Sunday, December 31, 2023

Christmas Wines 2023

Intro

Seasons greetings to one and all.

This year was a strange one, likely in part because of that whole covid fiasco and what it's done to us all. Without going into all the details of that I'd like to present something a bit more pleasant, the wine stories and labels we came up with for this year.

Wine

My brother and I got together for a couple of picture shoots for this years wine labels and stories. In the one it shows us sitting on the porch of an old building in Goodwood, Ontario (I'm told it was one of the sets for the Schitz Creek series). I liked it so much that I sent the picture to my friend Sid in BC who did the black and white conversion and added type. We liked that version of the photo so much that it immediately became the label for one of the wines.

I played around with the type a bit more, added the wine bottle to the porch and voila, there it was.

For the story line we flushed out (or just plain flushed) a story about the two incompetent musical brothers.

I checked with Sid to see whether it was okay to use his alter ego as the music agent and he agreed. In some ways the story becomes more about him than us but that's okay too.

It goes like this.

The Last Great Campbell Brothers' Squirt Gun Caper

The second idea for a label this year was actually a series of labels for this wine wrapped around another stupid episode of the Campbell Brothers. Another credit has to go to my friend Sid who contributed the 'Revenge Served Cold' photo that he had taken of Ralph and I from a few years ago in Unionville Ontario.

Again that lovely building in Goodwood, Ontario is featured. Also featured is the old police van parked at the back of the mini golf course at the Big Apple in Colborne, Ontario (not New York). You can't make this stuff up, really.

Here are the labels.

Squirt Gun Caper, Caught, Revenge Served Cold

And the story, prepared as a pamphlet, went something like this...

And that, as they say, is it.

Hope you get a chuckle out of the offering.

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Welcome

I am new to the world of blogs and posting things on the internet. I know a bit about computers and a bit about the internet but I'm no geek, so to speak. My reason for starting this site is actually to create a space out there in the plenumvoid to feature the labels and stories of a ficticious winery, the Campbell Brothers Winery. The stories which go with each of the labels concern a ficticious couple of brothers who drunkenly wobble their way through histories past, present and future. In effect this site is dedicated with raised glass and much affection to my brother Ralph with whom I have shared many a glass and many a laugh as well. He'll get a real kick out of this. I hope you do too.

A message from Ralph

Hi, I am the other brother, the older one, Ralph.

I remember the first time we made wine. It was at Colin's place, in a small section of his basement, lit by a single light bulb dangling from the rafters. A couple of years later we moved the works to my place and set up in a small section of my basement, lit only by a single light bulb.

We didn't talk to anyone about making wine, we learned as we went. We had to come up with lots of interesting solutions to different problems. We almost have the system down, with the occasional mishap (like when a batch of red wine exploded).

Over time I became the chief bottle washer and wine maker.

Colin has a gift for words. I put my two cents in and he comes up with the stories. We mull the ideas over and then Colin runs with it and comes up with great labels.

We have a lot of fun making the wine and coming up with the stories.

We hope you enjoy them both too.

Ralph

Campbell Brothers Winery