The other night The Blonde in the house and I attended a meeting of our village social known as HOLD (Heathrow on Lake Deaton). This particular evening was a wine tasting event. However, it was not just a common wine tasting, rather it was Blueberry wine that was being tasted. A local winery provided the honors – and wine. There were five different samples of the wine that were tasted. Afterwards, it was obvious that the “Bluebird of Happiness” was being replaced by the “Blueberry of Happiness”. You should nor infer too much “happiness” as this was a wine-tasting not a wine-drinking event. Decorum prevailed!
They even had a wine trivia test – not just on Blueberry wine. We were paired off in groups of six, except for our group which had eight. That was because I know nothing about wine, and they did not count me and another non-wine drinker. For the record, we did not win even with eight heads. Another wine soaked group (somebody spilled some?) did win and they each took a bottle home with them. In short, it was a very pleasant evening and everybody was happy!
When I tell people about this, they often acknowledge that they did not know that there was blueberry wine floating around. Actually, I did not either until recently, but that is most likely because I am a wine nerd. That is, I do not drink the stuff solely because I do not like the taste. However, I did try the blueberry wine and found it to be slightly more likable than the grape stuff. One reason may be that they do not stomp on blueberries with their feet like they do with grapes. I mean, “Yuck!”
In getting ready to write this article, I did my usual careful research. I found that blueberry wine has been around for centuries. However, the berries are native to North America so it wasn’t known by Europe and other areas until the earliest immigrants found the natives eating them. You will recall that there was an Indian named Squanto who helped out the Pilgrims. He had been captured by the British and taken to London where he learned some English.
He had some adventures including an attempt by a British Lieutenant to sell him into slavery. That failed and good old Squanto made it back in time to teach the Pilgrims how to play football . . . . no, that was not it. He taught them a number of things including the value of blueberries, actually, the Indians of the time called them purpleberries, but the Pilgrims decided that Squanto’s English was lousy as the berries looked blue to them so blueberries is what they have been called ever since.
It was sometime before blueberry wine was made, but by the 18th Century, it was available in large bottles. You will recall the famous pirate Blackbeard who used go around capturing ships laden with gold. Well, those same ships carried vast quantities of blueberry wine which the sailors liked better than the grog they were furnished – although not much better. It also helped them avoid scurvy. Still pirates like Blackbeard did not bother with the blueberry wine and just took the gold.
However, Blackbeard whose name was Eddie Teach had a younger brother named Teddy. Teddy was pretty much of a wuss and could not get a swashbuckling job. Blackbeard took pity on him and let him come along on the raids. Well, Ted saw the wine and started confiscating the bottles. He started drinking lots of it, and the wine changed his personality. He borrowed a ship from his brother and captured many a merchant ship carrying blueberry wine. He grew a beard, became notorious and naturally became known as Bluebeard (not to be confused with the Fairy-tale Bluebeard, who was one nasty guy).
As no one else was interested in taking blueberry wine off merchant ships, he pretty much had the market to himself. In fact, he had a difficult time keeping sailors who thought he was loony, so as soon as they could they joined Blackbeard for the gold. Nevertheless, he was able to secure enough blueberry wine that he felt it would last the rest of his life, so he retired to an island off North Carolina. As the story goes, he realized that his lanai was not big enough to hold all the wine, so he buried bottles all over the island. Most he dug up and used, but they say that there is one big cache that he never got to.
Luckily, while people have searched all over for Blackbeard’s treasure, no one has bothered to look for Bluebeard’s. I have a friend from North Carolina who knows Bluebeard’s island, and he gave me a map (he does not care for blueberry wine) with a big X on it.
For the right price, I would be happy to sell it to any blueberry wine lover! Failing that, we could arrange a big scavenger hunt.
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages–News.com