My Dry Farm Wine Experience
To me, wines are an experience, a shared moment.
One, in particular, I remember fondly of a romantic evening paired with a pinot noir. Smelling the cork was an occasion, causing me to linger and take my time, piquing my curiosity. The anticipation of sipping was building. I swirled my wine glass and smelled, filling my nose with spice and fruit. I swirled and smelled again.
We clinked our glasses together in cheers. I sipped, and the taste turned into more than the liquid in my glass as I stared into his light brown eyes. The flavor was rich, open, and comfortable like the evening out with my soon to be husband. Our hands were intertwined, and each glass was as satisfying as the last. Our chemistry was flowing like the wine.
The experience is one I won’t forget, along with the wine that accompanied it. This is one reason I like Dry Farm Wines. Because it’s another experience, I get to enjoy every other month or as often as I can.
It’s an education and an awakening on the grapes I’m drinking. An intimate look at the standards they use to handpick natural wine’s just for you and me, in their most natural version, and as toxin-free as possible.
Today was the day my Dry Farm Wines were to arrive through the mail. I opened the door to a man dressed in his UPS brown. I sneaked a peek at the medium-sized package lying on my front stoop. Taking a double-take to make sure it was in an unbreakable position and squarely on my step. Not wobbling off down the long drop to the ground. I signed for the package by handing over my driver’s license. Satisfied, we said our goodbyes, and he ran across my lawn into the windy, chilly day.
As quickly as he ran, I did the same with the package that I’d been eyeing, bringing it in through my front door. I was ready for a new experience. Within this box was a little wine adventure. The wineries were coming to me today.
What are Dry Farm Wines, and what do they care about?
Dry Farm Wines is named after one of the standards they use when choosing their wines from different family-owned wineries. Dry farming means the farm doesn’t use an irrigation system. No additional water is provided to the vines, other than rainwater. This means the roots need to grow deeper, much deeper, underground to find their nutrition and water from the soil. Increasing the grapes’ nutrients grown for our wines.
The grapes produced by this farming way are bolder, more flavorful, and take on the vineyard's traits. There is also a nice environmental benefit, too, of reducing water use by not using an irrigation system.
Dry Farm wines are most concerned about providing you with a wine made with grapes. They don’t want anything extra in our wines, like toxins, fillers, or additives. Before Dry Farm Wines, I didn’t know what was in my wine. It’s not as if any ingredients are on the label.
They choose wines:
- low in sugar
- no additives or fillers
- little to no added sulfites (sulfites do occur naturally in the winemaking process)
- 12.5% or lower alcohol content
- a natural winemaking process that uses natural, wild yeast
- lab tested for purity
- and much more
Through Dry Farm Wines and other research, I’ve found out commercial wines can have added chemicals from pesticides to additives or fillers used during the winemaking process. If I don’t know what these other wines are adding to their wine, I can’t make the most informed decision on whether I want to consume that product.
I think about my diet and try to do my part to eat healthy (most of the time) and avoid a big list of substances in my foods to eat as close to nature as I can. My philosophy continues with what I drink too.
I feel good about a company like Dry Farm Wines caring about providing me with the most natural form of wine. I’m a sucker for people that care.
Natural winemaking and the standards I care about
And this natural winemaking process I keep writing about means the grapes are grown with minimal to no intervention, and the winemaking process is the same. The yeast used during the process is wild and natural and what is on the grape to help convert our grape juice into wine. There is nothing added or taken away during the process. The only exception to this would be a minimal amount of sulfur. This is the kind of wine I want—transparent, natural, good for the environment and my body.
Honestly, I’m giddy as I pull out each bottle from its casing. Looking over each unique label from different vineyards from other countries and trying to pronounce them. The pronunciation part usually doesn’t go well, but it’s fun, and usually, no one is watching. To my ears, it seems to get better after a glass of their wine.
I enjoy checking out the feel of the bottle in my hands while I walk over to my kitchen counter. I find my Houdini and uncork the wine and grab a stemless red wine glass and pour. Watching the wine hit bottom, like a gentle red waterfall, and to me, it sounds like a bath filling with warm water.
