About The Candle Wine Project

I am documenting my growth in what I hope will lead me to start my own business of selling cider and fruit wine.

The idea was a slow growing one. I was raised on a farm, but went to live and work in the city. The recession was coming on, and I’m always looking for ways to do things myself to save a buck. You know, go back to the basics. I moved in with my boyfriend in a house in the suburbs, and finally got to grow a garden. After my boyfriend was upgraded to fiancé, we went to a local distillery, and I was really impressed, thinking, this would be awesome to do myself, but I didn’t really do anything about it. However, there was a man in our tour group who said he had brewed cider, and I thought that would be a better starting point since my parents have six apple trees on their property. Free material source!

I got a hold of some books on cider and started reading them on my honeymoon since I now had time with the wedding being over. I was strictly thinking of doing it as a hobby at this point. There was one day, however, where I was jealous of my husband’s summers off from teaching, and the increased recession fears I was going to be laid off. This idea of having a winery suddenly popped into my head, and I’ve kind of obsessed with the idea since, knowing that I still wouldn’t get summers off.

My winery would not sell grape wine because that can be found anywhere. Instead, I draw my inspiration from Shallon Winery in Astoria, OR. It is run by an old gentleman who makes the most wonderful fruit wines, including a cranberry whey wine and a chocolate orange wine. One time I when I was there, before I had my business idea, I asked what would happen upon his death, as it would be a terrible thing to lose his recipes. Now I hope that I could purchase at least the cranberry whey wine recipe from him.

I hope you will watch as I try to turn this little hobby into a business.