A Sip of Ambrosia
The nectar of the gods? or cider?
Recently, I took a trip to the Warm Glow Candle Store just outside of Centerville, Indiana. We’d sent two of our children off to university and I was feeling a bit like a mama bird without her chicks. I’d also never, in 20 years of living in east central Indiana, never been to the famous Warm Glow store. It was about time.
Okay, that’s not the full story. Someone (my apologies to whoever you are; I can’t remember) told me that they were carrying some craft beers and thought there might be possibility that they had a cider or two as well. This gave me the motivation I needed to check it out.
First, let me just say that this place is “girl nirvana.” I know there are guys that probably love it as well, but it is a nesting center if ever there was one. There’s the Watering Can which is a gift shop that centers around gardening with one of the largest selections of fairy garden supplies I’ve ever seen and fountains…oh, the fountains (I love fountains if you didn’t know). There’s the Stone Hearth Cafe. It’s a little restaurant in the main store. I glanced in and it made the short list of destinations for the near future. They have candles, home decor, yard decor, gifts, Christmas stuff, tea, coffee, reclaimed furniture, pergolas (yes, pergolas), paper goods and stationary, preserved foods, chocolate and, wait for it…alcohol.
But no cider. I kept looking at all the craft beer labels willing them to change to something that meant “this here be made from apples.” Apparently spontaneous label changing doesn’t actually happen (with the exception of LCD technology (it’s arrived, right?)). There continued to be no cider. So, I asked the lovely woman who was working in that section. She really was lovely. In fact, I dealt with two different women during this escapade and they were both lovely. Anyway, the first lovely woman confirmed my conclusion that there was no cider to be had on premises. She did, however, direct me to a variety of apple products.
The first thing she pointed me to was Figg’s Hot Apple Pie cocktail mix. While I haven’t had this myself, I’m familiar with it and it’s reputation as something to use when you need to make Everclear palatable. For me, this is never. I can get drunk from 1.5 long island iced teas. I told her “thanks, but no.” I was looking for something that would ending having an ABV of no more than 12% and was more around the 6–9%.
Then she pointed me to a couple of apple wines, both of which I bought (along with a couple truffles because…truffles) So far, I’ve tried one of them. It was J & J Winery’s Ambrosia Apple Wine. It comes in your standard 750 mL corked bottle and is labeled similarly to their own Greek-themed offerings.
First, I should point out that J&J Winery in Richmond, Indiana should not be confused with J&J Cellars in San Miguel, CA. These are two distinct wineries with no relationship with one another other than some shared initials.
I was particularly interested in the local J&J Winery because we are hoping to have a fundraising event for the library I direct, and I’m also hoping to highlight local awesomeness (which needs to be identified first). I figured with the apple wine, I could kill two birds with one stone — tasting a local wine (work related) and tasting an apple wine (me-related).
This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of eating dinner at the home of friends and brought the Ambrosia with me. I don’t know about you, but I much prefer drinking with others. They had their selection of grape wines, and I had my pretty bottle of apple wine. So, what was the verdict? It was yummy but not what I was expecting. One of my friends tasted it with me, and we both came to the same conclusion — this is more like a cider than a wine (just like Oliver’s Beanblossom Cider is more like a wine than a cider). In fact, it was very sweet for either a cider or a wine which, to me, was surprising. This is 8.5% ABV and I expected something much drier and maybe with a hint of oak or something. This was neither dry nor did it taste barrel aged.
I should let you know that I have NO clue how J&J winery makes Ambrosia. There’s hardly any information online and their website description doesn’t even mention apples. Maybe they aged it in stainless steel. I’m not sure.
So, does that mean, I didn’t like it? No. HECK no. I liked it two TALL glasses (wine glasses) worth. It just means that, first, this will not be the wine that’s chosen for the event. It’s too specific to people who really like cider drinks. Second, it’s hard to characterize this as a wine no matter what the label says. I’ve had several ciders that lean more toward wine than this. Even Original Sin (still one of my favorites) has a more sophisticated palate. That said, this is all about the apples. The bouquet at the beginning and end is apples. It’s a good semi-sweet wine with distinctly new cider characteristics.
