Scuplin Wine

It seems like just yesterday that I was 12 years old. I would spend my summers at my granny and granddaddy Downs' house. It was a small wood frame home with an inviting porch across the front, complete with a porch swing. The house was nestled between Oak and Pecan trees. The Pecan trees provided ingredients for baking during the fall. The oak trees provided entertainment by giving us "ammunition" to shoot at each other. Who knew that a small piece of PVC pipe could be bent to make an "acorn" gun? And believe me when I tell you that if you could sling that pipe just right, when those acorns hit your bare legs, it would make you want to surrender!

My cousin Krysten and I spent many a warm summer day under those oak trees in that yard. We entertained ourselves by playing "Ann Varnum". For those of you reading this who are not from the Wiregrass area, Ann Varnum was a local television reporter. She had a morning talk show that included cooking segments. So, krysten and I would pretend that we were on her morning show and we were cooking for the camera. There was ALOT of times that we got in trouble for "picking" flowers to use in our recipes or swiping a spoon or two from the kitchen to dig in the dirt with.

The summers were always packed full of activities that we were required to help with. Begrudgingly of course! Canning, freezing, preserving all modes of food storage were used during the summer. I remember many early morning trips to Slocomb to pick tomatoes. We would leave their house before the sun came up. Grandaddy would stop by Hardees to get us a jelly biscuit and we were on our way. We would get to the field before the dew had dried. There is absolutely nothing like the smell of thousands of wet tomato plants. Many five gallon buckets full were picked over those years. They canned everything they could with tomatoes. Plain crushed tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, etc.

I can't remember everything that they canned and preserved. However, if it grew on a vine or plant and it was edible..they would process it and put it away to use another season.

One of the many things that stick out in my mind about summer and granny and granddaddy's house was the large Scuplin vine in their back yard. At one point it was almost half the size of their house!

For those of you that don't know what Scuplin's are, I will elaborate. Scuplins are also known as Scuppernongs or Muscadines and are a relative of the grape. They are native to the southeastern region of the U.S. The smell and taste of these grapes are so distinctive. I can still hear the screen door slamming behind me as I step out onto the steps and take a deep breath of Scuplin seasoned air. It was such a comforting smell. The only downside to that smell was that it always signaled school was about to start back.

Granny would send us out into the yard to pick Scuplin's. It's funny because it was always much more fun to pick them when we weren't supposed to. granny also had a regular grape vine in the yard. She made us kids some wonderful grape juice and grape jelly. Along with grape juice, she also made some juice out of Scuplin's that was more of an adult version. Although she didn't really tell us kids at the time what it was, Granny made Scuplin wine.

In my many years with them, I never saw her drink that Scuplin wine. I still believe she was an angel and it was just to use for her Christmas fruitcakes.

A few years ago, two girls that worked for me and myself set out on a beach trip. Low and behold as we exited off the interstate there was a winery. I had always wanted to go to a winery for a tasting. So we stopped by and checked it out. I took one sniff of that wine and knew immediately what it was... Scuplin wine. Honestly, I didn't really care for it all that much but I bought a case of it. I was even able to share a bottle of it with my Granny. I think she really liked it. She always tried to bring so much joy into my life, it was so rewarding to try and do that for her as I got older.

The other night, Bryan and I had some friends over for dinner. We broke out the wine that we had accumulated at several different wineries along the way. 80% of the wine we drank that evening was from Scuplin's. The wine is not necessarily on my top 10 favorites list. However, it's worth every penny when I pop the cork and the sweet smell of scuplins hits me. In that small fleeting moment I am 12 years old again underneath those oak trees and any minute Granny is going to call for me from the back porch.

7/3/2011

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