to Sicily.

And remember how I mentioned on this blog post that France's harvest wine came out last week? Well I definitely stocked up on bottles for the season! Definitely needed for Thanksgiving dinner, as well as the upcoming dinner party that my co-worker/classmate/dear friend and I will be designing + cooking! I do have to say, the Beaujolais Nouveau by Georges Duboeuf this year is dry-er than previous years. It's perfect for me though, I adore dry wines. I always feel like there is such spirit in this wine, as if cinnamon and nutmeg plants were growing beside the grapevines.
I'll be doing Thanksgiving dinner with S's grandparents, and hope to catch my grandparents for coffee and dessert! I should really get offline right about now so that I can at least buy all the ingredients to make my classic biscotti. One of my first blog posts, while I was still figuring out this whole blogging thing, was about my love for biscotti. I have so many different recipes, I need to get on which one to make! I'm thinking vanilla bean biscotti dipped in melted dark chocolate and drizzled with melted white chocolate. What do you think?  And to all, enjoy your Thanksgivings! 

Salut, Yelle