I’m no sommelier, but the taste is unique. Every bottle is different, but the words that come to mind are lighter, more refined, cleaner, brighter. Sipping not his wine is reassuring, knowing they are selected where grapes are grown in their natural environment, without synthetic or artificial ingredients.
Dry Farm Wines selects wines with less than 75ppm of sulfites. Whatever you’re stance on how sulfites affect your body or don’t. Making wines with minimal chemical intervention means adding the very least amount of sulfites possible.
Sadly, last night in a weak moment, I bought a commercial pinot noir, and it had 350ppm of sulfites in it. I cringed as I read the bottle because I’m betting if the wine had that many sulfites in it, it probably had other fillers and additives. But I’ll never know.
However, with Dry Farm Wines, I don’t have to worry about guessing or wondering what’s in their wines. They test every one of their wines for purity in alcohol content, sugar, sulfites, no additives, and a winemaking process that uses native yeast.
I first heard about these wines from an intermittent fasting podcast I listen to. The fact that Dry Farm Wines sugar content is less than .15 grams per glass got its attention for the rest of the delayed eating folks and me. If you’re interested in losing weight or maintaining your weight, low sugar is a huge benefit. Since less sugar means the less your pancreas has to fork out insulin. Which means the less your body has to stabilize blood sugar. In turn, the less left-over sugar there is to store in your body as fat.
Depending on the type of commercial wine, your glass of wine could have between 22 to 130 grams per glass of sugar. That’s a lot of extra weight I don’t want to carry around.
And you’re not sacrificing taste for lower sugar content. I typically prefer dry reds to whites; however, I’ve purchased a mix of Dry Farm Wine’s, white and red wines to share with friends. A friend of mine prefers sweet or semi-sweet white wines. She tried one of Dry Farm's white wines with me, and she was satisfied with the wine's sweetness. Sweet and delicious at less than .15 grams of sugar is an excellent benefit for your taste buds and waistline.
The next day my girlfriend sent me a message about her wine experience. Explaining after 3 glasses, she felt great that evening. The next day was the same. She didn’t have a headache that morning or feel sluggish.
She didn’t have a hangover because Dry Farm Wine’s have a low alcohol content standard of 12.5% or lower. The less alcohol, the fewer effects it has on our body and brain. Like I know, chocolate isn’t great for me, but I still want to eat it. Although I do so sparingly (most of the time!) For me, alcohol is the same. It may not be the best health choice all the time. However, I still want to enjoy it in moderation. And Dry Farm Wines allow me to do this with lower alcohol content.
I can also attest to feeling great the next morning after drinking from one of my Dry Farm Wine bottles. Even if, let’s say, I’ve overdone it and indulged. I still have zero headaches, zero brain fog, and I sleep great. I don’t know about you, but I usually do not sleep well when I drink other commercial wines. I have hot flashes, insomnia and I wake up tired, cranky, and sluggish. And the buzz is different and less zombie-like. With Dry Farm Wines, I feel clearer-minded and engaged!
I always look over the pamphlet they provide for my wine experience. Sipping my wine and learning more. Included inside is a link to their Wine Library, where I find out the type of grape, where wine was grown, the taste, sugar and sulfite content, alcohol percentage, and what tastes well with the wine.
I love the little tips they provide, like chilling your red and white wines and at what temperature. There’s so much included in this pamphlet and more literature about all the benefits of their wines.
Dry Farm Wine’s is like having your own sommelier handpicking wines and telling you all about them. You don’t have to go anywhere, just to your door.
And then the Peace of mind that comes from their lab-tested purity standards with every bottle of selected wine. I don’t know any other wine that goes to this length for good, quality, natural wine for its consumers. Giving us an extra guarantee.
Dry Farm Wine’s grapes are taken care of by hard-working family farms. Who cares about Dry Farming and allows the grapes to grow among anything else surrounding them that occur in nature, like other plants or insects. They treat their vineyards as nature would, fully allowing their grapes to take on the elements within their terroir.
Providing us with the experience of getting to visit each vineyard. To know their land, their environment, and their grapes through our tastebuds.
